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Top Ten Signs You Might Not Be A Project Manager
May 8, 2012 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Project Management Musings
Top Ten Signs You Might Not Be A Project Manager
By Bruce McGraw
Congratulations! You finally received that much-coveted title of Project Manager — a position you really wanted and dutifully placed on your career planning job appraisal every year. Well I may have a surprise for you. Not everyone who is titled a project manager is a project manager, just as there are professionals acting as project managers without the title.
How could this happen?
Reasons for the disconnect vary with Individuals and organizations. In the later instance, you may have a qualified developer who does not want to be a project manager because he or she is on a technical tract and fears being pigeon holed into management and kept away from technical growth and interesting problems. However, they are willing to do typical project management tasks when asked.
In the first group though are individuals with the title project manager but unfortunately
- Believe that management is only about numbers — how much, how many, how quickly and at what cost per item
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Believe that management is management, whether it is running a baseball team or developing software
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Think that PMBOK may be a type of bird
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Do not notice that no one actually reports to them
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Are kept away from customers and client meetings
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Think “risk” is a board game
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Consider product requirements to be large documents primarily useful as a paperweight
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Prefer spending time in a large, windowed office sitting behind a clean desk with a tasteful credenza that is covered with sports trophies from high school
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Never work nights, weekends or carry home a full briefcase
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Believe that Dilbert is a fairytale about a whiny employee and the Pointed Haired Boss is tragically misunderstood
If you find yourself agreeing with any of these top ten, perhaps it is time for a career change — I am sure you would do well as a car salesman.
Bruce A. McGraw is COO/EVP for Cognitive Technologies, a WBE/DBE consulting firm delivering project /program management, collaborative processes, and organizational effectiveness to commercial and government clients (www.cognitive-technologies.com). Bruce has been a program manager for over 25 years and has experience across multiple industries. His ability to craft pragmatic solutions to meet project goals, coupled with experience in all aspects of project management, enables him to meet customer expectations with on-time, within-budget deliveries. Bruce is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and is an active member of the Project Management Institute. Bruce authors a project management blog at Fear No Project and can be contacted at (512) 380-1204 or Bruce.McGraw@cogtechinc.com.
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2 people have left comments
I like the list except for number nine. I think this (someone who doesn’t work late) is a sign of someone that is good at what they do and maintains a work and life balance. As a project manager, if you have to work nights and weekends I would question whether you know what you are doing. Yes, there are exceptions like launching during off hours, but generally speaking you should have a life beyond your projects. So I would change number nine read “must work nights and weekends or carry home a full briefcase.”
Just a thought!
Great post, Bruce. Instead of a career change, however, it may be time for the non-project manager to study up on what it takes to be a proper project manager. It can be learned!
Also, how about some tips for the accidental project manager.