Any Project Managers Here?

suse*

Depends on the regulatory needs of the company that is too vague. You can't just do a couple of weekend courses and walk into a job running those sorts of projects. IT projects again it depends on the industry the IT is used in eg finance, government etc etc all have different requirements.

Normally for IT you need a techincal background of some sort to understand the development processes and life cycle if nothing else.

For construction I assume you'd need to know all about site safety and building regs etc too, so I don't think you'd have a background to just swap easily between those too at a big project level.

Prince etc is just a tool to help you plan things in an organised way, get sign off and buy in from the right people and guide it through. It doesn't teach you a specific industry eg software development or house building. So you'd need to have some knowledge in that area too already.

suse*

Babbawah wrote: »

^^ This, & sooo much more ^^

I particularly like "balls of steel to tell the head of the company none of their plans are going to work" <snort>.

Yeah guess what I've been doing today ;0)

But say you worked for MSE, Martin has told everyone on tv a new version of the website is out on saturday. It turns out there is a major bug and it isn't going to happen. Can you be that person to go tell them that it won't happen and deal with the fall out for that. Then also probably have to say that 20 more times to 20 other directors or millionaires or whatever.

It takes a strong character to do that as well as be able to manange and motivate people to do work or overtime for you. Everything else can be taught as it is just spreadsheets etc but I know I couldn't be a pm I'd just get annoyed with people I knew weren't pulling their weight or whatever. This is why good pm's can get paid big bucks but don't be fooled by the apprentice etc it is not how they make it look. Especially if your project is millions over budget and months delayed.

tgon

PM'd you.

If being a PM was simply about coordinating activities and blaming people then they are not a PM. Methodology, governance, risk assurance and senior stakeholder buy in is the context in which you operate and also your protection. A good PM will also know when a project ceases to be viable and should stop or re-scope. The decision to do so is the Project Board not the PM.

InsideInsurance

Babbawah wrote: »

Aaahh ! So it's an NVQ level then. (Nothing Very Quickly)

What qualification would suit a PM that flits between £10million+ construction projects & the occasional IT management system?

Its simply a methodology and the qualification simply shows you have an understanding of it. It doesnt teach you how to be a project manager, it just teaches you one possible methodology for running projects. Many companies use a Prince2 based methodology and so some like to see it on CVs.

It is however a very structured methodology and so well suited to very structured projects. A former boss didnt like recruiting people with the qualification because their projects were typically very unstructured in nature and there was a fear that someone couldnt adapt to the difference.

I did my Prince2 but didnt renew it after the certification expired.

Most project managers tend to specialise in an industry/ subject and whilst they may change one or the other it'd be unusual to constantly flit between Construction and IT. Whilst you will always have SMEs that input into the planning process etc its always good to have a reasonable knowledge of the subject matter and I dont know many people who'd know everything there is to know about creating a new data warehouse and implementing a operational datastore on it as well as knowing about how to build a new railway line.

agrinnall

Well we still don't know why the OP asked the question so while the responses may be useful it's impossible to tell.

redpete

A good project manager will always ensure that a question is understood and thank those who contribute to the answers.

agrinnall

redpete wrote: »

A good project manager will always ensure that a question is understood and thank those who contribute to the answers.

Ah, so that's what they should do, didn't happen that often in my 25+ year IT career :j.

tgon

agrinnall wrote: »

Ah, so that's what they should do, didn't happen that often in my 25+ year IT career :j.

Most bosses don't want a PM to be a PM. They just want a job done by some kick-!!! bully and pretend they have a quality assured programme! Most projects fail this way but you can't get that point across - it's like trying to educate the dead!

BigAunty

tgon wrote: »

Most bosses don't want a PM to be a PM. They just want a job done by some kick-!!! bully and pretend they have a quality assured programme! Most projects fail this way but you can't get that point across - it's like trying to educate the dead!

I achieved Prince 2 Practitioner status and in a former life, had a decade plus employment experience in project support roles (Project Administrator/Coordinator/Assistant/Analyst). This is a non-leadership and non-decision making role assisting the actual PM with tracking budgets, deliverables, costs and producing reports.

It suited my personality - on the one hand, I found being at the heart of the business very interesting, there is a wide variety of duties, I liked the analytic side but on the other, I'm a quiet person who doesn't like stressful working positions, so I was always relieved not to be the PM...

And one thing I hated in the recruitment process was the amount of tight employers who wanted a true PM but didn't want to pay the going rate of around £500 per day. Instead, they wanted to pay admin wages but get a Project Support Officer to deliver the entire project.

I always did my best to avoid job descriptions and contract roles that seemed more PM than PSO or who advertised PSO/Junior Project Manager as that collapse is unworkable - true project governance requires the project support person and the PM person to be different roles. Nonetheless, there were a couple of occasions when I turned up at interview and found that management expected a senior leadership role.

I kid you not, I turned up for an interivew for a Project Officer role which paid a much lower than average rate for a project administrator/support roles. During the interview it became clear that I would be required to deliver a Sarbannes Oxley compliance programme in a solo capacity and report directly to the CEO who was taking a 'keen interest' in it!

They sought someone who would commit to a 1 year fixed contract period that the applicant would promise they wouldn't break (so I assume it had no notice period clause in it). I can't remember the exact rate as they were pretty much offering an ordinary permanent salary for a fixed term contract, think the role worked out around £100- £150 a day?!

The company was an international engineering company whose annual revenues exceed $10 billion.

directdebiter

So what is the OP's questions??? :question: