In continuation of our Life at Sodales series, we’re looking at how the team does project management. In this blog post, we’re talking to Fern and Kathryn – two members of our delivery team, to learn more about what it’s like to nail down the details in project management for a rapidly growing technology company.
What is project management?
The role of “project management” is as it sounds- when managing a project, you are responsible for the initiation, planning, execution, and closing of a project within a company. Throughout each phase, the project manager is responsible for utilizing different methodologies and approaches to best suit the nature and requirements of the project. A project manager will lead their team to successfully deliver a product or service, within the constraints of cost, quality, or other project-specific factors. In essence, when working in project management, it is up to the leaders to provide a structured approach to ensure every new, or ongoing project is completed efficiently, while maintaining the desired objectives.
How did you get into project management?
Let’s start with Fern. Fern began her journey into project management with Sodales after a lateral move from business analyst to project management. Fern knew she wanted to work in project management after obtaining a certification, which gave her an overall understanding of HR processes and how to successfully manage projects in general. She explains that having a fixed methodology at Sodales allows her to successfully communicate with customers, to ensure they are aware of every step in the progression of their project.
Next is Kathryn, who began her journey into project management in New Zealand. Kathryn began in administration, which eventually led her to project administration, and then project management; this progression allowed her to garner the necessary skills to work as a project manager at Sodales, as she learned the foundation of what it means to communicate with customers and build relationships. Kathryn agrees with Fern and explains the benefits of having a fixed methodology within Sodales; previous roles used agile, waterfall, or hybrid approaches, depending on the project’s complexity, which sometimes made the process feel more isolated.
Here at Sodales, we know each industry or sector can be highly regulated, with its own set of rules and requirements, which is why we offer so many modules. However, Sodales is one product, and offers customers one central platform with one fixed methodology, so it is easier to learn the product well, and bring it to customers in an efficient and proactive manner, providing a more integrated approach for customers.
What does a typical day look like working in project management?
A typical day in project management for a technology company requires structure, and planning. In general, our project managers will begin their day by reviewing their schedules and daily stand-ups within Sodales and ongoing customer projects. The day proceeds with project status meetings to ensure ongoing projects are progressing properly; logging any risks or issues that may delay a project and effectively communicating that with customers; and meeting with Nas our Chief Product Officer (CPO), for project requirement workshops. In general, the day-to-day tasks for a project manager will vary depending on the project’s stage or complexity, but is always consistent in the nature of having to manage multiple projects at once.
Do you have advice to those seeking a job in project management?
To work effectively in project management requires leadership, communication, problem-solving, and decision-making skills. Both Fern and Kathryn agree that as a project manager at Sodales, you will be actively working on many projects at once, so being flexible, organized, and adaptable are important qualities needed to succeed.
Kathryn mentions that the Project Management Institute features many resources available to develop your skills in project management, and she finds that working as a project manager at Sodales requires not only technical skills to achieve her goals, but to understand how to communicate with her colleagues, and customers. How to build and maintain relationships is a skill that coincides with project management as you are delivering to, and communicating with, a liaison from a customer organization. As a project manager for Sodales your job is to bring the expertise of our product, and as the liaison for a customer organization, their job is to provide knowledge and expertise for their company. Together, Sodales and the customer organization will garner a relationship that will allow for a successful delivery of a product to the customer.
Interested in working in project management?
Do you think you have what it takes to work in project management? If you’ve read our blog about our CPO Nas, you will know that to work for Sodales, you need to be driven, proactive, and a team-player. It is the nature of any rapidly growing company, and the nature of what it takes to be successful in project management. By adopting the skills and techniques mentioned in this blog, our project managers can efficiently deliver projects to our customers by maintaining a clear line of communication always.
At Sodales, our passion is to help highly regulated industries improve their health, safety, and employee relations measures; this begins with developing a product that aligns with the goals of our company, and of our customers. Do you share our vision for breaking down barriers, and proactively approaching health, safety, and employee relations? If so, we invite you to explore our careers page to learn more about our company culture and any open opportunities to join our team. As a rapidly growing company, we at Sodales are constantly seeking talented individuals to become part of our team.
