The People Behind Major Transit Projects explores strategies to help agencies better recruit, train, and retain project managers for large transit projects. It examines the challenges these managers face, and highlights the skills, experience, and support they need to succeed.

This report incorporates insights from dozens of transportation industry professionals who were asked about their experience managing and monitoring major transit projects. The interviewees represent a wide range of organizations and perspectives, including FTA staff, the study’s advisory committee, consultants, and transit agency officials. The report also includes profiles of project management teams in Aspen, Baton Rouge, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New York, Phoenix, and Seattle, which are a valuable element of the study.

Challenges

Transit agencies across the country struggle to recruit and retain managers capable of successfully delivering major projects. As this report makes clear, talented and experienced managers are essential for keeping projects on schedule while minimizing expenses and satisfying stakeholders. If a project manager saves an agency just one-tenth of one percent on a billion-dollar project, that is $1,000,000 in cost savings.

Yet despite the importance of the role, agencies too often lack qualified project managers to deliver these outcomes. Factors that make recruitment difficult include higher private sector salaries, a limited talent pipeline in the transportation industry, and a lack of long-term career opportunities within public agencies.

Essential Skills

Finding qualified managers is complicated by the broad skill set required. Transit project managers shoulder vast and multifaceted responsibilities. A member of the study’s advisory committee identified the following attributes of a “great” project manager: intelligence of Albert Einstein, integrity of an apolitical Supreme Court judge, patience of a saint, negotiating skills of a horse trader, savvy of James Bond, planning skills of a general, communication skills of Walter Cronkite, drive of Bill Gates, tough skin of an armadillo, and the ego of Mother Teresa. Although the list was somewhat facetious, it reveals the extraordinary range of skills and traits that project managers need to successfully complete a project.

Project managers need technical expertise in engineering, construction, and regulatory compliance. Even more critical are their leadership, strategic thinking, interpersonal, and problem-solving skills. One of the hardest-to-find attributes is the ability to make decisions under pressure. Project managers must be able to decide, explain their reasoning, and move forward. As one transit official explained, when a concrete mixer is on its way to the construction site, and the project team is still not sure the type of wall to build or its exact placement, you can’t just say “form a study committee.”

Project managers need strong communication skills to effectively convey information among agency staff, leadership, consultants, contractors, partners, and various public and private stakeholders. Since organizations and individuals need to be aware of issues affecting them, project managers must present information in a timely, clear, and accessible manner. Strong communications form the foundation for a project manager’s ability to collaborate and coordinate with stakeholders, policy makers, and staff.

Varied needs

Just as no two major transit projects are alike, the needs of every project management team also differ. Based on the experience of interviewees, this study recommends that agencies conduct a comprehensive review of their personnel, processes, and systems to ensure they are fully prepared before undertaking projects. They must allocate sufficient resources, establish appropriate procedures, and provide ongoing support to project teams. One agency official warned that inadequate support is a “recipe for disaster.”

Agencies undertaking their first major project can face numerous challenges and be easily overwhelmed. One FTA official compared it to having a first child: “You don’t know until you get there.” In contrast, agencies that can undertake multiple large projects, simultaneously, can take advantage of numerous opportunities for collaboration and continuous learning between project management teams.

The type of contract and project delivery method for a specific project also make a difference in the skill set needed to manage that project. For example, engineering skills are typically more important for a design-bid-build than a design-bid contract. Likewise, public private partnerships often require more sophisticated financial expertise.

Recruitment

Public agency executives—particularly those without experience in delivering large projects—often underestimate both the importance of hiring skilled project managers and the difficulty of attracting them given the salary disparity between the public and private sectors. Many successful project managers can move from a transit agency to a consulting firm and increase their salaries by 40 percent.

The private sector pays a premium for project managers because, as one interviewee explained, “those are the positions that win the jobs.” In other words, private firms increase the competitiveness of their bids by demonstrating the competency of their team. However, working at a consulting firm has a major drawback since it often requires relocating to a new city after each project.

To help agencies recruit and select members of their project management teams, this report shares strategies that transit agencies use to develop job descriptions, disseminate information about open positions, and conduct interviews. While transit agencies may not be able to compete on salaries, they can and should highlight four distinct advantages of working in the public sector. First, agency staff may enjoy a better work life balance, as they tend to work fewer hours. Second, in-house project managers typically have decision-making authority while consultants usually can only make recommendations. Third, project managers with long tenures in an agency or deep roots in the community often take greater pride in directly contributing to an agency’s mission and serving their communities.

Job security is the fourth advantage that transit agencies can capitalize on. However, this report finds that many agencies hire employees on a temporary basis, depending on the availability of funding or until the project is completed. This undermines an agency’s ability to offer greater job security and attract top talent.

Use of consultants

While experienced consultants offer valuable expertise to project management teams, this report points out certain drawbacks of relying too heavily on consulting firms. Transit agencies report that their employees tend to have a stronger sense of ownership over a project, and better relationships within their agencies and outside stakeholders.

Moreover, an overreliance on consultants can result in a loss of institutional knowledge. Long after construction is completed, operations and maintenance staff benefit from having easy access to agency employees who worked on a project. When consultants walk out the door, they often take valuable experience and detailed project knowledge with them.

Retention challenges and solutions

Retention is a major challenge for transit agencies, since many project management staff leave for better-paying opportunities in the private sector. The pay disparities are greater for project managers than for junior staff, which makes it difficult to retain top talent.

Agencies can do a better job retaining employees by creating clear career advancement pathways and providing them with opportunities for long-term professional growth. One senior transit official said, “One of our greatest resources is within our organization. We spend time helping existing staff to grow.” He noted the benefit of having a deputy project manager and emphasized the importance of selecting deputies who have the potential to manage a project. This requires pairing them with the right person and preparing them to step in at any time.

Professional development

Without sufficient training, project managers may struggle to navigate the complexities of transit projects, leading to inefficiencies, cost overruns, delays, and unnecessary tension with stakeholders. This report finds that strong professional development and mentorship programs play a vital role in building a more capable workforce.
Training should be formalized and institutionalized in an agency. Since well-qualified project managers are key to consulting firms’ bottom lines, well-established consulting firms usually have more robust training and professional development programs than transit agencies. Some agencies do have extensive training programs, though. For example, Sound Transit established ST (Sound Transit) University to provide training for its entire workforce.

An important element of training is learning from previous projects. Unfortunately, many transit agencies fail to document the lessons they have learned after completing a project. Agencies are often reluctant to memorialize their mistakes because it might embarrass staff, management, and the organization. They also worry that documenting mistakes could jeopardize their ability to secure future funds.

Resources

This report describes numerous project management resources including conferences, FTA staff and documents, and programs offered by the American Public Transportation Association, Eno Center for Transportation, and the National Transit Institute. These resources can help transit agencies take a strategic approach to hiring, training, and retaining project managers. It can also help future project managers chart their career paths.