IT Project Manager Job Description and KRAs

An IT Project Manager plans and runs one IT project from kickoff to closure, such as a software build, an ERP module rollout or an infrastructure upgrade. They own the plan, scope, schedule, budget, risks and status reporting, coordinate developers, testers, vendors and business users, and manage change requests. The role reports to a delivery manager or program manager. A good IT Project Manager delivers what was agreed on the date promised, keeps stakeholders informed and closes the project with a clean handover to support.

Detail	For this role
Department	Information Technology
Level	Manager
Reports to	Delivery Manager
Direct reports	Technical Lead, QA Engineer, Business Analyst
Experience	7 to 12 years in IT, with 3 or more years managing projects end to end

IT Project Manager job description template

Copy this job description, replace the text in square brackets and post it on your careers page or a job portal.

Job title: IT Project Manager

Department: Information Technology

Reports to: Delivery Manager

Location: [City], [office, branch or site]

About the role

Key responsibilities

Prepare the project charter with scope, objectives, stakeholders, assumptions and success criteria, and get it approved.
Build the work breakdown structure, estimates and schedule with the technical lead and team.
Run daily stand-ups or weekly progress meetings and update the plan with actual progress.
Keep the risk, issue and decision logs current, and escalate what the project cannot resolve on its own.
Control scope through a formal change request process that shows the impact on effort, cost and dates.
Track effort and cost against budget, and forecast the cost to complete every month.
Coordinate UAT with business users, collect sign-offs and plan the go-live and rollback steps.
Send weekly status reports to stakeholders covering progress, risks and next steps.
Check vendor deliverables and invoices against the contract milestones before approving payment.
Close the project with a lessons-learned session, a handover to support and an archive of project documents.

Requirements

B.E., B.Tech, BCA or MCA
PMP, PRINCE2 or CSM certification is an advantage
7 to 12 years in IT, with 3 or more years managing projects end to end

KRAs and KPIs for a IT Project Manager

Key result areas for the appraisal form, each with a KPI you can measure every month or quarter.

Key result area	How to measure it
On-time delivery	Project milestones delivered within 5 working days of the baseline dates
Budget	Project cost within 10 percent of the approved budget at closure
Scope control	Every scope change approved through a change request before work starts
Release quality	Severity 1 and 2 UAT defects closed before go-live, with no rollback after release
Reporting	Weekly status report sent on the agreed day for the whole project
Sponsor satisfaction	Sponsor satisfaction score of 4 or more out of 5 at project closure

Skills and tools

Project planning and schedulingScope and change controlRisk and issue managementBudget trackingAgile and waterfall deliveryUAT and go-live planningVendor coordinationStakeholder communicationMeeting facilitationFollow-through

Tools used day to day: Microsoft Project, Jira or Azure DevOps, Excel, Confluence or SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Smartsheet or Asana.

Reporting line and career path

Moves up from: Technical Lead, Business Analyst, Module Lead
Next roles: IT Program Manager, Delivery Manager

Interview questions for a IT Project Manager

The client wants a new feature two weeks before go-live. How do you handle it?
How do you build a schedule when the team gives you only rough estimates?
Your project is three weeks behind. What options do you put to the sponsor?
What goes into your weekly status report?
How do you get busy business users to finish UAT on time?
Tell me about a project risk you spotted early. What did you do about it?

Managing a IT Project Manager in ZeniaHR

AttendanceGeneral shift in a hybrid week. UAT and go-live weekends are the exception; HR can credit a comp-off for a worked weekly off, and the project manager should use it within its validity rather than letting it lapse.LeaveKeep leave out of UAT and go-live weeks and the week before a steering meeting. When planning phases or sprints, the project manager should also check the team leave calendar and the branch holiday list, so estimates allow for festival holidays.Performance and KRAsSet a task-type goal for each milestone plus KPI-type goals for budget, scope control and sponsor satisfaction in a quarterly review cycle. When a project closes midway through a quarter, run an ad hoc cycle so the result is recorded while it is fresh.

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Frequently asked questions

What does an IT project manager do?

An IT project manager plans and runs an IT project from start to finish. They agree scope, build the schedule, track progress, cost and risks, manage change requests, coordinate the team, vendors and business users, run UAT and go-live, and report status every week. They are accountable for delivering the agreed scope on time and within budget.

Is PMP required for an IT project manager in India?

PMP is not compulsory, but it is widely requested by Indian IT companies, especially for client-facing roles. PRINCE2 and Scrum certifications such as CSM are also common. Experience delivering real projects matters more, and many project managers take the PMP after a few years in the role.

What is the difference between an IT project manager and a technical project manager?

An IT project manager focuses on planning, schedule, budget, scope and stakeholders, and need not be deeply technical. A technical project manager comes from engineering and gets involved in technical dependencies, architecture choices and release planning. Product companies often prefer technical project managers, while services firms and enterprise IT use both.