How do I become a polished project manager?

Any project is a combination of 4 things: People, resources (budget, staff, software, licenses, technologies, etc ...), timelines, and deliverable set.

As the PM, you are tasked with plotting the best timeline for achieving the most deliverables using available resources and making sure all the people involved know it. That's it. Simple! Right?

The methodology itself is a guide - regardless which one. After all, no methodology is perfect. When it's all said and done, you will have to tailor whatever methodology to fit the business, culture, and expectations. Agile makes sense in IT because of constant change and difficulty in pinning down full specs ahead of time - so you want flexibility to rework and readjust mid process.

But I don't think this is what makes a sophisticated project manager.

Sure the tools and methods are important.

But I think that the most sophisticated project manager is one who can communicate with people best. And as such, ensures that everybody is on-board the change train all the time.

An idea I love from "The Personal MBA" is that a manager is merely an assistant to the team that does the heavy lifting.

A successful project management is required to be a great communicator and plan according to the team, requirements and various milestones for the project.

Agile is a great methodology that provides some quick iterations, providing you with the opportunity to adjust the project on the fly, notice delays during the project and fine tuning the process so that it meets the end goal. From a "roadmap management" perspective you need to break the assignment into small chunks and delegate them to the right people, manage the time line in a reasonable and slightly pessimistic way, and figure out all of the possible bottlenecks that could go south (i.e. risk management).

From a "team management" perspective it's all about communication, understanding your team members, their skills, their pros and cons. You have to be able to delegate the right assignments to each team member based on their strong skills, expertise and work process. You have to deal with the team dynamics, make sure the burnout levels are extremely low, and implement a communication structure that ensures that everything is clear, the team is on track, the team is productive, there are no obstacles, missing dependencies, or internal issues that should be taken care of.

You have to be the principal conductor for your team - balancing the work load from both project and team perspective, solving internal challenges and keeping the team spirit high.

To be a polished project manager, I think you need to look beyond the methodologies, tools and templates and get to the core of what is really required to evaluate a project as 'successful'.

At the heart of every project is a change. Something is going to be different after the project than it was before the project. For a project to be completely successful it must be the right change to move the organization toward their goals and it must be supported by the people who will be the end users of these changes.

The best project managers that I have observed and the success that I have had in project management has been due to the soft skills to work with the project sponsors to ensure the business drivers are understood and articulated. It is understanding the steps that are required to properly prepare the end users for the changes. It is not only efficiently executing the steps to build the hard deliverables, but making sure they are the right deliverables in the first place and that environment is there to support them.

To become polished, I recommend that project managers get training in stakeholder management and organizational change management. They should spend time to get an understanding of the strategic goals of the organization so they can speak the language of the project sponsor and directly link the project direction to outcomes that will build a better business. With this well rounded approach you will not only 'get it done' but your project will be truly successful.

Here are some recommendations to help you become a more polished Agile project manager:

Certifications:
CAPM (Certified Associate in Project Management): A good next step after intro PM certs.
PMP (Project Management Professional): The industry standard for experienced PMs.
CSM (Certified ScrumMaster): Valuable for facilitating Agile and Scrum teams.

Advanced Training:
Agile Project Management with Scrum (Coursera): Hands-on Practice of Scrum PM.
Advanced Scrum and Agile (Scrum.org): Dives deeper into advanced Scrum patterns.

Books:
Agile Project Management with Scrum (Microsoft Press) is a great companion to Certified ScrumMaster learning.
The Phoenix Project (an IT revolution novel) is an inspiring fable showing agile transformation.
Inspired by Marty Cagan's best practices in product management from top tech firms.

Skills:
Stakeholder management
Earned value analysis
risk management
Communication skills
emotional intelligence
Facilitation and coaching

Experience:
Seek project leadership roles with more responsibility
Mentor or be mentored by an experienced Agile PM
Consider volunteering for a project at a local nonprofit

Staying current: Follow thought leaders on LinkedIn and attend local PM user group meetups regularly. Continuous learning is key to sharpening your skills as an Agile PM.