How is a Technical Project manager different from a Project Manager?
What skills are required to become a technical PM in IT/software? Saving Changes...
Technical Project manager could be a direct contact for the technical aspect of the project, one who is responsible for explaining the technical details to non technical/client staff in terms of deliverables/outcomes. Saving Changes...
This has been discussed in other threads, typically a technical PM is a PM that has domain knowledge in the field of the project team members. Project teams can be cross-functional but usually there is a main domain in which most of the team members have expertise. In my opinion the technical PM should be the norm but in IT I think it is the exception.
With the risk of offending some readers I must say that in practice a PM that does not have working experience in the domain of the team members can never be a real project team leader and he would never be perceived as a leader by the team members.
When you ask technical IT experts about their non-technical PMs they would laugh as these PMs are never taken seriously by the project team members. I know, this is taught but unfortunately this is the reality.
The good news however is that the non-technical PMs can play a very important role for the success of the project even if they can't directly lead the team. They can make the interactions between the stakeholders more efficient, they can establish efficient work processes, influence high ranking managers and clients and act as facilitators for the decision process of the team and of the other stakeholders. In a project each stakeholder generally only care for his/her part of the project while the PM must care for everything. Saving Changes...
Thanks everyone for the great answers. I would like to draw a conclusion to the topic. A PM role is more generic to any domain/technolgies but a technical PM should have a PM skills + technical understanding of one ore more domain technologies. Saving Changes...
There is no correct answer on this question.
It depends on the context of the organization.
Based on my experiences, technical knowledge on the project is mostly expected for the PM, This is source of the Power of PM as well. Saving Changes...
RAJESH K LProject Manager, PMP| Bharat Electronics, Bengaluru, IndiaBengaluru, Karnataka, India
PM is a PM. I don't think of any such variant as Technical PM, at least as per PMBOK Saving Changes...
Pier Luigi CalabriaProject Manager| INFORM Institut für Operations Research und Management GmbH, Aachen, GermanyAachen, Germany
For me the TPM is two people in one person. I tend to separate the two things, reason why, as PM, I tend to nominate a Technical Expert, who will work in symbiosis with me, that will sort out only the technical side of the discussion.
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1 reply by Adrian Carlogea
Jul 12, 2018 5:42 PM
Adrian Carlogea
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Yeah but that technical expert would be taking crucial decisions that would affect the success of the project. When it comes to technical issues the PM is completely powerless in this situation. He would never be able to determine by himself if the team is doing well or not.
Technical experts decide what needs to be done to deliver the project, they define the low-level tasks and estimate the time needed to complete them. If they take decisions that prove not to be very good there is nothing the PM can do about it. Well if the PM was technical and took the decisions there would be no guarantee that his decisions would be better but at least he would be in control.
For me the TPM is two people in one person. I tend to separate the two things, reason why, as PM, I tend to nominate a Technical Expert, who will work in symbiosis with me, that will sort out only the technical side of the discussion.
Yeah but that technical expert would be taking crucial decisions that would affect the success of the project. When it comes to technical issues the PM is completely powerless in this situation. He would never be able to determine by himself if the team is doing well or not.
Technical experts decide what needs to be done to deliver the project, they define the low-level tasks and estimate the time needed to complete them. If they take decisions that prove not to be very good there is nothing the PM can do about it. Well if the PM was technical and took the decisions there would be no guarantee that his decisions would be better but at least he would be in control.
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1 reply by Dinah Young
Jul 13, 2018 8:59 AM
Dinah Young
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Adrian,
You have mentioned several times that Project Managers do not have domain knowledge and are powerless. In my 30+ years of experience I have never seen this. All of my project managers have had domain knowledge (maybe not to the level of the team members but enough to understand what they are talking about) and have had quite a bit of authority over their team. If you do not understand the technical then how can you create a reasonable schedule and how will you know when to escalate an issue and how will you know what resources to acquire.
Therefore, the difference between a technical project manager and a project manager is just the level of technical knowledge, at least in my area. If a job classification says technical project manager, they are looking for someone who can jump in and handle technical issues themselves if needed or who have enough knowledge to train/coach the team members.
Saving Changes...
Eric IsomOwner| learn.pmguaranteed.comUt, United States
Jul 05, 2018 9:15 AM
Replying to John Sikorski
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I can tell you what it means at my organization. You are expected to have an understanding of the project objectives from a technical perspective. This is always a good thing for IT projects, but in my role I need to be more involved in technical discussions, presentations and even decisions. For example, I was expected to prepare a document to present to our system architects for their review and approval for our project to move forward. I certainly didn't have all the answers, but my job was to reach out to the folks that did; understand what they were saying; provide my input; arrive at some logical conclusions and bring it all together into a coherent message. I don't believe you have to be a top expert in a particular field, but using your technical background, leadership skills, ability to learn and organize, and presentation skills, you should act as the unifying participant in the project. My role also includes all of the traditional aspects of project management - Managing schedule, scope and budget, and as always the most important aspect, communication. This perspective may not be universal, but as I mentioned earlier, it is how my role is defined within my current position.
I think that what John describes is a very healthy approach. It is good to have a strong background in the domain, but not necessarily the technical expert on the team. When organizations insist on the PM being the technical lead, they usually end up with second-rate project management, and don't even realize how much better their projects could be if they focused on their PMs being first and foremost strong project managers, with a reasonable amount of domain knowledge. Saving Changes...
Dinah YoungProject Manager / Software Asset Manager| Prince William CountySpringfield, Va, United States
Jul 12, 2018 5:42 PM
Replying to Adrian Carlogea
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Yeah but that technical expert would be taking crucial decisions that would affect the success of the project. When it comes to technical issues the PM is completely powerless in this situation. He would never be able to determine by himself if the team is doing well or not.
Technical experts decide what needs to be done to deliver the project, they define the low-level tasks and estimate the time needed to complete them. If they take decisions that prove not to be very good there is nothing the PM can do about it. Well if the PM was technical and took the decisions there would be no guarantee that his decisions would be better but at least he would be in control.
Adrian,
You have mentioned several times that Project Managers do not have domain knowledge and are powerless. In my 30+ years of experience I have never seen this. All of my project managers have had domain knowledge (maybe not to the level of the team members but enough to understand what they are talking about) and have had quite a bit of authority over their team. If you do not understand the technical then how can you create a reasonable schedule and how will you know when to escalate an issue and how will you know what resources to acquire.
Therefore, the difference between a technical project manager and a project manager is just the level of technical knowledge, at least in my area. If a job classification says technical project manager, they are looking for someone who can jump in and handle technical issues themselves if needed or who have enough knowledge to train/coach the team members.
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1 reply by Adrian Carlogea
Jul 16, 2018 8:19 AM
Adrian Carlogea
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Almost all the PMs that I have worked with were unable to perform the work of any of the other team members because of lack of skills and experience. They were not supposed to perform the actual work but not being able to do it means that they lack enough domain knowledge to lead the team.
How can a PM manage a project when he lacks technical knowledge?
1) Planning/Schedule: The actual information needed in the plan is being provided by the technical experts, the PM only has to gather the information an put into a software so that he can track the work being performed. This can be achieved even if the PM does not understand the work that needs to be done. Of course there are dependencies but the PM can work with the technical experts and with other stakeholders to work them out. Project planning involves many variables many of them not being dependent on technical knowledge. Technical knowledge is a must in planning but the planner does not necessarily have to be a technical experts as he can ask for the information that he needs.
2) Escalation. The PM simply asks the team members how they are doing and if they have impediments. If they do then he would try to fix them if not he would escalate them. Nonetheless not having technical knowledge escalating could be more difficult.
3) Resource allocation: If the company that delivers the project has all the required resources then the PM has nothing to worry about as functional managers would assign all the required resources. The PM does not have to explain the technical details to functional managers as they are able to get this information by themselves.
However if the company has no technical expert in the required domain then finding the right resources would be a difficult task. But this is not necessarily only the PM's problem but a problem of the organization as it needs resources that it does not have. In this case the PM does not have the required domain knowledge but no one else from the organization does.
