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Ask HN: Skills required for a good tech project manager
A friend of mine (no, really, a friend, not me pretending to be 'a friend of mine' - I'm very happy as I am) is wondering about moving into tech project management - ideally a PM role in a web dev agency / webapp startup.
He's got a lot of experience in journalism/publishing as an editor (in the management sense) and already has a lot of applied, down-to-earth project management experience on large, busy titles. (ie, he's got an excellent track record for getting things done, rather than just having been to lots of managementspeak courses and shuffling Excel documents).
So, I don't doubt that he's up to the job in terms of organisational skills, but he's obviously aware that he's not got a software background. He is above-averagely computer/web savvy, and has researched written and/or edited some tech-lite white papers in the past. I reckon he could get up to speed with what he needs to know relatively quickly, in his own time, before trying to make a move.
But what would HNers say is essential sector-specific knowledge that he'd need to be a good tech PM?
My list so far includes:
* Scrum, Agile and familiarity with waterfall (so you know why to avoid it)
* web standards, incl HTML5
* web accessibility
* awareness of testing/QA approaches (TDD, unit testing, browser-based macro testing, acceptance criteria)
* job ticketing and task tracking (ie, a step up from manual/offline progress tracking)
* a good understanding of the full web stack (conceptually, not hands-on hacking)
* but.. basic Unixery (for pushing releases live/restarting servers in emergencies)
* good channels for learning about what's new and interesting (and therefore may be stuff clients ask for, or would like to hear about)
What else would you recommend?
Cheers,
Steve
- swombat 16y agoIn theory, theory and practice are the same, but in practice they're not. Your list is good, but I'd add that he should pick one suitable language/framework and actually build something with it, so he has a better gut understanding of what it's like to build software. This will earn him essential respect from his team and allow him to sniff out a lot of the bullshit that would otherwise pass him by (eg "adding a button is really hard").
- hga 16y agoExactly. Either he needs real "bare metal" experience (whatever that means in this domain :-) or the ability to pick and then absolutely trust one person who does. Without one of those two no one is likely to end up happy.
- scorpioxy 16y agoSeconded. The list is fine, but to me it doesn't mean anything if the PM wasn't a previous programmer and knows nothing about pulling all-nighters chasing some obscure bug. If your friend really wants to get into a tech PM role, then he has to pay his dues just like we all do. So swombat's advice is right on. He should learn a language/framework and build something with it(not a small script, a real actual application).
- iworkforthem 16y agoIT proj mgmt certification such PMP or Prince2 could be useful as a form of formal education too. Not to mention better pay package. :P Like what other said, theory n practice are 2 different issues. Someone who's good in its theory could have issues trying to carry its PM duties. Also, other factors such as communication skills and conflict management skills to name a few are critical too. The rest are too lengthy to write on...
- stevejalim 16y agoHe's totally sound in terms of people management, so I think he'd be fine in that respect. Fair point re: certification and him chasing a higher salary.