What’s the point of project managers?
Seriously, what’s the point? Note that I’m not asking what the point of project management is – any project needs project management of some sort. But what is the point of having a dedicated project manager?
Think about it. What if you just gave, for example, your lead programmer enough time to do some project management as well as coding? Wouldn’t that work just as well? After all, he’d be closer to the work, he’d have a good idea of how well it was progressing, and he’d know exactly what technical difficulties are cropping up – and how tough they are to solve.
Or what about an infrastructure upgrade. Why not trust the ICT manager to handle the negotiations with suppliers, and chase them up to ensure delivery? Couldn’t she better allocate work to her team than a project manager?
There’s actually a lot of sense in this view. Detailed knowledge of the subject of the project can be a great advantage, and naturally the people doing the work have a lot of this knowledge! If they can be given the time and training in project management, why not do this?
Now, naturally as a project manager I am not fully convinced by this argument! But this means I believe project managers provide benefits above and beyond what a subject matter expert could. I can think of a few, but I’m interested to hear what you think. So, how about it? What do full-time project managers provide to a project that a part-timer can’t?
project management, project management blog | Trevor Roberts | July 24, 2009
Scattered bright and colorful peebles do not create a mosaic.
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What you describe seems to be team managers, and is kind of the point of Project Management – you delegate and keep control. One area can affect another area, and somebody needs to make sure the whole is managed rather than just the sum of its parts. In PRINCE2 terms what you’re talking about is simply allocating work packages, surely.
This a very interesting point albeit tongue in cheek. Mike N is correct of course. The role you describe is focussed on one particular work package – to use a PRINCE2 term. The project manager is like the conductor in the orchestra who Directs the whole ensemble. The individual work package owners or team leaders are unable to see the whole because they need to be focussed on the detail of one particular area. The Project Manager on the other hand is the glue that holds it all together.
I hope this is OK as a starter for 10.
When I first started in industry 20+ years I was a software engineer. I became a very competent engineer and then decided to make the transition to project management. Did I project manage my first assignments? No – as I was too competent in the detail and not competent enough in project management.
It was only when I was able to delegate and empower my team(s) was I able to learn how to become a competent project manager. I have been managing projects for 15+ years now.
A large number of people who have ‘project manager’in their job title are content specialists and have been promoted to be project managers, but they are not project managers in the sense they have PM skills and competences.
Of the number of projects that fail each year I would be interested to know how many are managed by content specialists and project managers – and would the definition of success / fail be different? A major competence of project management is stakeholder management, so a good content specialist with good stakeholder skills could be perceived as a ‘goog’project manager?
I have debated this point with a number of content specialists and they would freely admit they don’t have project management skills to the level of a competent project manager. I would also say a number of project managers do not have what I would call a high-competence level in the finer project management skills. As a project management consultant I am expected to know the latest fads and the finer skills of being a project manager plus also understanding what skills to use when and where in order to deliver.
An intersting debate. There is a clear need for seperation between content and project management but what level of competence should a project manager have? In some organisations having a high-level of project management competence can be a disadvantage as others may find it intimidating….
Chris
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