13
The Project Management role grew from needs to coordinate in the traditional environments. If the title sticks around, the role still has to change. I've seen PMs take on higher level coordination, become a PO, become a SM or design a new role altogether. This is all depending on your organization, quality of agile adoption and access to coaching. If not ...
11
The key to motivation is to remove the money from the table. So you have to pay enough so the developers don't think about the money, and then to rely on intrinsic motivators such as recognition, self-development, etc. If you use percentage or even mixed model, you focus people on the money, and not on the product. On the other hand, it's great to share with ...
11
Once you become a real Scrum Master, you shift your career focus from development to people management. Most of the organisations don't fully understand the role of the Scrum Master, and they function as a Technical Lead, so there is still place for doing development time to time in this scenario.
The real Scrum Master has hardly any time to do development. ...
8
The It depends pretty much answers all of your questions because they really depend on the context.
My first advice is to change your questions by adding the why do I to the beginning. For example, "Why do I want to have one meeting per week?" Because I have to write a report once a week to my boss? Or, because I would like to know about the daily life of ...
7
Similar to other answers, they key thing to understand here is that:
Money is a motivator, but only up to a certain point.
Once people's basic needs are taken care of, money is no longer a major motivator.
Other factors (such as esteem and self actualization) become more important progressively.
Contrary to some of the other answers, this thinking is not ...
7
I was working with a similar setup and it wasn't that bad at all. We knew what to expect, and somehow we felt that our work has a purpose, because we needed the money at that time.
Unfortunately, when one brings up the money based motivation topic up, the other immediately pulls Daniel Pink's book, which is excellent book, but how one interprets is very ...
7
I think the different levels can relate to the Agile Onion as described by Simon Powers.
Entry level: Can implement the tools and processes, but doesnt have a good understanding why the processes, practises, principles and value's exist. Could lead to cargo-cult Agile.
Intermediate: Can work on a team level, but does not yet have the experience to change ...
6
It will be very hard to break into Project Management "cold" - You will definitely need enough experience in the field/sector you are applying for to be able to talk credibly about it and this can only take time and experience.
One way in might be to begin working in a PMO (Project Managment Office) perhaps as a PMO administrator- That way you can learn the ...
5
The answers to those questions depend heavily on your company/institution/hierarchy. I think we can only respond in the context of PMI (although I'd love to hear from a PRINCE practitioner or other non-PMI organization).
Work performed as a project coordinator almost certainly qualifies as job experience towards PMP certification (I'm only hedging because ...
5
I would be wary about giving an absolute answer to this because the meaning of a job title can vary hugely from organisation to organisation and sector to sector. In my own sector - digital/software development - I would say that Project Coordinators normally report in to Project Managers who may, in turn, report in to Programme Managers.
In my experience ...
5
I would argue whether two-person project requires extensive project management knowledge. Actually, it is more about some basic planning and organization and a lot of collaboration. Fortunately the latter mainly between two people.
Leaving aside a crucial part of collaboration with your peer, the rest of project management effort should likely boil down to ...
5
Probably not. The main job of a PM is to drive all the stakeholders in the same direction, which is sometimes more diplomacy and communication than actually project organisation.
Scrum is a methodology to deliver product in accordance with requirements. However, a project is usually not limited to simply delivery a product, it may involve business, ...
5
Job titles mean whatever an organization wants them to mean. However, in my experience a Product Owner (or, in less agile environments, a Product Manager) is often responsible for a single product or a closely-related suite of products.
Advancement within Product Management is generally into managing a portfolio of products. In some companies, a Product ...
5
This is always going to be a subjective measure because it is not a binary decision-it is not like an exam that you have either passed or not.
Having said that, in most situations I have come across it is decided through defined (and somewhat arbitrary) combinations of:
years of experience in Project Management
experience with different team sizes (i.e. ...
5
In my organization many PMs get very little say in Human Resources decisions for their projects. The functional manager says who they can spare that fits the criteria and that is who the project manager gets. This said I don't think there is anyone who doubts our PMs are in fact PMs. I think the same holds true for costs. If you are managing projects you ...
4
Determining management effectiveness is more difficult and time consuming than determining entry-level developer effectiveness.
In my experience, accountability in project scope and duration and the requirement of leadership are key differentiators between the roles. Junior managers tend to get lower salaries because proving anything about their ...
4
Get a certification. PRINCE2 and CAPM to start, when you get experience get PMP.
Apply what you've learned. Maybe you start as a developer or tester, but think like a PM. Ask about the big picture (business case for the project, what the project product is, etc), ask about project requirements and constraints, ask for the project plan, participate in ...
4
Bluntly the relationship between the project coordinator function and that of project manager is similar to that between a secretary. The secretary has an excellent grasp on the day to day activities of the task, but has never taken responsibility for delivery.
This does not mean that the project coordinator cannot make the step to being a project manager, ...
4
Simple answer: If your client asks you to do something, you're not a consultant. If they ask you what they should do, you're a consultant.
4
In one post, you managed to exhibit simultaneously what you SHOULD do and what you SHOULD NOT do. You are asking all the right questions and there are a ton more you need to ask. And each question should spawn into several more. What you SHOULD NOT do is expect a definitive answer as there is no such thing. Zsolt has it right: it depends.
Ask the ...
4
Wow, huge question!
Let's talk about:
Capabilities: Personal skills and knowledge
Talent: How much effort is necessary to be good at something?
Potential: The end of development within a specific domain
To identify the next good PM you need to:
Identify the required capabilities within your company. I would prioritise leadership and communications like ...
4
You can be a Scrum Master, but without any experience in Agile, you will not be effective. The training itself is two days, and does not cover most of the extreme cases you'll meet day to day.
If you would like to be a good Scrum Master, be part of a team that actually is agile, and learn form its Scrum Master. If you would like to land a good job, do the ...
3
You can always call yourself consultant, because the definition of a consultant is not that strict:
A person who provides expert advice professionally.
You are person (check), you are an expert, therefore you can give expert advices (check), and you'll plan to earn your living from doing it - you are a professional - (check). Due to the nature of the job - ...
3
You asked what should you study/research to best prepare you for your career, not get a job.
The best way? Read as much as possible about it all, and more importantly, then talk to experienced PM's about what you're learning.
That's the crucial point. In school and reading you will learn the theory, but only by talking to those that have done it will you ...
3
I agree with Valeuf; in our organisation the 'scrummaster' role is taken up by the team-leads. But this is only for more maintenance/support/ small changes kind of work (and they are often working more in a Kanban style)
However, the larger projects often have multiple scrumteams working in parallel, so there remains a lot of project setup work, ...
3
TL;DR
If you want to be relevant in the agile world, update your skills. If you want to stay with traditional methodologies, target the right job sectors.
Project Management in the Market
Does it mean that the project manager job eventually will disappear?
Not in the foreseeable future. Project management as a career will be around as long as there are ...
3
Leigh,
As a manager at a large fortune 500 company and having experience hiring and managing project managers, I think you might be trying to do too much. Keep in mind that anyone looking for a PM right now is probably going to have a stack of resumes from qualified candidates and will automatically weed out those without a PPM certification or the proper ...
3
You should expect to remain employed with a start up or a 100-year-old company for 1) only as long as you're needed, either your role or your capability set; 2) only as long as they can afford you; or 3) only as long as the company remains a company.
What you are really asking for is a risk assessment. Start ups have higher risks all the way around; that'...
3
There are a ton of skills that transfer but I think the most valuable asset you have are the years experience of service. Consulting firms that do public sector work, especially DOD and military, hire guys like you all the time. You need to settle around DC to reduce chance of travel. In today's dollars, you could likely expect $100k to maybe as high as $...
3
Here's the problem for organizations and predicting future job success:
What are the attributes and work behaviors consistent with a particular job role's success?
How do you observe or test for those attributes and work behaviors that produce both RELIABLE and VALID results, minimizing biases?
How do you pay for this?
For a job role, if you try to do ...
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