Project management is not an easy job. In fact, it’s several not-easy jobs throughout the initiation, planning, executing, controlling, and closing of a project. Project managers oversee those not-easy jobs or project phases are also called project management process groups by the project management institute.

Simply put, project managers are responsible for planning projects, assembling a project team, and then managing project tasks, time and costs. To do so, the best project managers use robust project management tools to keep all aspects of their projects organized.

Still, even with robust project management software, that’s a lot to ask of any one individual, but project managers have a variety of project management skills to get the job done. But before we continue, what are project management skills?

What Are Project Management Skills?

As stated above, project managers need to plan and control many areas of a project. To do so they need a set of project management skills which consists of personality traits, soft skills and technical or hard skills.

Below is a collection of the top 20 personality traits, soft and hard skills every project manager should have. There are certainly more than 20, but if you have these, you have the foundation on which to build a successful career in project management.

Top 20 Project Management Skills for 2022

These project management skills can be useful for several purposes. You can include them in your project manager resume and cover letter, and you can use them to prepare for your project manager interview. Or, you could simply study them to learn about technical skills to improve as a leader and project manager.

1. Knowledge of Project Management Methodologies

A project manager needs to know about the different project management methodologies that exist. That doesn’t mean that you need to be an expert in all of them, as they usually are industry-specific and require certification. Here are some of the most common project management methodologies.

• Waterfall
• Agile
• Scrum
• Lean
• Prince2

Pro Tip: As a project manager, you should be familiar with the project management knowledge areas and project management process groups defined by the project management institute (PMI).

2. Proficient with Project Management Software

Having a working knowledge of project management software is a must-have technical skill for project managers in today’s world. There are many project management software alternatives available in the market, so you’ll need to determine which project management tools and features are best for you and your team’s workflow.

3. Team Management

Project management is about teamwork. Project managers must have people skills to keep their teams working productively. That means understanding conflict management to keep everyone working together and morale high. It’s always helpful to start projects with team-building activities to help create relationships that will stick through the thick and thin of a project.

4. Time Management

Time is one of the triple constraints and one of the most important technical skills. Not having time management skills can lead to delays and worse. Project management is about meeting deadlines and getting your deliverables out on time. Project managers have to be experts in managing their time, their team’s time and the overall time of the project.

5. Project Planning

Project planning is a must-have project management skill because a project plan is the foundation of the project management cycle. It includes the project schedule, resources and costs. Traditional project management is all about planning ahead. Therefore, the planning stage of any project lays the foundation for everything that follows, including the success or failure of the project.

6. Project Scheduling

The project scheduling process is a vital part when writing your project plan. A project schedule organizes tasks, teams and time to complete a project. When people think about a project management skill, they’re probably thinking about project scheduling, deadlines and deliverables. But project scheduling is more than that, as it also involves resource management and risk management.

There are many tools that can help with this process, chief among them an online Gantt chart, which provides a visual of the schedule with tasks, durations of those tasks, dependencies, and milestones.

7. Project Budgeting

The project budget is the fuel that drives the project. Project management is all concept and no action without a project budget. But having a project budget is one one side of the project budgeting coin. There’s also budget management, which means tracking costs throughout the life cycle of the project and making sure your actual costs don’t exceed your planned budget.

8. Risk Management

Planning a project, big or small, is inherent with risk. Before executing the project, you have to create a risk management plan to identify, assess, and control risk. The more you can manage risk, the more likely your project is going to succeed.

9. Cost Management

Projects cost money. Creating a budget is part of the planning stage of project management. Once you have a project budget you have to use budget management to make sure that you control your costs through the execution stage.

10. Task Management

Tasks are little jobs that make up the execution phase of project management. They need to be created, organized, assigned to team members and tracked to make sure they meet the project constraints. This is done with task management. Project management software helps you manage tasks and fosters collaboration among your project team.

11. Leadership Skills

Some say that leadership is a personality trait or soft skill that can’t be taught. While some project managers have better people skills than others, we think everyone has the potential to learn how to apply proven leadership skills and techniques.

As a project manager you’re responsible not only for project success, but you also need to be a leader that applies leadership skills to guide and motivate team members to achieve their goals.

12. Communication Skills

Communication skills really go hand-in-glove with leadership. You can’t be an effective project manager if you’re not able to articulate what it is you need your project team to do. But you’re not only going to be communicating with your team, you’ll need to have a clear communication plan for your customers, stakeholders and contractors.

13. Negotiation Skills

Being good at negotiation is one of many communication skills, but it deserves its own space here. In project management, negotiation is an important skill for conflict resolution and stakeholder management. For example, you’ll likely get demands from stakeholders that can impact the project scope. You’ll have to give them pushback, but diplomatically, so all project stakeholders feel they’re getting what they want.

14. Organization Skills

The term organization skills refers to the ability that an individual has to manage time and tasks in an efficient manner. So as the name implies, organization skills allow someone to work in an organized and efficient manner.

15. Interpersonal Skills

Teams are made of people and people have personalities. There are many different types of team members and they all have to get along. Having interpersonal skills brings the best out of your project team and helps with conflict resolution.

16. Problem-Solving Skills

Projects are problems. Having the skills to solve those problems means that your project is more likely to deliver success. Think of problems as puzzles that you can have to figure out. There are many problem-solving tools out there to help you along the way.

17. Adaptability

Change is a constant in project management. Being flexible is what keeps a project viable. If you’re not willing to adapt then the project will suffer. Of course, you have to have the wisdom to know when adaptability serves the project and when you have to bit the bullet and push through.

18. Critical Thinking

Too many people understand the basics of project management but can’t think outside the box. Critical thinking is all about not accepting everything you hear but taking the time to understand the issue and do the research that leads to an informed decision. A critical thinker is more likely to clear the hurdles that every project has to go through.

19. A Sense of Humor

Having a sense of humor is an essential project management skill, even if it is a soft skill in project management. Humor relieves stress for you and your team, and only when tensions are lifted can smarter actions and ideas show themselves. Project team building activities are a great example of how humor can be used by project managers.

20. Patience

Nothing is solved by rushing through a project or getting frustrated when things don’t go well. Projects need to be thoroughly planned in order to run smoothly. That doesn’t mean there won’t be issues. They’re always issues. Whether it’s a change request or stakeholders having unrealistic expectations, if you don’t have patience everything will be exponentially worse.

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