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Lyndon Smiling Program Manager| Lockheed Martin Corpus Christi, Tx, United States
I recently attended a local PMI chapter meeting that had a panel that was answering questions from the group. The local chapter is dominated by professionals from the oil and gas industry and the panel was comprised entirely of oil and gas project managers. One statement that was made by one of the panelist has stuck with me and I would like to get some other opinions on it. She said "to be a good project manager, the person must be an engineer or technical expert in the field, regardless of the field. In other words, a PM from the aerospace industry could never successfully manage an oil/gas project because they were not an oil/gas engineer or technical expert and vice versa."
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Lyndon Smiling Program Manager| Lockheed Martin Corpus Christi, Tx, United States
Oct 05, 2016 4:56 PM
Replying to Hartman Holliman
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Disagree! That's what separates a project manager from a business analyst. Having industry knowledge is certainly helpful and perhaps allows for some efficiency, but it is not required. Understanding processes, being able to facilitate conversations, and applying appropriate levels of rigor will get to the same end result.
I couldn't agree more. While I am managing projects in the Aerospace industry, I have no idea what is required to overhaul an aircraft. However, I know what is required to get the project done on time and on budget with regulatory required quality specs. I depend on my technicians for the technical info, my quality reps for the regulatory and FAA requirements and so on. Mostly I rely on the OPA and environmental factors to get the job done.
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Lyndon Smiling Program Manager| Lockheed Martin Corpus Christi, Tx, United States
Oct 09, 2016 4:41 PM
Replying to Adrian Carlogea
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I know that Sergio and others strongly disagree with me but I do agree with what that lady said. As PMs are responsible for the outcome of the project they must be able to take technical decisions regarding the project and not just "empower" others to take such decisions.

In real life some companies fully agree with Sergio and consider PMs to be professionals in the field of project management so they don't have to be SMEs as well. These companies consider PMs to be ordinary employees in the project management line of work and also have entry level PM positions.

Other companies however agree with that lady and the PMs are senior subject matter experts who are managing both the operational and the technical aspects of the projects. These companies usually don't have entry level PM positions.

I do agree that SME-PMs may focus too much on the technical side of the project and ignore the non-technical issues related to it, but professional PMs will have less control over the project than their SME colleagues.

Sorry Sergio, I fully understand and respect your opinion, but some organizations don't agree with you and consider that PMs must also be SMEs. On the other hand in almost all the projects on which I have worked (in IT) the PMs were not SMEs and they were doing what you believe a PM should do. :)
As a good PM, you should be able to take input from others (the Technical Experts) to make the decisions. This is the reason there is a "team" and not a single person who must know it all.
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Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
I personally fully agree with Adrian on this and my agreement is coming from my background in emgimeering amd large construction projects. It is not necessary to be an engineer but you should have the minimum technical expertise to handle large construction jobs besides management skills of course.
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Dr. Luis G. Morales, MA PMP, CSM, ITILv3 Lead Analyst, Cyber Privacy and Compliance| Genuine Parts Company (GPC) Greater Atlanta Metro Area (Sandy Springs, GA), United States
Whew, coming late to this discussion. I also have similar experiences with another professional society's local section being dominated by a singular workforce in the local area creating a singular mindset. PMBOK reminds us that a PM does not have to a technical expert. However, our employers have the option to recruit Technical PMs and write those requisitions with specific KSAs (knowledge, Skills, and Abilities) as tightly or loosely as they desire. I like to say, "If you want an expert, hire an expert!" Thus, I agree with Akshay and Sergio, the more a PM has some technical and domain knowledge, the more successful the PM will be integrating with functional members of the project. I do expect to receive some feedback on this post. Please share; thanks.
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Naomi Caietti Senior Project Manager | ePMO | Higher Education | Healthcare & IT| Linkedin.com/In/NaomiCaietti
Lyndon:
Your panel was probably picked for a reason for the respective audience. Her response was to the question was based on her experience for her audience so with this perspective she is sharing her knowledge as a panel expert for her field. Is this the standard answer, probably not but you really need core and technical skills along with key business acumen. The bonus for having the experience in the field when you walk in the door is that the ramp up time is minimal, swift trust can be earned faster and many times make the C-suite more comfortable with a large complex project that is high visibility.
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