Does a successful project manager = a successful project?

Does a successful project management professional guarantee a successful project? Well, we all know there are no guarantees in life, but generally speaking I believe having a strong manager goes a long way toward ensuring the success of your project based work.

When a company takes on or initiates a new project, there’s more to it than just setting a goal and throwing some resources at it. A project manager is not there just to gather data, create spreadsheets, and/or deliver reports. Anyone could do that. Successful project managers know that it’s having the right people and implementing the right processes that leads to success.

Let’s look at the key criteria that make a project manager successful:

1. They have a realistic understanding of the project objectives—what "success" will look like. They make sure the objectives are correct for the project and for the customer, and also line up with the overall company strategy. They have read and understand the entire project spec, and know what it will take to complete it.

2. The successful project manager will involve all the right people right from the start to determine the best path to achieving the objectives laid down in (1), and translate that into the right deliverable(s). They will involve all the project stakeholders and insure each one has the same understanding of the project goals and objectives as the people performing the individual or group tasks that make up the project.

3. They are able to hang tough, no matter what. When change requests come through (and they will) the successful PM can be strong and just say "no" when the next great idea for an improvement comes along that will add to the ‘coolness’ but not to the value or the project objectives. If it doesn’t add to the value or positive ROI it’s a no-go. Easy to say; hard to do. But necessary to keep on schedule, on budget, and on target.

4. The successful PM has the ability to learn from others’ and their own mistakes. They are able to keep the timeline and the project clean and simple, choose quality over everything else, and deliver exactly what’s been asked for; no more and no less.

5. They gather the best and the brightest team members available and set each to work doing what they do best. Building a good team and getting to know them creates a positive and effective working relationship as well as a strong and cohesive team dynamic. Keeping the lines of communication open—with the team, up the line, and across other teams and departments—practically guarantee the project will succeed.

It’s clear to me that the experience, character, and leadership abilities of the project manager (ideally, combined with the best available project management tools) will lead a team to deliver a project successfully, not the reports, charts, and presentations he or she prepares along the way.

Has this been your experience? Do strong leaders deliver successful projects? Or are there other variables that factor into the equation?