Must Project Managers Be Technically Savvy?

"Must Project Managers be technically savvy?" This topic always seems to cause quite a stir. While some believe that all you need to manage a project is a PMP certification, others are convinced that you can't successfully manage a software development project unless you truly understand the intricacies of the product.

I agree! To be an effective Project Manager, you must know the ins and outs of your solution. You must be capable of designing and developing the solution yourself.

Here are 5 fundamental project management tasks that Project Managers can't accomplish unless they have a strong technical background and truly understand the particulars of their product.

Estimating Effort

In order to create a project plan, you must be able to estimate how much effort is required to complete all of the required tasks. Needless to say, you can't estimate effort unless you truly understand what's involved in designing and implementing those features.

Unless you understand what's required to reach 5-9 reliability, you can't assess how much effort is required to achieve this non-functional requirement. Unless you clearly understand how to write Java Server Pages, you can't predict how much development effort is required to transform an HTML prototype to set of fully functional JSP pages.

Scheduling Tasks

Imagine that someone hands you a list of activities that need to be completed for a given project, along with the overall effort. Could you schedule the tasks in a logical sequence? Should the developers start with the presentation, the business, or the data storage layer? Which comes first when working on a presentation layer: the HTML, the JavaScript, the CSS, or the servlets?

A Project Manager must be able to schedule activities in a logical sequence. If you can't determine which activities must come first and which ones can be done in parallel, you can't put together a project schedule.

Assessing Risk

Imagine the following scenario. Your product is scheduled to be released in 5 days. The QA team discovers a defect in the API through a series of CLI tests. After carefully examining the problem, you realize that you're developers have been working around this defect for months.

Given that you're only 5 days away from releasing your product, should you fix this defect or document the workaround? At this point in time, how risky is it to modify an API that's being used? How confident are you that the developer can fix this API in the given timeframe? What's the likelihood that changing this API will break the modules calling it? Should you fix the defect now, or release the product and address the bug in a patch release?

Unless you've seen the code behind this interface, you can't answer any of these questions yourself. You need to ask your developers. You're not the decision maker. They are.

Participating In Customer Meetings

Customer meetings always end up in technical discussions. Unfortunately, if you can't speak intelligently about your technology, you can't add any value to such meetings. You're not participating; you're strictly listening, and perhaps taking notes. Sooner or later, your customers will find themselves contacting your developers directly. "Why contact the Project Manager if he can't give me an answer? I may as well go straight to the source."

Ensuring Nothing Falls Through The Cracks

Let's face it. You never get as much time as you'd like to plan your projects. What's important is not that you get it perfect the first time around. What's important is that you can catch the tasks that fell through the cracks before it's too late.

If you don't know what's required to complete your solution, you won't be able to identify all the overlooked activities. They'll either be pointed out by your developers, or simply omitted forever.

In Short?

To be an effective Project Manager, you must be capable of designing and developing the solution yourself. Otherwise, you have two options. You can either (a) ask others to make decisions for you, or (b) simply pretend you know what you're talking about. In the first case, you're a Project Coordinator. In the second case, you're a Project Mangler.

Luc Richard holds an MBA with a major in high technology. For the past 10 years, he's been managing the development of software applications. He is the founder of The Project Mangler (http://www.projectmangler.com), an online resource that publishes free articles, stories, and other ready-to-use tools to help developers, team leaders and managers deliver software projects on time, according to specs, and within budget.

---

It?s Not All About Cheese: The Missing Component in Employee Development (Part 2)

In part one of this article I told you about... Read More

Improving Patient Sensitivity in Doctors and Hospital Staff

COMPANY/ORGANIZATIONA South Florida hospital. The CEO of the hospital saw... Read More

Making Change Work

Shaky FoundationsWhilst over 60% of businesses will be looking to... Read More

Delegation Obstructions

OBSTRUCTIONS: 1. Staff deficiencies. Lack of confidence in employees quite... Read More

How to Overcome Your Fear of Firing

OVERCOMING FEAR OF FIRING "It was obvious that this employee... Read More

Managing Performance: Don?t Let Slackers Bring Down Your ?A? Players

As a manager, it is your job to ensure that... Read More

He Hate Me: Turning Their Bad Attitude Into Your Great Results

"He Hate Me" was the nickname of Rod Smart, a... Read More

Satisfied Employees, A Powerful Marketing Strategy

Even in today's still uncertain economic times, there are companies... Read More

The Inferno of the Finance Director

Sometimes, I harbour a suspicion that Dante was a Financial... Read More

Travel the World - for Free!

I have been very fortunate to travel to several countries... Read More

How to do SWOT Analysis for your Business

SWOT analysis is needed for all business to understand how... Read More

The Do?s and Don?ts of Giving Feedback

Being able to give effective feedback is not just a... Read More

Relationship Building - 5 Tips and 5 Questions

And is isn't hard - it's more about focusing on... Read More

Making Assumptions - A Critical Communication Mistake In Business And In Your Personal Life!

We draw conclusions about people through observation, their behavior, past... Read More

Accountability Equals Meeting Success

Leslie was the new manager of the group. She was... Read More

CEOs Role in Family Business

I first met Roland (not his real name) in 1972.... Read More

The Rise of Corporate Chair Massages

Employers have rapidly begun to understand the importance of stress... Read More

Is Your Company in Need of Family Therapy?

How Companies Are Like FamiliesLike a family, a company is... Read More

Spinning Gold from Straw: Low-Cost Employee Retention and Motivation Tools in a Changing Economy

New York, NY, February 25, 2005 ? Employee retention and... Read More

Interviewing Applicants Can Be Hazardous to Your Wealth

1st Fact: Interviewing applicants is the most common way companies... Read More

Motivation - It Starts with Acknowledgement

Acknowledgement is about recognition or attention from another person. It... Read More

Procrastination and JDI!

In a management role procrastination can seriously hold back progress... Read More

Employee Motivation: Make Everyone A Cheerleader For Your Company

Do you manage by walking around? What do you see?... Read More

Do You Need a Personal Assistant?

It's great to be multi-skilled?be able to type your own... Read More

Middle Managers Behaving Badly ? How To Stop This Damaging Your Results

More and more I hear and read about a looming... Read More

Benefits of Virtual Assistance

A virtual assistant is an individual who provides business services... Read More

Organizational Culture and Creative Blocks ? the Similarities

Few Decision makers see the link between between creativity and... Read More

Knowledge Management - Capturing And Structuring Knowledge Into Reusable Assets

Many organizations have an approach for identifying and recording lessons... Read More

Avoid Outsourcing Pitfalls in the Injection Molds and Stamping Dies Markets

When looking to outsource overseas for Plastic Injection Molds or... Read More

Problem-Solving Success Tip: Use Your Time for Problems that are Truly Important

Use your time for problems that are truly important.Hard as... Read More

Tales From the Corporate Frontlines: Diversity in the Workplace: Ethnic Considerations

This article relates to the Diversity in the Workplace Competency,... Read More

The Paradox of Job Enrichment

Ellen was a clerk working for a large insurance company.... Read More

Effective Meetings Begin With a Real Agenda

Everyone knows that an agenda is the key to an... Read More