sandeep KharbandaSales manager| Vanderlande IndustriesPune, Maharashtra, India
I have observed recruiter often looking for project manager from same industry irrespective project management skills.
In my view, it doesnt matter the project manage handling IT projects or construction project as long as he is well versed in process of project management.
whats your view? Saving Changes...
Hi Adrian,
Thank you for your response. I am not saying all PMs should be technical, only advocating that we should be realistic about the job market and place ourselves in a better position to be successful at what we do.
Many organizations and even others on this forum have complained of green PMs or Paper PMPs. I believe the so-called Green PMs/Paper PMPs are PMs who are out of their depths in disciplines that they have not be exposed to. I used the construction and software development analogy because those are the two that i could think of at the moment i was responding to this discussion.
It appears to be logical that PMs can adapt and work in any discipline without having technical knowledge. They are only responsible for managing people, processes and technology. It is however not realistic to hire the best resources when you don't even have an inkling of what they are supposedly doing. Projects fail for many reasons but having someone who is green or a Paper PMP reduces the chances of success and should be avoided.
Your words, "At most PMs can just facilitate the communication between the experts and the customers but they don't really have to understand the technical details from these discussions" is a dangerous and not realistic statement to put out there. As PMs, we have a responsibility to earn the respect of our stakeholders and project team, this is not possible when we are thought of as green or Paper PMP. Not having some experience in an area makes it harder to staff the right people to get the job done right, we may not know the relevant questions to ask and in some cases create unnecessary work and cause friction among everyone involved.
I cringed when i read "IT PMs usually see the project's tasks in a very abstract manner. They don't care about the technical details of the task, but all they want to know is the effort needed to complete the task and if the task can be split between more people that could work in parallel". I do hope that as a PM that you care enough about the work to not only look at it in an abstract manner. You are responsible for ensuring all required work is properly decomposed and assigned to the right SME. I would think that in doing that we are looking at things a little more than in an abstract way.
I am not advocating PMs become the technical SME, writing code or inspecting it, writing technical SOPs or doing any technical work or writing of any sort. We should educate ourselves to not be clueless about the work that is required and it is achieved by understanding the work, dependencies and being in a better position to engage.
Thank you Edward. I enjoyed reading your message. However it appears that project management is becoming a profession in its own right. Project managers are slowly starting to become professionals in the field of project management rather than experts in a certain line of work who have moved to project management in the same line of work.
This means that project managers will no longer be linked to a certain industry. However being a professional only in project management and not in other lines of work means that you will not be able to get into the technical details of the worked performed and you will have to blindly use the information provided by others while you manage a project. Saving Changes...
I strongly beleive that a construction Manager can hadnle IT projects succesfully.
With basic knowledge of IT , definitely an IT project can be managed.
I beleive, all the processes are derivied from Manufacturing /Mechanical engineering.
With that said, i worked earlier for around 5 years in Construction projects and when i moved to IT and when became PM, it was very easy for me to manage team/s and projects.
For example- COnfiguration Managment in IT exactly similar to ENgineering drwaings released for constrcution/ design etc. The nomenclatures, naming conventions has great resemblance!!!.
I think, it is not onluy very easy but better managing can be done, if the PM has and engineering background with Construction experience.
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2 replies by Adrian Carlogea and Bala Sripada
Apr 03, 2017 3:46 AM
Adrian Carlogea
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At one of the companies for which I have worked there was a lady project manager that was managing telecom IT projects. I think she was a contractor as well and not a permanent employee, but this does not matter too much.
The idea is that the lady started her career as a secretary, then became and executive assistant then a project coordinator and finally a project manager. Although she was neither a construction engineer nor a IT/telecom engineer she had managed constructions projects before moving to IT projects.
She was not involved at all in the technical aspects of the work performed by the telecom engineers and technicians but nonetheless she was doing her job very well and helped the team to deliver. While she was not able to understand what exactly the technical experts were doing she did understand what they have to deliver.
I think when a PM moves from one industry to another there are just a few basic things that he/she needs to learn about the new domain but if the PM is not the best technical expert on the team then he/she will not be able to influence too much the work of the team.
Apr 10, 2017 11:44 PM
Bala Sripada
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Hi Adrian,
I agree with you. I started my career in projects being a mechanical engineer for around 5 years in process industry /Engineering consulting firm. Then i moved to IT and worked in different areas like develpment, processes, testing.
Perhaps my engineering experience in the background helped me immenselyin understanding the nuances of Software " Engineering" and i realized/conceived the ideas of Software " Engineering" was a kind of adoption of Manufacturing Principles...interms of traceability, configuration management, coding standards ,metrics, progress and status reports ,risks and risk mitigations etc.
I beleive diversified background would have helpmed me in understanding the whole gamut of software engineering and project management.
I strongly beleive that a construction Manager can hadnle IT projects succesfully.
With basic knowledge of IT , definitely an IT project can be managed.
I beleive, all the processes are derivied from Manufacturing /Mechanical engineering.
With that said, i worked earlier for around 5 years in Construction projects and when i moved to IT and when became PM, it was very easy for me to manage team/s and projects.
For example- COnfiguration Managment in IT exactly similar to ENgineering drwaings released for constrcution/ design etc. The nomenclatures, naming conventions has great resemblance!!!.
I think, it is not onluy very easy but better managing can be done, if the PM has and engineering background with Construction experience.
At one of the companies for which I have worked there was a lady project manager that was managing telecom IT projects. I think she was a contractor as well and not a permanent employee, but this does not matter too much.
The idea is that the lady started her career as a secretary, then became and executive assistant then a project coordinator and finally a project manager. Although she was neither a construction engineer nor a IT/telecom engineer she had managed constructions projects before moving to IT projects.
She was not involved at all in the technical aspects of the work performed by the telecom engineers and technicians but nonetheless she was doing her job very well and helped the team to deliver. While she was not able to understand what exactly the technical experts were doing she did understand what they have to deliver.
I think when a PM moves from one industry to another there are just a few basic things that he/she needs to learn about the new domain but if the PM is not the best technical expert on the team then he/she will not be able to influence too much the work of the team. Saving Changes...
I strongly beleive that a construction Manager can hadnle IT projects succesfully.
With basic knowledge of IT , definitely an IT project can be managed.
I beleive, all the processes are derivied from Manufacturing /Mechanical engineering.
With that said, i worked earlier for around 5 years in Construction projects and when i moved to IT and when became PM, it was very easy for me to manage team/s and projects.
For example- COnfiguration Managment in IT exactly similar to ENgineering drwaings released for constrcution/ design etc. The nomenclatures, naming conventions has great resemblance!!!.
I think, it is not onluy very easy but better managing can be done, if the PM has and engineering background with Construction experience.
Hi Adrian,
I agree with you. I started my career in projects being a mechanical engineer for around 5 years in process industry /Engineering consulting firm. Then i moved to IT and worked in different areas like develpment, processes, testing.
Perhaps my engineering experience in the background helped me immenselyin understanding the nuances of Software " Engineering" and i realized/conceived the ideas of Software " Engineering" was a kind of adoption of Manufacturing Principles...interms of traceability, configuration management, coding standards ,metrics, progress and status reports ,risks and risk mitigations etc.
I beleive diversified background would have helpmed me in understanding the whole gamut of software engineering and project management. Saving Changes...
