I currently "manage" what would have to be classified as very small software developement projects. 1 analyst, usually me, 1 or 2 developers a tester and working very closely with analysts and end users at client sites. I track the progress on baselined project plans, liase constantly with customers, monitor requirements, design solutions, lead small team meetings and so on.
The company I work for is paying quite a bit of attention to process improvement and project management, however due to some substantial structural changes in the company, merges etc, I do not have a formal job description as yet. This is because I originally worked at a very small company where "we all did everything" and we were taken over by the current company. I am seeing this as a good thing and grabbing opportunities to learn new things and new ways.
Should my career not work out at this company however I would be very hesitant to put myself on the market as a project manager because I have no formal acknowledgement that this is my role and lack confidence that what I am doing would be seen by other prospetive employers as fully fledged PM.
What sort of things should I be doing to ensure that my claim to have PM experience is in fact true, and that experience is worthwhile? Saving Changes...
What did I tell you? Gather facts, then talk. I'll keep warning you as long as you keep repeating the same b.s. You don't have any right to bash hard working professionals that deserve everything they have. In fact, you don't even have the right to post to this board because you are not mature enough to even discuss without attacking others. Saving Changes...
Professionals use their real names when they post. Again, H1Bs have displaced 1000s of hard working Americans, leaving some homeless. In America, you don't warn someone for exercising their 1st amendment rights.
Are you going to have me arrested? Be my guess!!! Saving Changes...
Anonymous
I choose not to use my name. Land of the free, remember? AFAIK, 1st amendment does not let you attack others, free doesn't mean offensive, your freedom ends where mine starts and vice versa. Let me guess, you gather with your "red blooded american" (funny I work with a few and they are very different from you) jobless friends and burn crosses and chase foreign workers at nights when you are not busy attacking them on discussion boards, right? And you do all that to exercise your 1st amendment rights, of course.
Continue ignoring the fact that legal workers did not steal jobs, the US economy has went through some major downturn. It affected everyone, including the ones you attacked. I'll enjoy mocking your pathetic posts as long as you keep it coming, that is why I warned you. Saving Changes...
"Land of the free" does not mean you if you are a H1B. That's because you are a guest worker and don't have any rights to speak of. To get to immigrant status, you'll need to get a green card.
Saving Changes...
Anonymous
All men are created equal - Declaration of Independence.
I'm really amazed at your understanding of freedom. (Actually, not) - Thanks for the advice though, you should become an immigration lawyer. Saving Changes...
So I see some pre-Independence Day fireworks. Congratulations! You live where you can agree to disagree and hopefully will survive the night because you disagree. ... but to get this back to topic, the question was, is there a PM career path?
My answer is: yes and no. Yes in a firm who does projects for clients, no in a firm where projects are part of daily operations. I work in the latter and projects are about half my work. Doesn't mean the skill isn't very valuable on the business side -- as a matter of fact it makes a manager more effective.
Happy Independence Day t all.
Rita Saving Changes...
Andy JordanPresident| Roffensian Consulting S.A.Cherry Grove, AB, Canada
I agree Rita, in fact I would argue that in many ways project management is one of the best ways to improve management skills - a PM is effectively managing the business in microcosm.
Think of a project almost as a self contained business unit (in terms of management needs, not organizational structure).
I think that ultimately most PMs will want to move beyond the discipline - the danger otherwise is that you do the same thing with bigger numbers; but the good news is that a PM role is a wonderful 'hub' from which a career can go in many different directions. Saving Changes...
Anonymous
I am month late on this topic, but then i just joined gh. PM course gives good management skills I agree, but does an individual personality come into play? I strongly believe it does. You may be good academically but unless you can express it, its a waste. I am not a PM but in a qa lead role and would love to grow into a PM role. Saving Changes...
Anonymous
To whom it may concern
My name is Bungane Sipamla and I am a second year IT student currently studying at the Tshwane University of Technology. I am specialising in the field of Business Applications. We received an assignment for one of our subjects where we had to find out what roles project managers play within the corporation.
If it were possible could you kindly give me any information about:
- what kind of tasks project managers undertake on a daily basis
- What is the average project scope in terms of funding that a project manager gets to work with on an average project
- what the average salary is for a project manager
- what kind of hours they work
- how much travelling they have to do on a monthly basis
It would be much appreciated if you could send me anything, absolutely anything on the topic at hand.
Hi Bungane: Some where in this thread the role of a PM was mentioned and a very good point raised was that the PM can be of 2 types. Basically one who work as a consultant on a project and manage it to its completion and the other tpye is within a company PMs' who manage daily/monthly/quaterly projects. I can talk from exp about the later. PMs' within a company specially software since i am in that field manage product releases for the software. They coordinate with the business folks to gather requirements, touch base with development team on development estimation and with qa team for their testing timeline. The final leg is the estimation on product implementation. After gathering all this, they put them in a PM chart with dependables etc and you get a project plan. In a nut shell this is it. On a day to day basis, tp put is simplistically, they follow up on their projcet plans. Are targets being met, does the Plan needs to be revised etc etc.
Well my 2 cents;) hope it helps. Saving Changes...
