Back in the good old days before software defined networking really took off, it was (relatively) easy to deliver an infrastructure project!! All you had to do (!!) was go visit the data hall to look at the servers and switches, watch the DBA deploy a bunch of databases, the support guys configure a bunch of apps and the network guys configure the firewalls and deploy a few mpls circuits, and you could tell fairly easily what was going on. Nowadays though, whilst 'bare metal' is still of course needed for the infrastructure layer, the rest of the stack is managed by software and lines of code! Unless PMs adapt therefore to move with the times, we run the risk of being analogue players in a digital age (to quote Eddie Izzard in Oceans 13!!)
Hence, to become an effective PM in the SDN age I would argue that a PM needs to reinvent him or herself to understand things like containers, python, openstack, orchestration tools, and so on. In other words, become DevOps friendly. Understanding them is one thing, having played with and deployed clouds on your own laptop, that is something else. Having that hands on experience to know what to do when deploying a Cloud, makes it easier to manage the engineers doing the work and therefore makes you as a PM more efficient, effective and ultimately more productive. Trying to manage an SDN infrastructure project in the same way as you used to manage a legacy infrastructure project is ultimately, and unfortunately, a losing battle. Believe me, I've tried!!!
Interested in peoples experiences of this and any stories of PMs who have had to transition from delivering legacy infrastructure projects, to delivering SDN infrastructure projects. How did you adapt, what new skills did you have to take on board, etc. Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
Nothing new down the sun. Is the same than allways if and only if you really work as a project manager. You have to take knowledge about everything needed to work into each initiative but you do not need to be a subject matter expert. The situation you describe to move from different infraestructure paradigma is what I live in the last years. And believe me, nothing new down the sun. Saving Changes...
