Acting like a program manager, even if you aren't (officially) one
Elizabeth HarrinDirector| RebelsGuideToPM.comLondon, England, United Kingdom
One of the speakers at PMI Global Congress North America said yesterday that you should start acting like a program manager if you wanted to become one. What do you think about taking on board extra responsibilities and duties without having any official recognition like salary increase or a new job title? Saving Changes...
I think the idea is sound, but it does beg another question. If you think you have the skills to be a program manager, and are not being given the opportunities to develop those by your organization, why?
Some of us will be working in jobs where there is a clear demarkation and any opportunity to take on extra is going to still be more of the same, and not necessarily going to enhance our skills at the program level. That said, that is a paradigm that can be challanged.
My general rationale is that taking on extra responsibilities is worthwhile in the sense that you are investing in your own development. The rewards may not be immediate, such as a pay increase; rather, they can be expected in the future as your improved skills make you more suitable for better jobs when they arise.
Having managed projects, programs and portfolios, there is a substantial difference in approach, and one would need be a bit careful not to fall into the trap of picking up additional project management responsibilities and finding that they are not really a program, and don't give one the development and experience at that level that you are seeking. Saving Changes...
"In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshed - but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."
