Is it a right move to promote a technical lead to a project Manager Position???
pradeep bnvBDE| Semantic Space technologiesHyderabad, India
I had been seeing the current trend in the career paths of software employees for quite some time. It starts from an s/w trainee - s/w engineer – sr. s/w engineer – Team lead – Technical lead – Project Manager. (This career path is in general).
But in several of these cases the technical lead has failed in the new position. That's because project management is not about resolving technical issues. It has other parts: planning, resource management, cost management etc.
And many managers see automation as one of the ways to overcome this problem…they start looking for a tool which does all these tasks automatically, evaluate it somehow or the other and bring it into the system. (This is my own experience, I had a customer of this kind for my product www.ppmstudio.com)
1. Is it right from a co. point of view to just promote a person on the basis of his experience or time of stay in a co.?
2. How far it is right for a PM to go for automation tool when he don’t know the basics of managing projects manually
Regards
Pradeep.B
www.ppmstudio.com
Saving Changes...
Managment in general is Art beside since. in this case a technical person who has no managment skills may fail. and the manager who has no sense of art may also fail.
I know some technical experts who succed in thier projects as manager more than project managers.
at the end I think it depends on the person and the nature of the project Saving Changes...
PAOLINO MONTANINOExecutive, Head of European ERP Business Application| AVANADERome, Italy, Italy
Hi,
this is a very good question.
For sure, in IT Industry, the trend is to promote a technical lead to a Project manager.
Project Management is something that is drammatically different from technical skills (someone calls it an art).
Having technical skills can help while you act as IT project manager but can become a serious issues if PM starts interfering with technical leads.
In my opinion the best approach in understanding if a technical lead is suitable to become a PM is to evaulate his skills in:
- Relationship Management
- Creativity
- People Management
- Leadership
If a technical lead has this basic skills after an appropriate training in Project Management he can move to the role of PM.
The automation tools are only tools. It makes no sense to use it without any kind of management knowledge.
It is like thinking that the project plan is the MS Project Gantt itself.
Regards,
Paolino Saving Changes...
Jeff ArmstrongAgile Programme & Portfolio Consultant| business-docs.co.ukLondon, United Kingdom
I'd be careful here.
The most important question is:
Is it the right person for the job - i.e. do they have the skills, knowledge and experience, and do they want the job?
I wouldn't worry about their previous title (though it may help in terms of knowledge and skills), but would concentrate on whether they can deliver or not. Saving Changes...
Elizabeth HarrinDirector| RebelsGuideToPM.comLondon, England, United Kingdom
There are a couple of good books I would recommend for people making this kind of career move: Surprise! Now You're A Software Project Manager by Bas de Baar and Making Things Happen by Scott Berkun.
Of course, these will only help people who actually want to make the move from a technical role to a project management role, and as others have said, without that willingness, your recruit is not likely to succeed. Saving Changes...
I'll have to agree with most answers... it really depends on the individual. Some get it and like it, some hate it, etc. For me this raises the question for the need of standardized career paths. Why?
@Elizabeth: gee, thanks for the recommendation :) Saving Changes...
Sonya CalefSenior Project Manager| Hennepin CountyMinneapolis, Mn, United States
I have seen many examples where IT management becomes confused and believes their best bug-fixer can transfer those skills to project management. Wrong. So, so wrong.
Time & again I have worked with arrogant tech leads who presume to have project management all figured out and boast about being able to project manage by themselves because they know how to use MS-Project. That's all well & good until something bad happens they didn't see coming, can't cope with, don't have the budget reserve to absorb, or the communication/business savvy to work out with the customer/sponsor/management. Then they want to come hide behind me and wait for the PM to fix it. Even then, those types can't seem to understand the PM game is way more than updating MS-Project files once a week and printing Gantt bars out for everyone.
By contrast, I've worked with some top-notch tech team leads who took both our positions seriously, respected everyone's function around them, and went out of their way to make sure they included me in the action, so I could accurately manage the project, communicate up & out, and keep risk under as much control as possible. It's kind of funny in a way - those tech leads would always tell me they were grateful to have a PM between them and the customer and management, and they wouldn't have my job for any salary.
Is it beneficial for a PM to have technical domain experience? Sure - it never hurts, but it's better overall to put a good PM into a PM job, and a good tech lead SME into the tech lead job instead of trying to blend the two and save an FTE, or just assuming being good at one means the same person is good the other. Saving Changes...
