|
 Many
technicians lack the basic skills to coordinate projects and think
modularly about their individual work allotments or code, sometimes
at the cost of missing the “big picture,” writes MOHAN
BABU
An interesting item of research published in Computerworld
(US) caught my attention recently—it was about the acute lack
of project managers in US IT departments. This research really hit
home since the failure of many of the “gloom and doom”
projects can be attributed to the lack of proper project management
rather than to any other cause. Meta Group, the Stamford-based IT
research company, was recently quoted saying that more than 75 percent
of 219 IT executives interviewed indicated that a lack of in-house
project management skills was a major issue for them. Similarly,
a researcher with Forrester concurred with this research saying:
“A lot of unofficial training is going on where people take
on the role of project managers.” However, most executives
also concurred that providing project management training to IT
focused staff was a big “challenge.”
In the years that I have spent in the field,
I have noticed that techies, especially the hard-core, hands-on
types, are management agnostic and run for miles to avoid the mention
of project management or quality assurance. So much so that the
current trend towards XP (eXtreme Programming) where “self-managed”
team work directly with users to build prototypes and take modules
to production in smaller cycles, may be an effort to minimise the
overheads generally associated with project management. Perhaps
one of the reasons why some companies lack project management skills
is because they tend to hire IT professionals from the same pool
of talent, with similar skills, feels Martin Colburn, CTO of National
Association of Securities Dealers.
A major reason why some techies abhor project
managers is probably because they (the project managers) try to
go by the book and try to enforce some structure to projects, even
when deadlines are tight. Ignorance of the basic need for project
management among techies may be another reason for this yin-yang
between managers and techies. Many technicians lack the basic skills
to coordinate projects and think modularly about their individual
work allotments or code, sometimes at the cost of missing the “big
picture.”
Trained and qualified project managers are expected
to bring this “big picture” view to projects they manage.
This is especially true of large-scale projects where smaller development
teams work on individual modules and someone needs to coordinate
the efforts of such teams, analyse the risk, mitigate them and ensure
that the deadlines are met and the deliverables confirm to the specifications
laid down in the initial analysis, satisfying the end users.
Maintaining a “big picture” view while
fighting daily fires, ensuring the focus of the entire team, is
the forte of a skilled and trained project manager. Interestingly,
those in project management roles come from varied backgrounds,
not necessarily from a development or technical background as many
envisage. Some project managers are also qualified in formal project
management methodologies, especially the PMBOK (Project Management
Body of Knowledge) prescribed by the Project Management Institute
(PMI) one of the foremost bodies in the industry. The organisation
also conducts a formal certification exam and PMI certified project
managers continue to be in demand.
Are Indian outsourcers at risk?
Do Indian outsourcers have the project management
bandwidth to manage the large-scale projects that they are continually
bidding for? Many project managers working for large Indian companies
have risen from the trenches, growing from developer to tech lead
and then project manager. While they may have a strong technical
background, many lack formal training in project management. As
Indian companies look to scale up the value chain, hiring and nurturing
quality project managers will gain importance. This is especially
crucial since the available pool of managers will also be wooed
by multinationals entering the Indian IT or outsourcing market.
An opportunity in disguise
This renewed focus on project management in the
industry, may be an opportunity in disguise for Indian companies.
It is an opportunity to leverage our technical skills with the right
project management training, enabling our techies to manage large-scale
global projects. This capability will also help Indian companies
to bid for larger international projects up the value chain if we
can show our execution capabilities and management prowess. In the
process, we may also be able to “export” our project management
expertise to China, Philippines and Ireland—other hotbeds of
IT outsourcing.
Mohan Babu is a US-based software consultant
trying to find the ‘sweet spot’ where IT meets business.
E-mail: mohan@garamchai.com
|
