Role of Project Manager in design management

A project manager wears many hats including project leader, project facilitator, project mediator, project coordinator, project communicator, project promoter, project motivator and project controller. Complying with all these roles and sometimes reconciling with the competing demands of project stakeholders is not easy. Hence, for construction work, project managers must develop necessary skills to cater to the intricate and tricky situations for different construction projects. Many project managers pay a lot of focus on keeping the project on time and within budget – leaving design problems to the architect. Managing design is a challenging job which tests technical, personal, interpersonal, team building, management, and business skills of the project manager. However, a good project manager has an important role in design management of the project. The project manager must ensure that a clear and comprehensive brief is well established that can lead to an end product that satisfies the myriad requirements of aesthetics, functionality, economics, constructability, energy conservation and maintainability. Though not the designer, the project manager has to ensure the effectiveness of design and competence of the whole team involved in the design process. This article presents an overview of the role of the project manager with regard to design management for a project, particularly during the design stage. Discussion here also emphasizes the understanding of the design logic on part of the project manager for successful accomplishment the project.