I work for a large financial services company, as a business project manager. Rather than working directly with IT staff, I'm alligned with operations people such as underwriters, customer service reps, marketing and training resources, etc. This is a new role for me because for the previous 8 years I've been an IT project manager. Can anyone comment on if this is a growing (or even existing) PM career track within their companies? Do your PM's have industry specific knowledge, or do you trust that a good PM can aquire the business knowledge? Saving Changes...
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Anonymous
I've been a business PM for many years now. It is important to understand the technical side so that your translation to the business is understood and they can determine impacts and if needed, further requirements. If you have identified each of your stakeholders, perhaps meet with them one on one to understand what is important to them, what has impacted them in the past from other projects and what they are sensitive to when it comes to changes in their areas. Saving Changes...
I've worked for several companies within the past seven years where they have PMs on both the business and IT side. Many times this has grown out of a disconnect between IT and business in the past. Business didn't feel like the IT PM had the business' best interest at heart and so the business unit creates PM positions. It can be kind of complex to work together and define specific responsibilities when a business PM and IT PM work on the same project. I've never really seen the added benefit of having the business PM position because in my experience the IT PM does the bulk of the work, only going to the business PM when needing help getting business resources (SMEs, etc). However, I've also noticed that the business PMs get paid much less than IT PMs. As to your question about industry specific knowledge - I think this depends greatly on who is doing the hiring. In my experience, hiring managers that understand what true project managers can do, don't seem to care whether you have industry experience or not. Hiring managers that are new to the Project Management world tend to want only PMs that have industry specific experience. Hope this helps. Saving Changes...
Bipin Lekshmanan PMPProject Manager| Wipro TechnologiesEdison, Nj, United States
Great post!
Anonymous, in my opinion, this is the time where more is expected out of every manager and your stint as a business PM will give you a great exposure to the business view point of things. I have seen the disconnect between business PMs and IT PMs about resolving issues and going forward because they both have different priorities. With your background in IT, you'll understand the IT landscape and will be able to assimilate both IT and business perspectives together.
Being an IT PM, you have to be logical and rational in weighing different options and surging ahead. I am confident that you can leverage the same skillsets in your new role- eventhough it's a different dimension. You are going to be hot in the new landscape of business as somebody who can understand both business and IT perspectives. I know about many guys who have succeeded as business managers after doing IT management. I believe that you are on the right track. Saving Changes...
Anonymous
IT project manager usually manages projects based on business needs. So, even if you are an IT PM, you still need to understand the business you serve. If you are in a projectized company, you might grow from project manager to senior project manager where you manage larger projects, and then you might become program manager managing multiple projects at the same time. After that, you might become a director.
As a Buiness PM, do you actually manage projects or did you become more of a Line of Business manager?
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Andy JordanPresident| Roffensian Consulting S.A.Cherry Grove, AB, Canada
I really think that project management is a discipline itself. In fact I would argue that you have to be a capable generalist to be successful in project management because a project is essentially a business in microcosm. That doesn't mean that you can't be successful with business specific knowledge, but you need to be able to see beyond it to focus on the managemennt elements. Too often when I have been asked to be an industry / subject matter expert it is because of shortcomings elsewhere on the team. My business now is almost exlusively on the business side, often with projects that don't have IT elements, but I am clearly stil project focused rather than operations. I'm not sure that the same could be said pre Y2K, but there really has been a shift towards business driving IT inititatives in the last few years. Andy Jordan, President, Roffensian Consulting. www.roffensian.com Saving Changes...
Bipin Lekshmanan PMPProject Manager| Wipro TechnologiesEdison, Nj, United States
I love your post! One question though: do you think the focus on projects differ considerably from the focus on operations?
In an IT scenario, if I have xyz IT program sprad through the years in baseline mode, and then sometimes some investment projects associated with it, I am still thinking about projects that constitute my operations job. The work is classified in terms of projects for administrative needs based on the organizational model- right? what are your thoughts? Saving Changes...
Andy JordanPresident| Roffensian Consulting S.A.Cherry Grove, AB, Canada
I think that the focus should differ, though often it doesn't. I see the two elements as being distinctly different - operations are focused on running the business on a day to day basis, while projects should be focused on a fundamental baseline shift from current state to future state. There clearly is some grey area - if you have an initiative to improve operations processes then it likely meets the pure definition of a project, but if it is just a slow evolution then it is likely to be handled as part of operations. I think that there is a danger in seeing a program as operational just because it persists for multiple years - it should still not be confused with operations and if it is then I suggest that there may be an issue. Andy Jordan, President, Roffensian Consulting. www.roffensian.com Saving Changes...
Bipin Lekshmanan PMPProject Manager| Wipro TechnologiesEdison, Nj, United States
may be, you are right! that's a good point. Saving Changes...
Bipin Lekshmanan PMPProject Manager| Wipro TechnologiesEdison, Nj, United States
Yes, I can think about the entire IT function as an operation rather than a project spread across multiple years. Saving Changes...
Bipin Lekshmanan PMPProject Manager| Wipro TechnologiesEdison, Nj, United States
