Key competences of information systems project managers

Abstract

Project managers have a main role in all kinds of projects, and information systems (IS) projects are not an exception. In order to perform their activities well, project managers need to develop several complementary competences, including technical, contextual and behavioral competences. In literature we find important references on the project managers' general competences as, for instance, the ICB from IPMA. However, very little attention has been paid to the eventually distinctive features of IS project managers. In order to identify the most important competences of these project managers, we carried out a questionnaire-based survey. The results show that the top 12 competences are: communication; engagement and motivation; project requirements and objectives; leadership; reliability; results orientation; conflict and crisis; project orientation; teamwork; interested parties; resilience (emerging as a new competence); and ethics. Furthermore, results indicated that the project management bodies of knowledge are suitable to characterize the IS project manager's competences.