Project Manager Role

1. Role Description

The project manager is responsible for making sure projects are completed on time and within budget. This includes:

• Ensuring the creation and dissemination of schedules for projects

• Ensuring the team has enough capital to pursue their projects. This includes

  • Pursuing opportunities for the group to access more capital if needed

  • Managing the budget responsibly so that the group can complete the project with the given budget

• Communicating with team leads and members so that deadlines and scope are well known and understood throughout the group

• Recruiting members

• Scheduling and leading the appropriate administrative/all-team meetings

• Collaborating with all stakeholders of the group to meet the needs of the group. Stakeholders include

  • Team leads

  • Team members

  • Capstone groups

  • The institute (RHIT)

  • Institute employees (advisors, professors, technicians, secretaries, facilities, etc.)

  • Contributors (alumni, students that are not team members, etc.)

• Seeking useful, actionable feedback from team leads, members, and other stakeholders

• Implementing changes based on said feedback to ensure project success and team cohesion

2. Regular Tasks and Events

• Leading meetings

  • Scheduling meetings

  • Creating agendas

• Creating tasks

• Setting deadlines

• Communicating with the BIC and our advisor to place orders

  • Monitoring budget

  • Including all information necessary to get order through as fast as possible

• Seeking feedback and help

  • Team leads, members

  • Other project managers within rocketry

  • Various stakeholders

• Attending Rose Rocketry admin meetings

• Recruiting members

3. How to succeed

• Plan early and get feedback on your plans from your members

  • Set SMART goals - Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, Time-bound goals

  • Create a budget and get as accurate as possible with your estimates. Adjust as necessary to fit within your given budget.

  • Break up your goals into large phases

  • Get feedback on your initial plans from team leads and members (past and present) and change estimates around

  • Once the project comes around you should continuously be setting tangible, immediate, but manageable deadlines for members and leads and communicating those deadlines and why those tasks are important and meaningful contributions to the mission

• Communicate, communicate, communicate!

  • Always opt to communicate and engage as a first move and stop communicating as a last resort!

• Acquire and act on feedback - make team members feel like their feedback matters!

  • Talk with other leads and project managers and seek feedback and help!

• Try to create a comfortable culture on your team where communication is naturally free-flowing but able to be focused and productive

  • Affirm struggles and relate

  • Get people included early - let them join in on discussions even if it’s technically “wasting your time”

  • Try to lead people to conclusions organically

  • Push people to get their friends involved

• Documentation, documentation, documentation!

  • Documentation ensures that you’re safeguarded against loss of information. Documentation is the life-blood of an undergraduate technical group once the rest is set up.

  • Meeting notes are a MUST

  • Always generate important system documentation

4. Possible Pitfalls

• Planning too early or for too long

  • If you don’t know something yet, cautiously lean towards “fuck it we ball.” If you can figure it out that’s always better, but sometimes it’s not worth the trouble and there’s more you can be focused on

• Not communicating enough or going beyond your boundaries

  • Being friendly with and talking to people is fun! Especially when they like the same things you do. Talk to your team members

  • Pushing deadlines and being a manager is harder. Remember that your team is depending on you to push them if something needs done so that the mission is a success.

  • Don’t push too hard - don’t show up to people’s rooms without permission or spam them on discord, and don’t make them feel bad. Just be a good person in this regard.

• Not acquiring feedback or ignoring it or making it feel futile

  • Make sure that you get feedback continuously throughout the year - you’re not as good in a vacuum as you are with other people (hint: that’s the reason you’re working in a team!).

  • When you do collect feedback, set time aside in a meeting for people to give thoughtful responses.

  • Make sure the feedback you’re collecting is useful and actionable. If you’re unsure about what you might do to address concerns, seek help from the person who gave the feedback or other leads/project managers!

  • Make it clear that feedback has changed something when it has. It’s a great feeling to know you can have a say in how you work.

• Alienating yourself from the group or making it uncomfortable to be at meetings

  • Do not get so sucked into the project that you lose the human element.

  • Become friends with people and make it fun for yourself and others!

• Not writing documentation

  • Write meeting notes. Write stuff down. It’s important.

5. Fun Ideas we haven’t tried yet as of 2023-24

• Hosting fun events for the group

• Fundraising events (like EWB)

• Tabling in the union

• The SmallSat conference

7. Important people to contact

• Dr. Kirkpatrick (advisor)

  • Approved orders

• Lee Dagle

  • Placed orders

• Thomas Gormley

  • Treasurer, will help you do ordering

• Other project managers and leads

  • Provided good feedback and direction

8. Where are resources for this position located?

• Check the admin section on confluence.

9. Any other comments/tips you wish to pass on to future officers?

• Check out:

  • How to order stuff