YASMIEN IBRAHIM
Senior Project Manager, CBRE
Experience in the field: 8 years
Clients who are not familiar with the construction process can sometimes confuse the project manager’s scope with other technical specialists’ scopes. Although PMs have generally good all round knowledge of all aspects of a project, but are not necessarily specialists in every field for example IT/MEP technicalities and so on. For me, my civil engineering background has helped a lot in my career advancement, but these expectations can make things a little challenging sometimes. To work around it, our role is to really listen to what the client wants and bring the best resources on board and clearly identify everyone’s roles and responsibilities on the project. Effective communication helps to ensure smoother delivery of the project’s scope within program, budget and to the required level of quality.
What are the many roles that project managers have to undertake, particularly in this region?
Sometimes you end up having to play the role of a therapist, and by that I mean a good listener and an empath. I think emotional intelligence and patience play a huge role in our jobs as you deal with many different people with significantly different interests towards the project, as well as time conveniences.
I also think it’s really important to promote a fair and reasonable stance, as whilst being on the client side, it’s vital for the project team to feel appreciated, respected and treated fairly to give back to the client and the project with a big heart!
At times you might have to be a designer as well (which I don’t mind at all as I enjoy the design process). I find myself giving my “humble” opinion on the furniture selection, choice of colours and fabrics, and I love it! Especially when the project schedule allows you to enjoy the process!
What is the value that a project manager brings to a project?
I have always asked myself this question when I started my career eight years ago. With time, I realised the need of a project leader, who can drive the project and assist in the alignment and achievement of all the stakeholders’ different expectations. A good project manager develops a clear strategy at the initiation phase to facilitate the delivery to the agreed scope, on time, mitigating all risks where possible through forward planning and ideally ending up with cost savings!
And what is the most challenging aspect of this role?
The most common challenge is making stakeholders understand the time and process required to implement a change request. Since we normally work on delivering fast track projects, the expectation is also to deliver changes really fast. And the fact that we live in Dubai, it’s usually achievable. However, there is always cost and time implications associated with every change request and even though changes are very common in any construction project, as PMs we need to keep them under control and prioritize them when necessary to avoid derailing the process.
I also must admit, one major challenge is managing people’s expectations on email responses! Especially with the pandemic and having your laptop with you 24/7, people expect a response to an email almost immediately, and it would be considered late if you answer a day later. I think we need to remind ourselves that we’re not supposed to be robots (laughs).
What is the real relationship between a client and a project manager?
A project manager is an extension of the client team. As much as possible, you try to reduce their stress with regards to the project – reduce email traffic, streamline the topics that require their attention and decisions, and lead the project on their behalf while they carry on with their daily jobs.
How do you see your role evolving in the future?
Nowadays, with everything being online, site progress can be reviewed through 3D scanning, many online platforms available that facilitate sharing/storing project documents, issuing minutes, tracking risks, budgets, queries, etc., it is becoming much easier to lead a project from overseas and this is sure to evolve the role of the project manager.
However, it’s important to ensure strong communication is maintained with the project team, especially with the diversity of the stakeholders involved from different backgrounds, cultures and offices from around the world.
