Project Manager Knowledge Areas

Pick two. If I were to ask you to pick two of the following three areas of knowledge that you want you project managers to be adept in, which two would you pick?

1. Knowledge in project management
2. Knowledge of the business
3. Knowledge of core technologies that drive the business

This is an age old discussion and debate. Usually the discussion concerns itself with whether or not a skilled PM can be effective cross-industry without being skilled in that industry. Often the example that follows is one of IT project management vs. construction project management.

That is an interesting discussion, but I have a more basic perspective. And that is not whether or not a skilled PM can be effective in different industry domains, rather can a skilled project manager be effective, at all, without an acceptable degree of knowledge of the business and knowledge of the core technologies that driven the business?

Not surprisingly, many PMO managers want to see their project managers have more expertise on the business side and in the technologies that enable and drive the business. However, there are those in the profession that would suggest that a project manager can be, effective and of value, in any project environment without needing to be industry savvy, skilled in the business, or technically deep. Really! And then there are those, that is, some project managers, that don’t care to be industry savvy or technical, preferring instead to just manage the project before them. These folks can tell you what drives Earned Value for a project, but they can't tell you what drives Market Value for their company. Hmn.

Consider the following.

• How is it that some (not all of course) project managers regularly attend project management conferences and local chapter meetings to learn about project management (this is good of course), but they never seek to learn more about their business or to meet some of the divisions, departments, and people that make up their business?
• How many of these project managers attend regular monthly meetings or conferences to extend their knowledge and skill in the industry of the company or to extend their knowledge and skill in the technologies that enable and drive their company’s business.

Or put another way, when a project begins to go wrong, is it really a technical project management issue that is behind the failing project? Or is it something else? And if it is that something else, what are we doing to ensure that our project managers have the skill they need to relate to, to recognize, and to manage that something else..?

Therein lies a real problem. Challenge your project managers to become experts in the company’s business and in the technologies that enable and drive the business. It will make them better project managers today, and for the future.