Ian Roden , Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom

I like bringing people together to solve problems, the harder the problem the better I like the challenge. So project management is what I do and what I enjoy.

RAD or waterfall, I can do either or both, whatever best suits the job, and I specialise in IT, Digital and Business Change. For example I recently landed a new Reporting and Data service for senior managers (with a really cool integrated system set up, built around Azure), an O365 ready SharePoint intranet site and an automated planning and reporting portal, which saved the client a small fortune in server space. I also designed the content for a student support app built in Dynamics and landed a programme of smaller projects in support of a major business transformation.

I came to project management through business change and communications rather than an as an engineer or technician. I think this gives me an advantage as a stakeholder manager because it means I'm adept at translating the necessarily technical and complex into the simple and clear (and vice versa). It also means I can handle the project communications and business change - the key pieces of the puzzle if you want people to use whatever it is you're delivering.

I've been a freelance project manager and communications consultant for several years and haven't lost a project yet! I think this is down to competence, energy , compulsive planning and an inability to let go of a problem until its solved to the satisfaction of my clients.