Project Manager part 2
I have a friend who just gets promoted to software project manager. He is happy because after many years working as a programmer, finally he gets the position that he always wanted. However, he is worry because he does not receive any training and he asks for advice. This is what I write him:
As a project manager, your priority is to satisfy your customer's requirements and guide the project team to achieve success. Your new responsibilities include resolving problems and conflicts, setting goals and providing technical guidance when appropriate.
Since you have not received any training for the position, you may have some skill gaps in your new job. Your technical skill was probably a factor in your being selected for the management job but you'll need additional skills to be fully effective. Take an honest review of your strengths and weaknesses and make plans to improve any weaknesses.
You may need help at handling interpersonal relationships, resolving conflicts and prepare to deal with situations ranging from hiring and firing staff and negotiating with customers. As a project leader, you will be responsible for coordinating the work of others, for planning and tracking progress, and for taking corrective actions when things do not go well.
You should take a training course in project management, and begin reading books and articles about project management. Your ability to set priorities, conduct effective meetings, and communicate clearly will have an impact on your effectiveness as a manager. To recognize and reward the achievements of your team members is also an important way to keep them motivated. Recognition can range from the symbolic (Thank you notes) to the tangible (Gift, Money, Bonuses). By investing a small amount of thought and money in a recognition and reward program, you can get a lot of cooperation from team members.
As a new manager, you must set goals for the project. Goals should be measurable so you can select a few simple metrics that will indicate whether you are making adequate progress toward the goals. For example, if you've found that projects are often late because of changing requirements, you might set a goal to improve the requirements stability by 50% within six months. Such a goal requires that you actually count the number of requirements changes per week or month, understand who request these changes and take actions to control them. This will likely require some modification in the requirements development process and the way you interact with the customers. There are two main reasons to improve your processes: to correct problems, and to prevent problems. Make sure your efforts align with known or anticipated risks to the success of your projects. You must explore the strengths and weaknesses of the current process being used, and the risks facing your projects. Setting measurable goals brings a focus to your improvement efforts. Keep the goals a priority, and monitor progress with the group periodically. Remember that your objective is to improve the technical and business success achieved by your projects and company.
As a new software manager, your leadership is important to the project team toward project success. With the day-to-day pressures, it can be difficult just to keep your project moving toward the direction that you wanted but you must stay calm because you can not do everything at once so you need to select a few things that seem most appropriate for the situation and get started. Remember that you are responsible for doing more than completing the project on time and on budget. You must also lead the technical staff into a cohesive team that shares a commitment to quality; foster an environment of teamwork; promote and reward the application of software engineering practices; and balance the needs of your customers, your company, your team members, and yourself.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
