You are right also.

The role of the PM is to manage the project and ensure the project is inline with the Scope, Cost, Quality and Time attributes.

As per the PMBOK and my personal experiences this is true. The PM is also representative of the team and has role to mentor the team. Find right people to do the job on the key tasks.

Despite understanding these PMI principles may be due to nature of clients I deal with, I am ending up doing more technical/architectural work and functional discussions then project management.

Many PMI practices we can follow in India when you work as PM but when you deal with client onsite in USA, the expectations of the client to manage the project technically is higher.

Thanks for sharing your views.

I really appreciate your interest and willingness to contribute in constructive discussions on project management.

Please be in touch.

- Sam

Thanks for the detailed answer.

I would just like to emphasize that I never said that PM should not understand the product or service… in fact, more the understanding, the better.

My point is: PM must be able to answer to “what” however; he does not need to precisely know the “how” of it.

In the above AJAX example you furnished, PM has to understand what AJAX can do and what it cannot. He should be able to answer that AJAX works with specific technology or browser – but it is fine if he doesn’t know how to write code to make sure that AJAX works with that specific browser – he can rely on team for that.

I respect your views and agree that having technical insights will help in several situations and companies… however it should be sufficient for the PM to be an inch deep and a mile wide in terms of technological knowledge – what say?

Regards,
Utpal

I am Certified PMP since last 3 years and worked as PM for more than 5 years. So I understand the intent of PMI.

PMI distinguish different roles but in real life scenario it is hard for company to give specific role only to manage Microsoft Project and speak with different stakeholders making notes and then calling meetings.

It is also true that without having detail understanding still a project can be managed by PMI certified professional. I do not argue on this.

I am also Certified Java Architect (SCEA) and deal with all technology issues by own in the project along with key technical people. So it may be possible that my views are based on my experience on how I handle my work.

PMI recommends developing technical and functional understanding for the PM to manage the project effectively. Times estimates are given by technical teams are filled with buffer. If PM add their buffer on top of the buffer added by the technical team, the final estimates to the client looks sometime stupid.

So my conclusion is this. PM should not micro manage the work done by team leaders or other people but the role of PM should be able to make the right decisions effectively without calling for meetings on issues.

For example, during a conversation with the client stakeholders if the PM does not understand how AJAX works properly with specific technology or browser and just note the point, it waste the time of people in the system.
I have been working with many architects and developers in the USA since 7-8 years. They did not like to talk with so called TYPICAL project manager on the functional/technical issues.

If we have a PM who understands the technology and manage the project with PMI suggested processes, it is likely that the project will attend the objectives in timely manger (Quality, Cost and Time).

These are just my views and may be biased on the type of work I am doing and clients I have work with but It is better to be technical along with managerial to attend the project objectives effectively.

Please feel free to share your opinion on this.

- Sam

Thanks for taking time for reading this post and commenting.

In some organizations, A Technology PM is expected to take on various roles which sometimes include technical activities like:

- System Architecture design
- Database Design
- Technology Identification
- Etc.

However, there is a very specific distinction between “managing projects” and “technically performing a role” such as acting as a “system analyst” (technical resource).

To give confidence to the development team (and the client as well), PM has to exhibit leadership ability. (Leadership means ability to influence people; nothing more, nothing less.) When the team is influenced by the project manager’s leadership virtues, they will experience faith in him.

If PM chooses to answer the requirement feasibility while in the discussion then it would be a kind of reactive action. As a good project management practice, any requirement should be agreed upon or rejected after giving a reasonable thought and performing some analysis. It should not be answered promptly just to impress the client (just to justify how technical the PM is) as it ultimately effects the overall business relationship at large.

It is true that there are many stakeholders involved in decision making during different phases of project. Now the question is, apart from the technical team, how many of the stakeholders will be able to understand “technical” language? Obviously they are in one or the other way business-people and PM has to have the ability to communicate the business language.

PM’s job is to see:

- that effective technology selection is made; not to do the technology selection himself,
- to ensure that deployment issues are taken care of; not to do the deployment himself,
- Make sure that performance issues are properly dealt with; not to do the performance enhancement himself.

Agree?

Here is the point I totally agree with – that PM should not micro-manage the work. Nonetheless, PM has to have good product or service knowledge under which the project is being executed or supposed to be executed.

With that said, I would like to address one point here. PM is not a person but a role. The person who is performing the role of PM can perform any technical role he wants to. But in the mixture of such roles, his responsibility gets double as he has to make sure that both the roles are justified. Many non-standard organizations do not understand it (or do not want to understand it!) and expects the PM to perform many roles and still operates.

If being Technical is the prime expectation for the PM activities, then PMI have had kept that in their courseware and Project Manager’s title might include the word “Technology”

Please feel free to enlighten me on this subject with more insights.

Regards,
Utpal

I believe if the PM is technical, it gives him the EXPERT power to influence the team to provide him with reasonable time estimates, avoids un-necessary discussions between developers, developers makes no no execuses when their module is delayed etc.

Apart from this, the development team feel confident when the technical PM talks with client on requirements as in the discussion itself, if some requirement is not technical feasible, it will be addressed at that moment.

There are many stakeholders involved in decision making during different phases of project. If the PM is technical, he can talk with different people on technology selection, deployment issues, performance issues, etc.

I do not believe for the PM to micro-manage work of the developers. The PM should have clear understanding on how the underlying selected technology works in the project and issues involved in it.

I am open for discussion on this.

I’ll let you know once I write about managerial skills.

Regards,
Utpal