What is project management?
Project management is the process of applying knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to meet specific project requirements and achieve defined goals. It is essential for businesses as it helps ensure that projects are completed on time, within budget, and deliver the intended results.



What Does a Project Manager Do?

Now that we understand what project management is and why it’s important, let’s take a closer look at the role of a project manager in everyday work.

A project manager is responsible for guiding a project from start to finish, ensuring it stays on schedule, within budget, and aligned with the intended goals. Their work typically involves a combination of planning and organizing tasks, managing timelines, allocating resources, overseeing budgets, and maintaining communication with stakeholders.

At a high level, the project manager ensures that the project delivers real value to the organization—whether that’s launching a new product, improving a service, or streamlining an internal process. Regardless of the project type, their role is to drive outcomes that benefit both the business and its customers.

So, what does a typical day look like for a project manager? While it can vary based on the industry or project—whether it’s building construction, launching a renewable energy product, or managing a corporate event—most project managers follow a similar workflow. Here's a general overview:

Planning and Organizing: This often starts with gathering requirements from stakeholders or clients through meetings, surveys, or kickoff sessions. The goal is to clearly define what the project aims to achieve. Then comes developing a project plan to set the direction, timelines, and responsibilities.

Managing Tasks: Once the plan is in place, project managers coordinate with team members to assign tasks and track progress. They also communicate key updates to the broader team or clients, ensuring everyone stays aligned.

Budgeting and Cost Control: Monitoring project costs and adjusting plans when unexpected expenses arise is a key part of keeping projects financially on track.

That’s just scratching the surface. Project management is dynamic—every day brings new challenges and requires a mix of tools, techniques, and soft skills. That’s what makes it exciting. Personally, one of the most rewarding parts of project management is seeing something grow from a simple idea to a finished product. Watching a project come to life from the ground up is truly fulfilling.

And the best part? Many of the skills needed in project management are things you may already have. We'll explore those next!


Transferable Project Management Skills

Welcome back! Let’s dive into some of the real-world skills you may already have that directly translate into project management.

Have you ever planned a surprise birthday party for someone you care about? If so, you’ve already experienced the kind of pressure and responsibility project managers face—and the satisfaction when things go well. Even if there were a few hiccups—like the guest of honor arriving early and almost spoiling the surprise—if you managed to make someone feel special, that’s a project successfully executed.

When you chose a venue, sent out invitations, coordinated schedules, and worked within a budget, you were applying several key project management skills:

Planning and organizing

Task coordination

Budgeting and cost control

Even if party planning isn’t your thing, think about past jobs you’ve had—maybe in retail or hospitality. For example, if you managed shift schedules for a team, you were effectively planning workflows, balancing personalities, and ensuring smooth coverage—just like a project manager does with team resources.

Or maybe you've relocated for a new job. Planning a move also draws on core project management skills: budgeting for movers and supplies, coordinating help, organizing and labeling boxes by room—each task contributing to a successful, stress-managed outcome.

Chances are, you’ve already developed many of the foundational abilities project managers rely on daily. This course will help you enhance and formalize those skills so you can take on larger, more complex projects confidently.

And remember: these real-life experiences make excellent talking points in job interviews. When you're asked questions like:

“Tell me about a time when you had to juggle multiple responsibilities.”

“Describe a situation where you had to lead or influence a team or customer.”

You can draw from these examples to highlight your time management, problem-solving, and leadership abilities.

Are you starting to recognize just how many project management skills you already possess? That’s great—because up next, we’ll explore the different types of project management roles you can pursue and how to begin your job search journey.

See you in the next lesson!



Explore project management roles
https://www.coursera.org/learn/project-management-foundations/supplement/fXLY5/explore-project-management-roles