Srinidhi Rao SGroup Manager| Robosoft Technologies Pvt. Ltd.Udupi, Karnataka, India
Hello All,
I have always received contraditing (rather debatable) answers on advantages/disadvanges of being a Project Manager who is technically knowledgeble. Project Manager with technology or rather programming background.
How does this fit in? Do you think that Technical expertise is going to help the Project Manager with the management or will it provide him the false assuarance that he is making right decisions (which should have been made with his technical experts involvement)?
Saving Changes...
Hello Tom Welch,
You are right. PM should have little technical knowledge. If a PM manages projects like C++/Java/Web, it is expected for him to know atleast the OOPS concept (if not the languages) and basics of Web/HTML.
In this case, the PM cannot clearly explain the detailed technical requirement for the task to the team member, so the PM has to depend a lot on the technical lead.
A technical expert with good communication skills, management skills (soft skills) and business knowledge will be the best PM.
You are right. Factors like poor performance of team member etc, leads to delay in the project! But it is the responsibility of the PM to ensure if the resource can be replaced or additional training can be provided to the team member for better performance etc... Saving Changes...
The reason you have teams is that one person can't know or do it all. You would never ask the manager of the NY Yankees to pitch the opening game of the world series would you??? So what you want is a solid PM with strong listening, leadership, and learning skills, yes the L words. Saving Changes...
This is a very interesting read. I am new to this site, so forgive me if I step on toes. There are some great posts, and I would like to reference two in particular.
Ed Womack's post is the beginning of a great answer to this question. ANY experience that you can apply to a project to help it to succeed is valuable, but only if you can apply it. Tom Welch’s post about what makes a strong PM should be taken to heart. It is important to rely on what is needed for a project to succeed on all levels (which includes but is not exclusive to technical)
It brings up an example that is near and dear to my heart; coaching. A great athlete does not always make a great coach. Some of the best coaches in the world were not the best athletes, but have a firm understanding of the game.
A great coach also possesses a much broader skill set, which allows them to get the most out of every player on the team, and not just the super stars. Their knowledge of the game may include a deep understanding of the fundamentals, but without the ability to effectively communicate it to a multitude of personalities, their knowledge is useless.
A great coach must also explain his intentions, plans, strategies, etc. to more than just his ‘technical team’. A great technical coach may never see the first game if she/he is unable to gain buy in from administration on his program. That same coach may lose a key member of the team if the playing time strategy for his players does not gain buy in from the parents of the players. That same coach may not keep the backing of his fan base if they are not able to articulate why they didn’t do well, or what the future holds in order for the team to become all that it can.
You can apply this analogy to virtually all aspects of your project, and the stakeholders that are involved. I can be a technical Neanderthal or a recovering DB Architect, but if I cannot apply my knowledge, execute my plan and properly articulate it to Development, Management and Customer it more than likely won’t matter.
To sum it up, use technical experience as much as you can to benefit your project, but don’t over value that experience so much that the other necessary skills a PM should have are ignored or underutilized.
Saving Changes...
George JucanManaging Partner| Organizational Perfomance Enablers NetworkWoodbridge, Ontario, Canada
Great post Erik! Only couple of additional thoughts that I’d like to add.
The “tech savvy” PM works for small projects, mostly IT, where the PM plays an “architect” role as well. As soon as you deal with larger teams where you have a full architectural complement (solution, application, information, technology and security being the mandatory ones) they are more than qualified to make the technical decisions. And when you reach 100+ people in the team it is absurd to imagine that the PM will even be aware of all the technical issues encountered throughout all the project tasks.
From a different perspective, let’s remember that a PM should be focused on the “what” is to be delivered, not on the “how” to create the deliverables. It is a totally different mentality, and to be an effective “what” person you have to trust your people with the “how” issue. In fact, if you don’t trust them enough to delegate the tasks realization why do you even have them in your team? They are specialists, let them do what they’re supposed to do and you (as a PM) do what you have to do – and you have enough on your plate to keep the project running smooth.
This being said, the domain specific knowledge (at general level) helps the communication with the project team and stakeholders. A very specific example is that you can “feel” when a team member tries to BS you, especially regarding time estimates. But from this to actively resolve technical project issues it’s a long way.
It just happens that I’m personally in the situation described. I was an IT architect for about 10 years, and a DBA before that. As an architect I simply dreaded the moments when a PM that had “technical skills” from 20 years ago was using his position to give me “directions” completely outdated compared with the current knowledge base in the industry. I maintained that feeling through the years, and now, as a PM, I avoid interfering in the solutions provided by my architects. The only time I actually use my technical background is to play an effective “devil’s advocate” role to make sure that the solution was thought of from all perspectives. But when it’s an area where I’m not familiar with I ask one of the architects or a senior developer to do that.
This is a longer post than I intended, so I will conclude stating that in my opinion it may be of certain help to have a technical background, but it is not mandatory by any means. As a PM, it is more important to have real PM skills (please refer to PMI’s Project Manager Competency Development Framework for a starting guide) than to be a “techie”.
Saving Changes...
Sandeep ThoppilChief Technology Officer| CBS BotswanaGaborone, South East, Botswana
When u consider a pm handling a larger team, we may find tech knowledge for a pm is not a must. But think about a situation where a pm need to negotiate on a bill or to completely rely on a techy person to estmate. I prefer a PM should update techy stuffs as much as possible, if not to the level of programming atleast what are these stuffs, how can it be used? and some known how.
More over such an idea can also help him talking to a techy person over the client side as well as to understand what kind of recourse can address the problem.
Where as a Non Techy PM will be more than just a Schedule Updating machine, meeting time lines and make his excel sheets perfect. Is it all a Software PM have to do? Saving Changes...
Hello Sandeep Srinivasan,
Thats true! A tech savy PM will also be able to identify if they can provide additional software service to their customer, offer they new solutions etc etc.. Thats when the PM moves up the ladded. Else PM should be managing 100s of people like a co-ordinator throught his life!! Saving Changes...
Srinidhi Rao SGroup Manager| Robosoft Technologies Pvt. Ltd.Udupi, Karnataka, India
Hello All,
Its been a very interesting discussion on the topic I posted. Lot of different views and inputs. Thanks you all.
I do beleive it is positive attribute for a PM to be tech savvy. Especially, for a small and medium sized team (where probably, there may not be a dedicated technical expert). Of course, it is not a replacement for Project Management expertise (which is a must).
Another opinion I heard is that a Project Manager can contribute to improve the customer relationship and looking for avenues to grow the engagement with customer better, than looking into the technical issues of the project. So the PM should be empowered to do that. (think one of the posts cover this to some extent)..
Saving Changes...
Jakob Veje HansenIT Project Management Consultant| Veje ConsultAarhus N, Denmark
Vivekanandan,
Ofcourse you are right. In the end, the team's performance is the responsibility of the PM. Thanks for reminding me :-) Saving Changes...
