Deron LeStourgeonSenior Manager Installation Operations| Philips HealthcareSpring Branch, Tx, United States
I am in the process of transforming a Project Management work force focused on healthcare solutions into more IT focused organization. This is due to the fact the lines between a proprietary healthcare solutions and the hospital's IT infrastructure have begun to merge.
My question is, to what degree should my PM's obtain IT technical knowledge to be effective. Most of my PM's have their master's in Project Management, would a certification such as CCENT or CCNA be valuable or overkill? The goal would be for my PM's to work within the customer's IT organization and maintatin credability while delivering our solutions. Saving Changes...
Elyse NielsenSenior Project Manager| Ascension Health Information ServicesHaines City, Fl, United States
Hi Deron,
Given the broad breath of a hospital's infrastructure and imaging technology, perhaps another tactic is needed.
The item which I have seen work well, is when there is the role of technical architect. This role helps to establish the needed standard networking infrastructure configuration for your solutions implementation. They are also well versed in technology and able to explain it to others.
I think the PM for these types of implementation needs to have an understanding of networking infrastructure and how items relate. One can hire individuals who have networking expertise and SAN expertise and then made the jump to project management.
For bring a PM through the CISCO certifications, would one also consider for SAN storage and such. Also these certifications need to have a bit of hands on experience for configuring the cisco environment. Perhaps one could offer departmental cross training, a PM101 for networking engineers and client server engineers, and a networking 101, san 101, an infrastructure 101 for the PMs. it might help for team building and better understanding of the other environment.
Digvijay SinghProject Manager| Mastek LimitedPune, India
It is for sure that PM's technical knowledge will be effective but PM's are tought to be equally effective even in the scenerio where technology selected is not the one they are equipped with, the more important thing is how your PM recruit the technology specialist and how he narrows down the gaps between his inexperience and the knowledge of the team to successfully execute the project. To summarize, the project team assigned to PM makes the difference whether your PM himself needs to be formally gain technology knowledge or not. Saving Changes...
Deron LeStourgeonSenior Manager Installation Operations| Philips HealthcareSpring Branch, Tx, United States
Thank you for your replies. I concur with your assessment that providing the PM with technologyy specialists is the right approach. We have Technical Consultants in place that have or are obataining their IT certifications such as CCNA, CCNT, and CCIE.
I have colleages that feel for the sake of the PM's credibility they need more certifications. My take is to arm them with the right resources, allow them to use their PM skills to manage the projects. Technical knowledge will continue to be developed through their on the job experience. Saving Changes...
Peter WrightProgramme Manager| BAE SystemsSouthport, Merseyside, United Kingdom
Deron,
I have found both in my own experience and seeing others in action that having in depth knowledge of a technology becomes a problem as the PM can also form there own assumptions and ideas of the soltuion instead of focuising on the Management of the delivery and pulling on the experienced (SME's) resources to steer any discussions/design/development/manufacture.
There are pro's and cons of both, as if you get somebody in with no IT knowledge and all the acronymns and technical speak goes over their heads.
I have approached it previously as What do I want the PM to do and what resources does/will he/she have available. You also need to selel this to the stakehodlers by saying such as "The PM will be driving the delivery of the project not designing it."
However If you do not have all of the range of SME's (IT, Finance, Commercial, Purchasing etc) then focus on the most risky part (e.g. IT) and recruit somebody with knowledge of similar systems.
Be careful not to define theior skills down to e.g. Oracle 10g; you would want somebody with a few Oracle products or more importantly DB architecture/design and not the specific products.
Saving Changes...
Andrew MakarProgram Manager| AMAKAR LLCOakland Township, Mi, United States
There once was a time when I could sling code and make technical decisions for the project. That's when I was a developer and as I shifted into project management roles, I became one step removed from the evolving technology.
Although I'm a PM whose technical skills have been dulled due to the shift in focus, I still find it valuable to have a project manager who understands the technology.
Adding a technical architect to the team is a MUST HAVE as they should be the resource closest to the technical solution. The PM should rely on those closest to the technology for the technical decisions but should help facilitate the process and tasks to make the decision.
The PM should still obtain a background in the technology concepts. They should be able to communicate to their stakeholders why the system sometimes allows people to log in and other times doesn't.
(They may not need to know the technical details about the application server in the load balanced environment that was missing a server setting...but they need to be able to communicate it using terms the business understands)
I am a PM with an IT background. Whilst this stands me in good stead when talking to the techo's I am the first to admit that no one can be an expert in all things IT, there are way too many different IT architectures out there now.
I don't even try to design/develop solutions I leave that to a solutions architect or systems designer. I just make sure that the quality is attended to and a robust testing regime is in place.
So as in all projects the project manager is responsible for execution not content, so make sure that the SMEs are right for the project. Saving Changes...
There has been lots of discussion on the topic! In my experience, if the project team is technically sound, then the project manager need not have technical knowledge.
If the project team is technically not strong, then it is a good idea to have a PM with technical knowledge. The problem in this case will be, if the PM starts working on solving critical problems, then the project is gone!!
You have some great responses already but here are a few more thoughts to consider.
1. Is the Project Manager meant to be both the technical lead as well as the Project Manager? - Very risky to project; keep your PM focus on the project management lifecycle and soft skills necessary to keep the team focused. Technical lead and business analsyst should focus on SDLC and customer requirements
2. Does your organization have Technical Leads and promote their knowledge of project management? Are the technical leads trained to lead technical subteams? - Make sure you allow for training for PM and technical staff; each group needs to understand their role for project success
3. Are you addressing this as an organization change and not just a technical training issue? - Certainly not to be overlooked, get feedback from PM and technical staff on how they see it.
4. Do your organization have roles defined for project teams? ie.: Project sponsor, Project Manager, Enterprise architect, Technical Lead, Project Lead, Team member, Business Analyst, Marketing Team member, Test Lead, Systems Engineer etc. - Role definition is key so everyone has comfort level to be able to utilize their skillset to perform as a team
5. Are you promoting Project Management training? Sponsor Training? Team building etc? - Don't lose site of the soft skills all team members need. PMs need to lead teams: it's not all about IT.
Your PMs should have a good knowledge of the business, processes, the requirements, culture and leading project teams. PM should have some IT training to have basic knowledge but each project is different and PM is both an art and science. Keep your PMs focused on :customer, team and sponsor and the triple constraint: scope, schedule and resources. Your PMs will go a long way to add value to you and your customers and learn about the changing landscape of technology.
I liked Naomi's post and I will add another matter to consider.
Change control.
If your PM is also technical lead then they are also generating change as well.
This is a slippery slope to scope creep if the PM is not strictly applying change control procedures to the project.
Remember a project gets late one day at a time, so every change has the potential to affect the delivery date. Even "technical" changes need to be considered and approved with this in mind. Saving Changes...
Juanita WoodsAcademic Director, Clinical Assistant Professor| New York UniversityNY, United States
I agree with Elyse on needing a technical architect to work with the project manager. Project managers are hired for their project management skills, and should not feel that they have to get certified in every technology or business focus used by their organization. If I did, I would have to pursue all sorts of banking certifications as well as technology certifications. That would leave me less time to be an effective project manager, as I would be spending most of my energy on certifications.
Another idea to think about is sometimes when you have a technical focused project manager, they end up doing a lot of the deliverable work, and less actually managing the project. Wearing 2 hats is very difficult, as both roles suffer. Saving Changes...
