12 Key Project Management Skills

Project management skills enable you to effectively interact with people, solve problems, and put your organizational talents to use. Project management requires a combination of technical and workplace skills to coordinate both projects and teams. Here are 12 technical and workplace skills you’ll want to have as a project manager.

Did you know that nearly every US industry has seen an increase in AI-related job postings*? You can stay ahead of the curve and build job-ready skills by enrolling in Google's Project Management Professional Certificate, recently updated with practical AI training.

Technical project management skills

1. Project management approaches and methodologies

Project management methodologies are the specific rules and procedures determining how you manage a project. Different project management methodologies are suitable for different situations. Being familiar with the basic differences can help you pick the best one for a project. Although some companies might want you to stick with one approach, knowing about others can give you better context for what you’re doing and why. 

Some common approaches to project management include Waterfall, a traditional, sequential approach, and Agile, which prioritizes adaptability. Within these approaches, there are several methodologies. For example, Scrum is the most commonly used Agile methodology. Others include Lean, Kanban, and XP (Extreme Programming).

Read more: 7 In-Demand Scrum Master Certifications

Learn these project management methodologies and more with this six-month course:

2. Project initiation

The start of a project—when much of it is planned—is often critical to its success. Though it might sound simple, there are many moving pieces to think about in the initial phase of a project. Initiating a project includes setting achievable and specific goals, picking a team, determining resources, and holding a kickoff meeting. 

3. Budgeting

Most projects will have budget constraints. Knowing where costs might pile up and how to prioritize tasks and delegate resources is an important part of ensuring a project doesn’t go over budget.

If you’re working on a large project or for a large company, you might not be the primary person responsible for managing the budget. But it’ll still be good to know what elements can add to a budget, how to decrease costs, and when you need to increase it.

4. Risk management

No project comes without potential risks. As a project manager, you’ll want to be able to identify when and how unexpected events that could derail your project might happen, how to decrease the chances of them happening, and how to respond if they do. How much of a time buffer should you add to unpredictable projects or tasks? If something goes awry, how would you adjust your scope or resources? Having an eye for potential risks and how to mitigate them can ensure smoother project delivery.

5. Project management tools and software

Technology has made sharing findings, schedules, and communications across teams and stakeholders convenient. As a project manager, you’ll often be expected to know how to use collaboration and communication software and to take the lead in managing them.

Some tools you might be expected to use include:

• Collaboration tools like Google Sheets, Google Drive, and Dropbox

• Work management tools like Asana, Trello, Jira, and Smartsheet

• Scheduling tools like digital calendars and Gantt charts

• Communication tools like email, chat, and video conferencing software

Start advancing your skills in Agile in the project management tool Jira:

6. Industry knowledge

Project management professionals can work in many different fields, including IT, health care, and construction. Sometimes, hiring managers will prefer candidates with academic or professional experience in the field. If you’re looking to switch careers to become a project manager, it can be worth looking for opportunities within an industry you know.

Read more: Guide to Construction Project Management

Are project managers in demand?

The demand for project managers is expected to grow 33 percent between 2017-2027 [1]. A report by Project Management Institute (PMI) found that demand for project management professionals will reach 25 million globally by 2030. That translates to roughly 2.3 million new project management positions a year [2]. 

7. AI skills

Identifying opportunities to apply AI tools to your daily workflow has become invaluable in the modern workplace. As a project manager, you can use AI to create documents to keep your project on track, brainstorm potential risk assessment outcomes, and enhance team productivity. You can stay ahead of the curve and learn to use AI productively and effectively in your role by enrolling in the online program Microsoft Copilot: Your Everyday AI Companion.

Workplace skills

8. Communication

Communication is a key skill for project management professionals to have. In fact, insufficient communication is often cited as a reason why projects miss deadlines, go over budget, or otherwise get derailed.

Good communication doesn’t just mean speaking well in front of people—though that’s important too. Project managers should know whom to communicate with, when, and how often. This might mean setting up expectations at the beginning of a project about how often communications will happen.

Communication is critical in project management. Advance your skills today:

9. Organization

Organization is crucial for project managers. Coordinating timelines, meetings, and efforts with different teams, contractors, or even other companies means having the discipline to stay on top of communications and tasks. 

10. Flexibility

Even with a perfectly planned project, problems arise. Deadlines might be missed; bad weather can derail construction, and people get sick or change jobs. If you’re a person who can deal with unexpected changes, your job as a project manager will go more smoothly.

11. Leadership

Leadership can help make all the disparate parts of a project team come together and work as a unit to get things done. Leadership includes influencing decisions without being overtly authoritative, knowing how to motivate team members, and balancing your team's needs with the project's needs.

Leadership and project management go hand in hand. Advance your skills today:

12. People skills

Your role as a project manager is to complete projects successfully. While sometimes that means staying organized and communicating with the right people, it can also mean motivating your team, fostering a culture of collaboration and openness, and resolving potential conflicts. Understanding that different people have different work styles, motivations, strengths, and growth areas will allow for more effective teams and more successful projects.

Rachel, a project manager at Google, switched careers from bartending to project management, and her people skills helped her make the switch. Listen to her story below.

How to build project management skills

Sometimes, there’s no better teacher than hands-on experience. You can build project management skills by taking on more managerial tasks in your workplace. You can also look for volunteer opportunities in your community that will allow you to help plan and execute projects.

You might already have project management skills: If you’ve helped organize any new initiatives professionally or personally, you probably already have some project management skills, even if you didn’t call it that then. Be sure to highlight these experiences when you apply for project management jobs.

How to include project management skills in your resume

As you put together your resume, highlight your project management skills by describing the scale of your project, the size of your team, and the positive results of your efforts. For example, you might say: “Led team of four developers to redesign a payment platform with a budget of $2M to complete the project on time.”

You can also emphasize project management skills by including them in your resume's “skills” section. If you haven’t led a project before, list your experiences where you had a hand in planning or implementing a new effort. 

Read more: Resume Keywords: How to Find the Right Words to Beat the ATS

Start advancing your project management skills today

Taking online courses can be a great way to build project management skills that are in demand. Consider one of Coursera's top-rated courses:

For an introductory course, start with the University of Virginia's Fundamentals of Project Planning and Management course. This program takes about nine hours to complete and covers how to initiate a project, manage risks, sequence tasks, monitor progress, and more.

To practice the basics of the Agile methodology, take Atlassian University's Agile With Atlassian Jira course. Inside, you'll learn how to configure the Jira software, create Agile boards, and keep up with project changes. This course is free and takes about twelve hours to complete.

Explore project management more broadly in the Google Project Management: Professional Certificate. In this program, you'll learn the job-ready essentials of project management, like change management, communicating with stakeholders, documenting project developments, and more in about six months.