If you want to take a different direction in your career, while still staying in the engineering field, engineering project management may be the right option. We’re sharing what this role entails, the skills needed, and how you can take the steps to become an engineering project manager.
What is engineering project management?
Project management oversees a project throughout the lifecycle, from planning through reviews and issuance of construction deliverables, to final construction and implementation sign off. Project managers make sure to keep the project on time and within budget while ensuring all the agreed-upon specifications are delivered at the highest quality.
Engineering project management focuses specifically on engineering projects and includes providing direction, communication, and assessment to the team working on the project while keeping the stakeholders informed of progress and information related to the budget or timeline.
What does an engineering project manager do?
Basically, an engineering project manager keeps their finger on the pulse of the project to ensure it moves forward within budget and on time while acting as the point-of-contact between the team working on it and the stakeholders. More specifically, the role often includes the following:
- Reviewing the proposals, budgets, and cost analysis
- Planning the project and setting goals and milestones
- Ensuring adherence to safety guidelines
- Delegating tasks based on ability and suitability
- Holding regular meetings to determine progress and look for any blocks that may hinder progress
- Ensuring the team has the resources, knowledge, and materials they need
- Directing and assessing the daily operations of the team
- Communicating any feedback from the stakeholders to the engineering team
- Leading model design and hazard reviews
- Reporting any concerns, blocks, or updates to the stakeholders
There may even be times when the project manager will need to roll up their sleeves and dive into the work, too, especially if the project is at risk of falling behind.
What skills does an engineering project manager need?
To be effective in this role, engineering project managers should be experienced engineers with the technical know-how to oversee the projects, but they will also need soft skills.
- Strong written and oral communication skills: You’ll need to convey information effectively to both the team and the stakeholders.
- Organizational skills: There are multiple moving parts to keep track of and you’ll need to be on top of them to ensure progress is being made.
- Team management and leadership: In addition to delegating the tasks and ensuring each part of the team is on track to meet the goals and milestones you’ve set, you may also need to coach and motivate the team.
- Problem-solving: Most projects will experience setbacks or obstacles. The engineering project manager will need to have contingency plans and solutions.
- Budgeting: Project managers often have to manage the budget and make sure that costs don’t exceed the allotted funds, so knowing how to forecast possibly costs, build contingencies, and see overages occurring before they happen is beneficial in this role.
- Ethics knowledge: You’ll need integrity and honesty to always do the right thing
Methodologies used in engineering project management
Engineering project managers will likely use one of the following methodologies when overseeing a project.
- Waterfall: This is well-suited for engineering projects where requirements are clear-well-defined, and unlikely to change. This is a linear and sequential approach where each phase must be completed before beginning the next phase. It allows for thorough documentation and a structured sequence which is often needed for regulatory compliance and safety considerations.
- Critical Path Method (CPM): Engineering project managers can use CPM to identify the sequence of tasks that determines the project duration and focuses on pinpointing the “critical path,” or the longest path of dependent tasks.
- Lean: This method is ideal for projects where the priority is improving efficiency and reducing waste while delivering value to the customer by streamlining the process. This is commonly used in manufacturing or production engineering.
- Six Sigma: With a focus on quality control and precision, Six Sigma’s data-focused methodology is beneficial to projects where reducing variability and eliminating defects are critical.
Education needed to become an engineering project manager
While project managers often come from business backgrounds, engineering project managers should have at least a bachelor’s degree in engineering. This will provide the first-hand knowledge of the work they’ll be managing and have a better understanding of the team members’ experience in project planning, implementation, and completion.
In addition to a bachelor’s degree, taking courses in project management or earning a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification can help you gain the skills you need and provide additional insight into this role.
Take the next step with McKissock’s Engineering Professional Development
To make the shift from engineer to engineering project manager, McKissock can help you get started. Check out our course, Project Management for the Engineer to learn more about how to meet goals, control the budget, reduce risk, and ensure quality!
