I recently had an IT Project Manager share that they'd like to start taking technical courses to become a technical PM. All of the technical PMs I've met have gone from technical to project management, and not the reverse.
What are your thoughts on this? Is either direction viable, or is this a career path less travelled?
Edit: Please note that the essence of this thread assumes there is such a role as technical project manager, and is to solicit input on career path direction, specifically. Technical to PM, or PM to Technical. Which is the natural progression for companies that have Technical PMs, and is either path a viable option? In my experience it's only from Technical to PM, and not the reverse. Saving Changes...
John Caron, MBA, PMP, CSMVP - Technology Project Solutions Consultant| Bank of AmericaJacksonville, Fl, United States
In the companies I have worked, the title TPM has been used loosely. The TPM did not hold the true technical knowledge of others that are truly proficient in technology (SME's) and I have also heard Sr Managers indicate "Technology changes daily, its impossible to remain abreast to all technological changes as a PM" for which I disagree. In my opinion, its ideal to have a base knowledge of "technology" and perhaps best answered if you understand ~ 98% of all technical terms tossed around in your meetings. I do believe "technical" project manager is a liberal term in some, not all arenas. Saving Changes...
Gregorio TorreEngineering Program Manager| Motorola SolutionsSingapore, Singapore
For some companies, when dealing with large or complex projects, they would employ a PM and one or more Engineering Project Manager (EPM), which is also another term for technical PM. The PM handles the project overall, manages resources and budget, while the EPM handles technical or engineering issues and ensures the project is within the technical scope so he must have the technical expertise to do the job effectively.
Some PMs started their jobs as project engineers, then can be promoted EPMs and later on may take on the role of the PM, based on their leadership qualities and other aspects that can make them an effective PM. Some will transition from engineer to PM directly. When you become a PM, you would normally lose some of your technical expertise as they become less of a priority to update them. Later on in his career, some people would still crave for the technical expertise they used to have and would want to balance, the technical and project management roles. One way to do this is take on the EPM role. With this he fulfills his passion and nurtures his leadership. He can very well take on small projects as PM without requiring a technical expert as both roles can be handled by him. This provides flexibility for companies with matrix organization and added fulfillment to an individual who by profession are engineers.
Career-wise, the engineer can find a better fit in this role and would not lose the "technical" passion that is flowing thru their veins, so to speak. The company in turn provides a career path that could be similar to a PM. Saving Changes...
As per me, the position of "Technical PM", is situational and market need based. During economic slowdown, specially in Service based IT companies, they try to utilize their resources at best possible way. In such situation, if they get a PM who is technically sound, then it eliminates the cost of a "Technical Architect", thus money saved. In other words, the "Technical PM" position is driven based on market need. For individual career growth, I always believe that being best what you do, gives value to your employer as well as to your's career. If you try to be on two boat, then professional life may not be as satisfied as you want to be.
On the point, that " as Pure PM, you need to trust your Team", I would like to say that whether you are a Technical PM or Pure PM, this is very basic that you need to trust your team, If you do no trust them, then you probably would not get best output from them. Saving Changes...
Bruce A HayesProject Manager, Scrum Master, Product Owner, and freelance Trainer.| Available to partner with you. Let's review your needs to see if we are
a match.Fort Wayne, IN, United States
As an IT PM, I am not familiar with the Technical PM. I rely heavily upon my technical Lead to ensure we have a coordinated and technically sound solution. The PM should not have to be a SME in the project being lead but the more the PM understands about the details of the project, the less time the team will need to spend educating the PM about issues or the impact of potential risks.
We bring process and control to the table. When a PM is a SME, they still need to defer to the project team member responsible for the work to make a decision or provide information.
The PM needs to lead their team, and not overstep the boundaries of their role just because they happen to be a SME (unless their role was defined as having the dual purpose). Saving Changes...
While browsing for project management materials I found one in which the problem of the so called technical project manager was addressed. The book is named “Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling” by Harold R. Kerzner. I am not sure if I can paste parts of the book here (I found it on docs.google.com) so I am just going to explain what is at Chapter 3.8.
At this chapter the author compares strong and weak matrix organizations. He says that the most common difference between the two is given by the technical abilities of the project manager. If the project manager is a technical expert, then he will be allowed to give technical direction to the team members and as such a strong matrix will result.
Also according to the author in order to set up a strong matrix organization the project manager has to be promoted from among subject matter experts and he will have more authority over the team members than a project manager from a weak matrix organization.
The author also says that in a strong matrix the team members will seek solution for their problems primarily from their project manager while in a weak matrix primarily from their line manager.
If we agreed with the author, and I do, then the conclusion would be that a company that has project managers that are not also technical experts will be limited on implementing just a weak matrix structure as the project managers wouldn’t have the competence needed for leading the project team members. This is something that I’ve noticed in all the projects in which I have worked and that is the project managers were unable to give us direction or guidance and they had absolutely no idea about what we were actually doing, they only knew what we were supposed to deliver.
In conclusion while many if not most of the IT project managers are not required to dig into the technical details of their projects this characteristic severely limits their ability to control the project and exercise authority over the project team members. Saving Changes...
Stéphane ParentSelf Employed / Semi-retired| Leader MakerPrince Edward Island, Canada
I have been been a technical PM for most of my career. I used to swing from technical positions (analyst, administrator, trainer) to management (unit manager, business manager) until I settled for a happy medium. Being a technical PM is the perfect bridge. The trick is in balancing your development efforts between the two tracks. (Technology tends to be driven by hot topics while management is more driven by trends.)
As you may surmise from my answer so far, I don't feel there is any "one-way" path during your career. I know a unit manager who left for a business analyst position. He loves his new job.
I constantly remind myself that my growth and learning should be eccentric rather than concentric. Saving Changes...
Stephanie GrahamVP of Strategy| BankOnITOklahoma City, Ok, United States
I do not feel there is a one-path is better direction. I do feel that if working with technology that it is good to have a general understanding of the technology. It makes giving status updates and directing team members a little easier, in my opinion. Or in catching things if a team member is going down a path they shouldn't or one that is questionable.
I worked in the technical field before being asked if I would try PM. That route has helped me in developing WBS and templates for the company I work with - (due to not being large enough to have full project team members to dedicate to planning and such.)
As we have grown, we have hired some Project Managers in who have not had a technical background though and they still do very well in our environment. They are working on getting a few Comptia certifications, just to build their knowledge of hardware and computer basics because they feel they would understand things better as described from the technical team working on the project tasks. But again, they do very well! (plus I get to pull from them on PM Skills as they pull from me on technical terminology and setup, Bonus ;) )
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1 reply by Michelle Daigle
Jul 14, 2016 5:24 AM
Michelle Daigle
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Thank you for the thoughtful response Stephanie. I'm going to remember the idea of the Comptia certs as a good foundation of the basics.
I do not feel there is a one-path is better direction. I do feel that if working with technology that it is good to have a general understanding of the technology. It makes giving status updates and directing team members a little easier, in my opinion. Or in catching things if a team member is going down a path they shouldn't or one that is questionable.
I worked in the technical field before being asked if I would try PM. That route has helped me in developing WBS and templates for the company I work with - (due to not being large enough to have full project team members to dedicate to planning and such.)
As we have grown, we have hired some Project Managers in who have not had a technical background though and they still do very well in our environment. They are working on getting a few Comptia certifications, just to build their knowledge of hardware and computer basics because they feel they would understand things better as described from the technical team working on the project tasks. But again, they do very well! (plus I get to pull from them on PM Skills as they pull from me on technical terminology and setup, Bonus ;) )
Thank you for the thoughtful response Stephanie. I'm going to remember the idea of the Comptia certs as a good foundation of the basics. Saving Changes...
Grace TangCybersecurity Program Manager| LegrandProvo, UT, United States
I know a lot of companies who are looking for Technical PM expect their candidates to have technical background with project management experience. When I was studying for my PMP, almost all of my study-mates have technical background who wanted or asked by their employers to pursue PMP so that can assume a leading role at their current job.
From my personal experience, being a PM does not require technical skills, my former boss needs a PM to lead a team, all the technical aspects are managed by the engineers. I learned about the technical/engineering stuffs while working as a PM there.
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1 reply by Adrian Carlogea
Jul 14, 2016 5:38 PM
Adrian Carlogea
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In my opinion leading a team that performs a certain work also involves taking decisions of technical nature. If you don't have a technical background or your technical abilities are not as good as other team members then you will never be able to provide full leadership to the team.
If you are working on building the products or the services that are going to be delivered by a project then you will not care too much about project management related issues but instead your main concern will be the technical aspects of the work. Team members expect their leaders to guide them in their actual work something that PMs without a technical background can't do.
In conclusion a project manager with no technical background will only be able to lead or manage a team to a limited extent and many aspects of the project are going to be managed by other people (technical leads, team lead, technical managers).
The above situation however, at least in the IT industry, doesn't seem to be an anomaly but rather the general rule.
Long time ago, many construction companies used to assign roles of project managers to managers who had general management skills and knew very well the organizational culture and structure. Now, I believe no construction companies do. All project managers should have adequate technical experience and knowledge to manage construction projects whether they are PMPs or not. Both concepts of "technical" and "project management" can be supportive and interactive practically in every domain in which project is executed. The separate definitions for both concepts might be a start point to fill the gaps for these critical skills or capabilities for the success of the project. Saving Changes...
