Hi Brad, I agree completely that they are very different beasts. And as I eluded to, it was (still is) a tough one for me. I should mention we do have a very good PM department in my org with whom I get along quite well (thank god). But if you don't have an understanding of what they do (and PM in general) and try to be purely technical, unfortunately you're going to get nowhere fast (and that is my personal experience). It is they who do the reporting to the upper echelons of management on the status of projects. And thusly a lot of what they do will dictate the failure/success of any project. My point here was not to prod any of the technical folks to project management if they don't wish to. But if you have the capability to do both you WILL become a valuable asset to your company.
Just my 2c worth... Regards, Jeff -----Original Message----- From: Brad Knowles [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Saturday, August 22, 2009 7:51 PM To: Jeff & Heather Malloch Cc: 'Matt Lawrence'; [email protected] Subject: Re: [lopsa-discuss] CISSP? on 8/22/09 10:12 AM, Jeff & Heather Malloch said: > That said, here is what I feel would help anyone immensely... Project > management is a must. And I mean real PMBOK stuff. Speaking as someone on the other side, I can tell you for a fact that the people who have real IT skills and can also do real PMBOK stuff are more rare than Hens Teeth. Being able to be a good project manager encompasses so many soft management and team leadership skills that are almost never found in someone who has deep IT skills. Anyone who expects to get all of both is likely to be very, very sorely disappointed. They're not necessarily mutually exclusive, but they are most definitely orthogonal, if not somewhat opposite. Taking a person who has deep IT skills and then throwing them in the deep end of the PM Amazon River filled with pirahana and expecting them to be able to immediately swim, is not likely to achieve a positive outcome that anyone is going to like. Been there, done that, have the official complaint under way against my management and the t-shirt under embargo until such time as the complaint is resolved one way or the other. Sure, you can teach some project management skills to a person with deep technical skills, and knowing them may help them be more effect project members. But if you don't have real project management people who are good with those soft skills and can act as the interface between management and the technical personnel, then you are well and truly screwed. -- Brad Knowles <[email protected]> LinkedIn Profile: <http://tinyurl.com/y8kpxu> No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.392 / Virus Database: 270.13.63/2317 - Release Date: 08/21/09 06:04:00 _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators http://lopsa.org/
