I am a brand new member in search of some specific advice. This forum seems to be very active, so I thought of taking advantage of it. Thanks in advance in taking time to read my post and offer any suggestions.
I have been in the IT industry for about 10 yrs. I have been a IT consultant for number of years in variety of industry and mostly in the capacity of senior developer/lead developer. 2 years back I have taken up a full-time position in Finance industry as a Lead developer. In my current job along with coding, I do a lot of Proj Mgmt work too.
Recently, I have interviewed for 2 different positions within my company. One is titled as Project Manager. But there would not be anybody reporting to me. It is a position directly working with AVP and a highly visible job. It is mainly to enforce Roadmap strategies across the enterprise, i.e. working with many PMs and giving presentations to promote using a standard roadmap for the projects.
Another is a Project Manager for a PeopleSoft project. This position has a team in place and some of the team members are remote. But the flip-side is I have absolutely no people-soft experience.
Now, the killer question is, considering that I am fairly new to Project management role, which of these jobs is a favorable for me in order to move into Project management direction? I have finished the interview for first job and I have a great feeling about it. I am giving the interview for the second job tomorrow. I would highly appreciate any of your inputs or suggestions. Thanks Saving Changes...
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Anonymous
My opinion is that you should take the position/project which will offer you most exposure to project management. Project Management is more than teaching a methodology. When managing a team you need understand team chemistry, defining requirements, managing risk and establishing contingencies, managing change, managing people, managing budgets etc. My advice based on what you stated is that you should take the PeopleSoft project given the fact you have a mentor (with PM experience) to guide you through the process if you have questions. Also, make sure the technical people are available to give you an overview and good understanding of the technical architecture. Having a technical understanding is important and you should take the time to learn this from a high level. It is also important to have a good functional understanding of the product/s. Make sure you engage yourself with all members of the team both on the business side and technical side. Understand the project goals and objectives. The team will appreciate the fact that you are a good listener. Make sure you develop an organizational structure so you can define roles and responsibilities and to discuss and determine how decisions are to be made. From my perspective the PeopleSoft project will be very challenging but offer you the most opportunity. Mistakes will be made but as long as you have a mentor to guide you this will help in the learning process.
Can I also lend my recommendation to the People Soft job. Ultimately the Roadmap project would be a great challenge, and many organisations are undertaking some form of Project Management Improvement.
But the role of Roadmap leader would normally require tangible experience and a high level of credibility in PM, with experience in various methodologies for comparison.
If you would like more information though on typical Roadmap strategies, based on my Australian experience, please contact me.
Regards
David Hudson Saving Changes...
Anonymous
Thanks for both of you who took the time to post replies.
Now, about the peoplesoft manager job, considering the fact that I would have no technical knowledge about people-soft, do you think I can command respect from the team? And have you or someone you know dealt with situations like this before?
I am just looking for more skills on my side to sell myself to this job. Any suggestions are highly appreciated.
One of the most active discussions in PM world currently is whether the PM needs to be a Subject Matter Expert (SME).
The feeling amongst most professionals is that one does not need to be, however the recruiters haven't got the message. It is a shame to see many strategic PM roles specified to the nth degree of technical skills.
A good project manager practices project management. This is very trainable skills as you are no doubt aware. My advice is to get training and accreditation in this field if you have not already done so.
Incidentally, what country are you currently in, as this will affect your choice of accreditation framework.
With good PM and good people skills, you can lead a technical team, using Technical Leads to assist you to manage sub teams. It is the Technical Leads that will deliver the widgets for you. In the new user-friendly world, Technical Leads will realise that they are not the PM and leave that part of the role to you. If not, a little piece of 'gentle' persuasion can help.
