The Technical Project Manager
From the Voices on Project Management Blog
by Cameron McGaughy,
Lynda Bourne, Kevin Korterud, Conrado Morlan, Peter Tarhanidis, Mario Trentim, Jen Skrabak, David Wakeman, Wanda Curlee, Christian Bisson, Ramiro Rodrigues, Soma Bhattacharya, Emily Luijbregts, Sree Rao, Yasmina Khelifi, Marat Oyvetsky, Lenka Pincot, Jorge Martin Valdes Garciatorres, cyndee miller
Voices on Project Management offers insights, tips, advice and personal stories from project managers in different regions and industries. The goal is to get you thinking, and spark a discussion. So, if you read something that you agree with--or even disagree with--leave a comment.
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by Christian Bisson, PMP
Several years ago, I decided to put my web developer hat behind me and become a project manager (and eventually product owner). At first I wasn’t sure if I would be up to the challenge given that most project managers have different backgrounds.
But several years later, I don’t regret my decision.
Technical project managers are more present — and required — in the digital world, and I have no doubt that will keep rising. Here’s why.
The Rising Digital World
The digital world is taking up more space in our lives. And it doesn’t stop at what people see, there is also a vast world of data happening behind the scenes.
A project manager that can’t comprehend the technical relationship between every piece of a client’s ecosystem will fail to manage it properly. As ecosystems grow, it will become more of a challenge to ensure teams have the right people at the right time so that everything comes together as planned.
Still, many project managers are not even aware of what a development environment (development, staging, user acceptance testing, production) or even deployments are. Project managers today should know about synchronizing websites, apps and other tools together. If one can’t deploy a site, then there is simply no hope.
New Technologies
A website used to consist of images and text, so not understanding how it worked didn’t matter much if you had the team to compensate.
Today, however, a lot of websites use advanced technologies to provide users with what they want, like powerful search engines or features using machine learning.
Machine learning in particular is becoming the toy every kid wants. It’s also within everyone’s grasp—whether it’s with advanced machine learning expertise or with tools made available by Google, for example. Project managers need to understand this technology in order to bring out its full potential within the projects they manage, otherwise it becomes a trend word that brings nothing to the table.
Communication Reigns
Everyone knows that communication is key to running any team smoothly. If a project manager can’t understand what the team is communicating, then he or she can’t properly manage the project.
Furthermore, clients are becoming more techy and often have a better understanding of how things work. So if project managers don’t understand the tech behind the project, they can’t have proper conversations with the client. It helps in key project decisions to actually understand what is going on.
What are your thoughts on technical project managers? As the world becomes more digital, are they becoming essential?
Posted
by
Christian Bisson
on: January 22, 2018 07:12 PM |
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Hi Sujith,
Thank you for your comment, I find your point of view very interesting, I'm curious to elaborate how the insights the technical PM can have may end up dictating the team, would you say this could actually relate to anyone including non-technical PMs?
And if one dictates, wouldn't having insights actually lessen the negative impact compared to a dictator that has no clue what he his talking about?
Cheers.
Ezara,
thanks for reading, I'm glad you liked it, do you have any thoughts to share based on your experience?
Cheers.
Sujith Kattathara
Founder, CEO| FreelanceTeams Private Limited
Ernakulam, Kerala, India
Hi Christian
My take of a strong Project team is where the entire project team is technically capable, but is open to inputs & divergent opinions from others, and the team works collaboratively to reach the solution implementation.
A technically strong PM belonging to the above category would be a very strong add to any team. But the opposite scenario of a Technical PM who is not open to divergent opinions (even from strong Technical resources) would negatively impact the project in 3 critical ways:
- There is a potential for a valuable insight getting lost, when the Technical PM ignores a team member's input.
- The whole concept of "diversity" pivots on taking inputs from different people or groups .. a Dictatorial approach will ensure that the value from a diverse team is lost.
- A talented team will lose its motivation when the team members see that their opinions are ignored by the leader.
All of the above does not imply that the leader has to accommodate all and every divergent opinion. It simply means that he/ she has to offer a listening ear, and be seen to be open & collaborative. If a strongly divergent opinion is offered, it may make sense to justify the rejection of this input, so as to support the team culture of openness & collaboration.
As to your last point: Having a dictator who does not have a clue is obviously far worse than having a dictator who does have strong insights. But having an "Open" Leader is far better for the long-term cohesiveness & success of a team.
Thoughts?
Interesting point of view and great conversation!
Like a line manager, a successful project manager doesn’t have to be the expert in the room. Depending on the scope of the project, it may be very difficult to have expertise in all the different technological facets. A breadth of understanding may be enough.
Without a deep understanding, the opportunity/challenge for the project team is to bring their project deliverables to life by explaining to someone not as knowlegbeble and aids in the overall communication to project team members and stakeholders.
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