3 ms·

Interesting to hear, what makes them awful? FYI There are some of us who welcome feedback, so would like to hear your thoughts to be mindful.

deskamess 9y ago
I cannot speak for the original poster, but I found that many who came in were not interested or did not understand technology. They came in with 'reputation' (worked for IBM in project management, etc) and were probably hired for it. There was little on the job understanding and no effort to understand the how's and why's of the product. What was important to them was that 'project schedule lines' could be filled in regularly. They had no context, and were rarely interested in why something was missed, but were eager to fill in the next column which was 'Expected Completion Date'. When feature requests came in from a client it was pushed down without consult to the overall project; they basically did not like saying 'no' to a client. The company was a tech company but the people with influence were ignorant of general SW development practices. If a project manager did not cut it, they were replaced with another one just like the previous one. Tech had little input on the next choice - after all, it was the project managers dept. I suspect there are good PM's with a tech bent, but they are hard to come by. I hope you can make a difference by hiring and encouraging others PM's who do want to improve and understand the technical environment they are in, and not just live on the 'project schedule line'. Spend a day with support, spend a day with QA, talk to an engineer and find out why one task on your schedule is dependent on the other. It will make for a better cohesive team with common goals (and ideally less departmentalism).
kamaal 9y ago
Its a misnomer to think that anything can be managed at a abstract level. Managing things requires understanding and working on them at a very intricate level. MBA thing is based on the exact opposite. If you don't do this- Us Vs Them kinda environment emerges rather too quickly.

deskamess 9y ago

I cannot speak for the original poster, but I found that many who came in were not interested or did not understand technology. They came in with 'reputation' (worked for IBM in project management, etc) and were probably hired for it. There was little on the job understanding and no effort to understand the how's and why's of the product. What was important to them was that 'project schedule lines' could be filled in regularly. They had no context, and were rarely interested in why something was missed, but were eager to fill in the next column which was 'Expected Completion Date'. When feature requests came in from a client it was pushed down without consult to the overall project; they basically did not like saying 'no' to a client. The company was a tech company but the people with influence were ignorant of general SW development practices. If a project manager did not cut it, they were replaced with another one just like the previous one. Tech had little input on the next choice - after all, it was the project managers dept. I suspect there are good PM's with a tech bent, but they are hard to come by. I hope you can make a difference by hiring and encouraging others PM's who do want to improve and understand the technical environment they are in, and not just live on the 'project schedule line'. Spend a day with support, spend a day with QA, talk to an engineer and find out why one task on your schedule is dependent on the other. It will make for a better cohesive team with common goals (and ideally less departmentalism).

kamaal 9y ago

Its a misnomer to think that anything can be managed at a abstract level. Managing things requires understanding and working on them at a very intricate level. MBA thing is based on the exact opposite. If you don't do this- Us Vs Them kinda environment emerges rather too quickly.