Should a Project Manager have Technical Skills in the Area they are Managing?
From the The Professional Project Manager Blog
by Sean Whitaker
This series of articles examines, and offers insights and opinions, on all aspects of the profession of project management. I welcome your comments, feedback, support or dissent. I am passionate about the profession of project management and if, through our discussion, we can add value to the profession and practitioners then I am happy.
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Should a project manager should have technical skills in the area of the project work? This is a question I am asked frequently. Should someone running an IT project come from an IT background? Should a project manager managing a construction project have a construction or engineering background? Some people say they definitely should and some people say they shouldn’t.
The answer is actually quite simple - it all depends on the size and complexity of the project.
To begin with I need to clarify that technical work, whether its hardware, software, construction, or infrastructure related, is very different from project management work. Technical work requires a technical background, training and expertise about a particular field and using this experience to make technical decisions, often associated with the product of the project. Project management work, on the other hand is about managing the project. It involves the initiation work, the planning work, the executing work, monitoring and controlling work and the closing work. It is the developed of plans, monitoring of progress, controlling change and delivering a project to name but a few areas.
If the project is small, then it may be that the person charged with being a project manager may also be completing some technical work on the project and as such it’s a balancing act. At times they will do technical work and at other times they will do project management work. The project is simply neither big enough nor complex enough to warrant having specialist technical and project management staff.
If the project is large and complex then, without doubt, the person acting as project manager needs to be focussed totally on one thing and one thing only, the management of the project. I’ve often said that the easiest way to understand what a project manager is, is to replace reword the title to General Manager of a project. We all know what a General Manager does and if they are a General Manager of a large organisation they come from a management background not necessarily a technical background. Or if they have come from a technical background the best general managers have made a conscious decision at some point in their careers to leave behind their technical background and embrace a new career as a manager. This is exactly the same as being a project manager. For larger projects the project manager must be focussed on managing the project and everything that entails, and not be distracted by the technical requirements of the work to be done. On a larger project the team should be big enough that there are other people charged with being technical experts.
The biggest problem a project manager with a technical skill can have is the inability to let go of their technical background and move onto managing the project. At some point in their careers, to be successful, they must make the decision to become full time project managers and leave behind their technical background. If they don’t they will do neither job well. A complex project requires a full time project manager. Additionally, the skilled teams responsible for the technical work don’t need someone undermining and second guessing them.
This leads us to the emergence of a new breed of project managers who are entering the profession as professional project managers with degrees and diplomas in project manager and not the typical technical background. The entry of these people into the market will change the way we view the profession. We will begin to look for people with project management credentials and experience to lead projects.
There will always be a demand for both sorts of project manger though. We will always have a career path for technical experts to become part or full time project managers, and there will be a growing awareness and value placed upon those professional project managers whether they come from tertiary education, or have made the decision at some point in their careers to be a professional project manager.
Posted on: June 26, 2016 08:56 PM |
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Comments (14)
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Philippe Schuler
Senior Instructor/Lecturer in Project/Program/Account PMO Management| Independant Consultant
Les Choux, France
Sean, this is exactly the question most of my students in Master for International Project Management usually raised to me.
An your answer is also the one I give to them back!
Actually I have always considered it would be better for PMs to have technical skills in the domain of the projects they have to manage. Of course they won't have to execute technical activities as they have to focus on project management but they will have to "challenge" their technical teams in some situattions like in issue management or in reporting. So yes for me having this technical background is a "plus" but is not mandatory.
Sean, great article! I have heard mixed reviews on whether someone should be technical or not running technical projects. I would like for your to elaborate more on the 2nd to last paragraph... This "emergence of a new breed of project managers..." I am not sure I follow. Almost sounds like the need for a person to bring both technical degree and project management certification IS becoming more relevant. I am interpreting this particularly for technical projects. I agree, Project Managers are assigned to managed projects no matter the industry. It helps if the PM has some background in the area; but it should not be mandatory.
Sean, agree with your assessment.
Let me share my own example:
I decided to go for project management skills only in 1988, because I am a lazy guy and did not want to chase all the technical innovations that will come up. This also forced me to find excellent technical resources and build checks&balance into my projects.
As I focused on the stakeholders, I had to develop skills to survive drinking and eating events with them, which were important to build trust and influence them for our joint project success.
Also I had to be able to quickly learn the minimum technical and business and cultural knowledge I needed for each of my projects. And I changed technology, industry and culture which every project.
My advice is: do not cling to technology and process and all the other stuff robots will take over sooner or later, but focus on the human (social) side of life.
It almost never hurts to have technical experience in the subject area of the project. However, I was once told my my Director of Project Management that I should stay at a high level on one particular project that I was getting ready to lead. He specifically warned me to stay out of the weeds and keep the big picture. Unfortunately, it was necessary for me to get into the weeds in order to get 3 different internal groups to work with each other. But, other than that, I stayed at the macro level. However, I stand by my opening statement: it never hurts to have subject matter knowledge for your project (business or technical, or both).
Hi John,
it never hurts to know as much as you can, is a general wisdom I can agree with.
But I have seen many many many so-called project managers burn out and their projects fail because they were overwhelmed with doing both and could not say no to doing the technical stuff better than their mediocre teammates.
As the saying goes: if you promote your best specialist to be a project manager you will get a new-be PM and loose a specialist.
For me this is one of the root causes why projects go wrong.
(again, for small and not complex projects, I agree with Sean.)
Karthik T
Senior Engineering Manager| Nike
Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Good to have technical skills, but its not mandatory.
Geetali Khera
Sr. Project Manager| Macys Systems and Technologies
Alpharetta, Ga, United States
Ultimately we are looking for project success..... Technical skills of the project manager will not be a critical factor to project success assuming there are reasonably capable technical SME's on the project. A good project manager will balance his/her lack of technical skills by engaging the right folks, at the right time and communicating and getting timely resolution of issues, removing roadblocks, which is a key role of a PM.
Technical skills will definitely be a PLUS, but a project can succeed with a lack of and those PMs skills by mitigating with other SME's available on the project.
Brian Miller
PM Specialist| Miller Project Services
Houston, Tx, United States
This is certainly a relevant subject for me as I am looking for work- piling on everyone's comments... technical competence may not be mandatory but it is certainly helpful. As long as the PM "stays out of the weeds" as John mentioned, he/she can stay more focused on running the project. Not sure what degree of complexity everyone has experienced but for me, part of my performance had to do with a basic understanding of the technology. There was and is a balance between understanding technology challenges, driving and monitoring progress, and respecting the time people need to complete the work. As the PM is normally the guy that reports status (and the one senior mgt is looking to), he/she should have a well rounded view of the scope, cost, & schedule.
Wei Kwan Ng
Program Manager| Agilent Technologies
Yishun, Singapore
While it is perfectly fine to start the PM job without the technical knowledge of the technology, my opinion is that this will be a hindrance if one does not “buck up” and learn the language that the team speaking.
Speaking from personal experience, coming from a consumer electronics company to joining a medical device company is a huge change for me. More so when I realized that almost everyone in the office either has a MSc or a Phd in biochemistry (yikes).
The most difficult part, at least to me, is to convince the very experienced folks to keep the schedule while maintaining the high quality of the medical device. And it is tough to talk to them when the comment is that “you have no idea what you are asking for”. So yes, to be a more effective PM, there is no choice but to read up on the technology to talk to the engineers, learn SAP to talk to the buyers, etc.
It will be interesting to hear comments from PMs (without medical degrees) who work in healthcare, i.e. how you convince the doctors/nurses to listen to you as you drive the projects.
Malini Katta
Malini Katta| Naandi community water services
Hyderabad, Telangana, India
I too agree in principle that technical skills are not needed in the area of work to manage the project.
However, my experience has taught me a very different lesson. I have tried so much to change my industry of working (by remaining a PM) and a negative answer to the the constant question of relevant technicalities/experience has totally blocked my opportunities to shift.
So, whatever the PM world says or feels, market out there shares a very different opinion.
I agree with Brian. Technical skills are not mandatory however, project managers should have a basic understanding of the technical aspects. This helps to better understand the overall solution, technical challenges and related risks. This is definitely true for IT projects and I believe it's true for other industries. Knowing the technology will make you a better project manager.
It depends on a number of factors such as,
Organisation - In some organisations the project manager is expected to solve engineering problems.
Team - When there is a lack of senior engineering person, the PM has to direct the team technically.
Client requirement, to name a few.
It is important for the PM to have enough knowlege to ask the right questions at the right time to challenge the team. Also, when the PM is technically good, it may help him get the respect of the team.
Andrew Quinn
Projects Director| UrbanInfrastructure
Wellington, New Zealand
I saw a great article from John Ariyo, PMP that suggested that one of the four things that a project manager should have is sector knowledge. I do recognise that knowledge is different to technical skills and this is where some people come unstuck by confusing the two. Here's the link to John's article if you're interested.
http://www.projectmanagement.com/articles/329016/Four-Things-Every-Project-Manager-Must-Have
Jelili Odunayo Kazeem
Co-Founder | Currently developing a RAG-based app for scope screep detection| Convosync Solutions Limited
Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom
Great insights. Thanks for sharing
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