How To Assess Project Management Skills

Project managers are necessary for all fields and all sizes of initiatives. You need professionals with exceptional project management skills to ensure the project is on schedule, within budget, and with a motivated team. 

As you can probably guess, project management is a difficult job. Today roughly 12 percent of the entire organization’s resources are wasted due to ineffective project management. You need to know the most in-demand project management skills and how to evaluate them if you want to hire top personnel.

This post will outline the qualities you should look for in potential project managers and ways to assess project management skills and hire them fairly.

Responsibilities of Project Manager 

Initiating, planning, executing, monitoring, and closing are the five project phases of a project life cycle. A project manager is responsible for various tasks that span these five phases with the aid of their team.

The ten knowledge domains cross over the project management stages: integration, scope, time, cost, quality, human resources, communication, risk procurement, and stakeholder management.

What Are the Necessary Skills Required For a Good Project Manager? 

A candidate needs various hard and soft skills to be a successful project manager.

The same abilities you must master for this position are the “hard skills,” You can get them through formal project management training or on-the-job experience. Soft skills are those you can learn through any schooling or work experience, and they assist you in developing the proper temperament for project management.

Hard Skills for Project Management 

Risk Management 

 Risk management is consciously choosing activities in your business that will maximize the positive outcomes and reduce the negative ones.

The candidate must be aware of a project’s potential for profit or loss and the choices that could result in either as a project manager.

Cost Management 

According to a survey by Wellingtone, only 43% of organizations successfully finish their projects on time and within budget. Most project managers anticipate budget overruns in every project, however, unless something unusual occurs.

Either a project budget will be provided to the project manager, or they will have to convince the decision-makers that their cost estimate is acceptable. The manager’s responsibility is to be financially conscious during the project and prevent overruns.

Planning and Forecasting 

According to the Project Management Institute, “23% of firms employ standardized project management methods across the entire organization, and only 58% of enterprises fully comprehend the importance of project management.”

Creating a project roadmap that will direct all other stakeholders in their tasks is a project manager’s primary responsibility.

For managers and corporate leadership, forecasting entails predicting project outcomes—profitability. You must feel at ease with data analysis to assess the results of previous projects and use the data to guide the direction of the current project.

Soft Skills needed for Project Management

Leadership 

Although project managers do not lead projects themselves in this position, their entire job is to direct people through a project. One needs management and leadership abilities to feel at ease carrying out tasks like facilitating meetings, holding participants accountable, and enforcing limitations.

Communication 

Strong communication goes hand in hand with leadership. As the primary point of contact for project participants who may not otherwise have interacted, it is their responsibility to promote effective teamwork.

Time Management 

In addition to mastering the technical abilities required for project planning, forecasting, and scheduling, a key project management talent is the ability to handle a complicated timeline with composure and consistency while assisting others in staying on task. 

Critical Thinking 

Critical thinking will be used daily in project management, which is essential for every management position. When managing a project, critical thinking helps you evaluate the data and information you’re provided to make judgments during the planning stage and then use that knowledge as project conditions change. It enables you to make calls as necessary to discuss restrictions and hold parties responsible. 

Adaptability

Soft skills like flexibility and adaptability are equally crucial in this situation. Before you can master the hard skills required to employ new technologies and approaches, you must demonstrate a willingness to learn and accept them. Regardless of your level of tech proficiency at the outset, having a flexible mentality will position a project manager for success. 

How to Assess Project Management Skills During Recruitment?

One of the key aspects of the hiring process is the evaluation of project management abilities. If you’re doing it well, you’ll have qualified people in your company. If you’re doing it incorrectly, you will pass up on many qualified candidates due to flaws in your comprehension.

The three following methods can be used to conduct the skill assessments:

Assessing Project Management Skills With Screening Tests

1. Cognitive Ability tests    

One of the key differentiating factors between regular testing and cognitive ability testing is that individuals are evaluated for how they think and not on what they know about a specific subject.

Testify breaks down cognitive skills into several specific tests, which include:

2. Numerical Reasoning test 

Project managers should be able to reason numerically to handle metrics and comprehend how a team is doing on a project.

You can use this test to gauge a candidate’s numerical proficiency, including their understanding of graphs, tables, fractions, and numerical patterns.

3. Following Instructions test 

This test makes it easier to assess a project manager’s abilities to adhere to written, verbal, and visual instructions that they will receive from senior management on the job.

4. Verbal Reasoning test 

The Verbal Reasoning test makes it simple to evaluate a project manager’s aptitude for correctly concluding textual material. It evaluates candidates’ ability to deduce the underlying meaning of written material correctly.

5. Attention to Detail test 

Effective project management demands the capacity to recognize even the most minor flaws or errors. To assess students’ attention to detail, these exams ask them to spot mistakes in both text and visuals.

6. Communication Test 

Project managers must communicate effectively. Effective communication is indicated by two skills: active listening and nonverbal reading cues.

To assess candidates’ communication abilities, administer a communication test.

7. Time Management Test 

Using assessment tools is a fantastic technique to determine whether your candidates have good time management abilities. Before the candidate interview, Testlify can help evaluate a candidate’s time management skills. 

8. Adaptability Test 

Evaluation of project-manager candidates’ emotional intelligence and adaptability will be more accurate when personality, situational judgment, and culture-add assessments are combined. With Testlify, you can create a personalized assessment to test your candidate’s adaptability. 

Assessing Project Management Skills With a Recorded Video

Pre-recorded video interviews let you screen candidates more quickly and impartially and are typically planned at the beginning of the employment pipeline.

You can invite candidates to submit videos for the following sorts of questions:

• What has been the most difficult issue you have encountered, and how did you resolve it?
• What was the worst error you ever made, and what did you take away from it?
• How would you evaluate your ability to communicate, and why?

You can design an evaluation that includes screening tests and video recordings from your prospects using assessment solutions like Testlify.

Assessing Project Management Skills During an Interview

Project managers that can lead and collaborate well with a team are the best hires. Depending on the position and job description, you can change the questions with a combination of technical and behavioral interview questions.

Some of the examples of questions you can ask the candidates are as follows:

• Can you give an example of a project you managed in your prior position?
• What responsibilities fall under the purview of the project manager?
• How can you tell if a project is in danger of losing its way?
• What should you do if the project is not progressing according to plan?
• What method do you use to rank the tasks on a project?
• What traits and skills do you believe are necessary for a project manager to be successful?

Final Thoughts 

An effective project manager needs the necessary training, qualifications, and knowledge. Your organization will benefit when you have a hiring process to bring on good technical talent with solid project management abilities.

Use skills assessment to ensure your candidates’ skills match the requirements of the open position. With assessment solutions like Testlify, it is simpler for any firm to create tests, manage everything with a few clicks, and make crucial hiring decisions.