Project Managers with IT product development

The PMs with product development companies would have mostly similar skill sets as the ones in IT service providers. But I think there are some slight differences. The differences would be in the fact that though the IT product development PMs work as per a budget, they are not margin driven. So, though they would be bothered about the cost of the project, they would not be fanatical about the margin. Infact, they would not care so much for the financial metrics of a margin. They would however be fanatical about the quality of work and deadlines as with PMs in other organizations. The difference would also come from the type of the organization for which the product development is happening. For example, in companies like Microsoft, I guess, the products are very huge and it calls for high specializations among the roles. Here the project managers are mostly called Program manager (specific to Microsoft) and their role is mostly coordination and facilitation. However, in smaller product development startup, the project manager may be required to do technical review and face the customers as well.

Thus, in a scale of 1 to 10 in the following parameters: Technical Knowledge, Process orientation, Team management, Cost management and Project management, the typical PM in an IT product set-up would have the following ratings:

Technical Knowledge: 7

Process Orientation: 7

Team management: 8 

Cost management: 6 

Project management: 8

Project Managers with IT service provider - Part II

People related responsibilities include building and nurturing the team, looking into individual career and growth issues and knowledge building and retention. This is one aspect which is absent for a project manager in an end user organization where s/he may be working purely as a vendor manager. Working with a fairly large team reporting into you also calls for a person who has good people skills and knows internal team dynamics.

Delivery related responsibilities include planning and executing the project such that execution happens seamlessly the delivery is smooth. May be some other time I will post a bog on this alone.

Margin related responsibilities include containing the cost of the project for which the project manager should be aware of the cost being incurred and be vigilant enough to identify and bill change requests for any out of scope work that is to be done. This is very critical in fixed bid projects. IT service provider companies are very finicky about costs and idle time. Idle time is watched for like a hawk and no one wants a non-billable resource in their team.

The PM also has to interact with the various other departments in his company like the staffing or sourcing or HR team as it may be called, so as to get resources for his project when required. The PM has to interact with finance team to raise invoice for the work delivered and has to track the payment of the same. These responsibilities may not be there in all companies and may sometimes be shared with the supervisor of the project manager (called the delivery manager).

So, the PM has to be a facilitator and motivator, and a very good leader so that s/he can lead the team members with clarity. 

Thus, in a scale of 1 to 10 in the following parameters: Technical Knowledge, Process orientation, Team management, Cost management and Project management, the typical PM in an IT service set-up would have the following ratings:

Technical Knowledge:    5

Process Orientation:    8

Team management:        8

Cost management:        8

Project management:     8

Project Managers with IT service provider

The project managers with IT service providers are again a different lot. They mostly are home grown in the company, coming up the ranks of the programmers, team leads, project leads and then become the project manager. They typically lead the project teams and are responsible and accountable for the delivery of the project. Apart from this, they may or may not be responsible for the technical architecture (some companies are very strict on this that the project manager has to be technically competent) and for the requirements part. So we see a lot of overlap between a tech architect and a Business analyst role with that of a Pm for a smaller project. For larger projects, the roles may be distinctly different. My personal opinion is that for a project manager in an IT services company, technology is not as important as the process. Therefore, the must-have skill for a PM here would be very good process knowledge and drive for processes and getting things done in general.

Apart from the process and technical side of the delivery, the most of project managers with IT service providers have two other basic responsibilities:

a)                People related

b)                Delivery related

c)                Margin related

Project Manager in an end user organization

Organizations like Citibank, GE Money etc which have IT as a support and enabling function typically have an IT department which employs project managers to execute projects. Most of these organizations follow 2 different models to their IT development approach with some variations to it. The first model is to have in-house development teams lead by project managers. The second approach is to outsource the technical stuff to a vendor which is managed by the project manager. Many organizations also follow a hybrid approach where in they have an in-house IT development shop and also do some out-sourcing.

In most end user organization, the IT project manager is the person responsible mostly for delivery of the project. There is usually a business project manager who controls the purse strings, since all projects are typically initiated by the business and the business funds the project. Typically, once the requirements are finalized by the business, the PM is asked for an effort estimate and schedule. The PM coordinates with the development teams (if in house development exists) or with outsourcing vendors for the effort estimate. When this comes out, the cost for the project is calculated and the budget is decided and approved. Then depending on the IT development model followed by the organization, either the work is done in-house or outsourced.

For an in house development model, mostly the development team reports to the PM for project related issues. The PM acts as the facilitator and motivator for the team, helping the team achieve the project goals within the desired budget. But for an outsourced model, the PM acts as a vendor manager and is mostly required to facilitate the outsourcing company complete the project. But in the second model, most of the delivery risk is assumed by the outsourcing company and the IT PM usually chases up and beats the vendor to complete the work!

In either cases, IT PMs in end user organizations interface with all the different departmental stakeholders for planning and execution of the project. The most important focus of the IT PM is to complete the project in time and under the given budget. Typical IT PMs in end user organizations that prefer outsourcing the development do not have to deal with the human resource angle, profit margins, knowledge sharing and associate growth aspirations. The in-house development center PM has to deal with all the above except worrying about profit margins as IT department is usually treated as a cost center rather than a profit center. IT PM have to grapple with Scope, Effort-Cost & Budget, Project Risks, Infrastructure and most important of all, the Deadline.

Thus, in a scale of 1 to 10 in the following parameters: Technical Knowledge, Process orientation, Team management, Cost management and Project management, the typical PM in an end user set-up would have the following ratings:

Technical Knowledge:    3

Process Orientation:    5

Team management:        5

Cost management:        8

Project management:     8