Project Manager, Technical Lead or Both
While in my thinking room (the shower), I had a revelation. I have been trying to figure out why I keep seeing Project Manager positions being posted with very, very specific experience requirements. This is fairly specific to the software world (with some exceptions like federal contracting and nuclear) where the PM is expected to bring a very deep toolkit of experience to the project.
In my way of thinking and experience, I have often said that PM expertise is generally transferable between projects, technologies and domains. These specific experience job postings had me confused. My epiphany was that the software world has tended to combine two roles that you will find separated in other domains. Those are Project Manager and Technical Lead. In other domains, the Technical Lead is the person who defines the technical requirements for the project while the Project Manager “manages” the execution. These are two very clearly distinguished roles that are well understood in the more mature PM environments.
Just an epiphany that I wanted to share with everyone.
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The problem is worse than you think … many if not most software developers don’t make a clear distinction between software development and project management. Just look at all the articles on “Agile Project Management.” They’re not discussing project management practices; they’re discussing software development.
As to your epiphany … I’ve been ranting about this since about 1986 …
This is a fun topic so I’ll add my 2-cents.
Why would I want to hire a ‘general’ project manager when I can define exactly what is desired in a person to get the results I need? Not only technical knowledge and past project experience but other traits that will fit within the dynamics of my org/product/team? Good group managers should know what they need when they are making a hire. Furthermore I think (regardless of industry) the best managers typically are the ones who have actually worked themselves at one point the tasks they are managing (dev, qa, requirements writing, user guides/online help, training classes, UX studies, etc).
I do agree that the pm and tech lead need to have a great relationship where both have a good feel for the other. Their needs, general agreement on priorities, direction, process and tools…… in general, “have each other’s back”.
Matt – I agree that it doesn’t hurt to have specific experience and I am quite sure that it is a very good thing to have a good fit between a new hire and the organization. However, a Project Manager could never have expertise in all aspects of a project. One project that I managed had six different Engineering disciplines, training / documentation / technical writing, 12 different construction crafts and a huge interface with more than 400 production floor persons. Not a situation that one could cover all of the bases. A good Project Manager does need to have an appreciation for all of the areas of expertise but in the more classic environments that I experienced, the technical lead(s) bring the appropriate technical skills to the game. It is then the role of the Project Manager to manage, not to make technical decisions. It’s a very gray area and I agree that experience never hurts. However, when the requirements get so specific that there are only three people who can fill the position, the hiring manager should be using a head hunter rather than a generic job listing. Just my 2 cents worth. Thanks for your comment.
Agree with your response. I was thinking more in terms of the sub-project/individual contributor level. In your particular case I’m guessing there were multiple levels of project managers. I would guess that the PMs at the lowest level often did have experience with the day-to-day activities they were managing. As you work up the reporting chain, the emphasis with PMs becomes more mentoring and ‘managing the managers’. This would require a different set of skills as they are less hands-on with daily activities (in theory) and certainly cannot know the details of every sub-project/domain/construction crafts/etc.