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To answer the question literally ("how much experience is required..."): none whatsoever. I know project managers who has had no technical experience and are dealing great with their jobs.
If you asked me whether I require technical experience when hiring, or working with, PMs, my answer would still be negative.
Having said that, technical experience in ...
12
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
According to glassdoor.com, the average PM salary is $66,048 while the average programmer salary is $43,658.
However, the relative salaries are going to depend greatly on perceived programmer skill, PM duties, company culture and negotiation skill.
Successful project management is a science and in demand skill in its own right (PMs require both project ...
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 ...
10
This is a difficult and touchy subject. You may open up a Pandora's Box, so be absolutely certain that this is a big enough issue for you to push.
I would suggest:
Have a very clear listing of how you are adding value to the company. If you can't clearly say why you deserve more money you won't convince anyone. I've had an employee ("X") demand more salary ...
10
There is no one path to becoming a Chief Technical Officer (CTO) or Senior Vice President (SVP). Case in point, I'm just about to take a CTO position and my personal history looks like this: BA in English, then BA in Business Organization, MA in English, PhD in English with 18 years in development and project management concurrently with those latter ...
10
I think it is necessary. As a team leader you have to speak in front of your team, at meetings, at special occasions, like customer visitation or open house and the list goes on. It really makes a bad impression when a team leader cannot speak for 5 minutes. It shouldn't be a commencement speech, but I think a good team leader must be able to give at least ...
10
Developers are always going to tell you their work is harder/more important than PMs or BAs. And PMs will say their work is harder/more important, as will BAs, as will Accountants, as will Legal, etc. At the end of the day, on a team everyone's work is important because without it the team is more likely to fail. The relative importance will vary from ...
9
Before it became a "profession," it was a job function. Many still argue it is still a job function and not a profession at all. Personally, I'm more in that camp, but that's not relevent here.
Whatever you are studying, go get an entry-level job there. As you climb, you will either continue down the track as a technologist, becoming more of a subject ...
9
To my mind, any PM position comes down to understanding what has to be delivered, in what order, when, by whom and with what permissions. In construction, things are more concrete (excuse the pun!) perhaps than in e-commerce, but those fundamentals do not change.
Reading about software development life cycles is good, but what you need to understand is ...
9
Comparing one job family with another in an attempt to make sense of it is futile. In that other question, the justification that one should make more money because they "work harder" shows a lack of intelligence, analysis, maturity, and general wherewithall.
First, hard work is relative and subjective. That would be an argument that would never end. ...
8
It's hard to answer such question concretely without knowing your specific context. The first thing you should start with is asking yourself what you would like to do. I mean, if it happens that the next role on the ladder is something you're going to hate would you really pursue the promotion?
Think about your strengths, which you may exploit, and ...
8
"Get closer to the team and solve their problems "
Project Manager's key value addition comes from the fact that she is responsible for ensuring the project's success and in addition to reporting,estimating and highlighting ,
actually solving the team problems,suggesting/soliciting trade offs to ensure success,managing an efficient budget,keeping the team'...
8
The real value added by the Project Manager is the running ahead of the team making sure any potential roadblocks are removed before the team stumble on them. This could involve making sure other teams know when to expect your teams deliverables so they are ready, or it could mean making sure stakeholders know how things are going so they don't get suprises. ...
8
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
Whatever you do, do not micromanage!
That is the single worst thing you could do. You will put a lot of stress on them, on yourself, you will kill the potential productivity of the team, and you make yourself the bottleneck on the team.
I am not saying your team is a bunch of whiny kids, and I certainly am not saying that they are useless, but my ...
7
I'm not a "project manager" per se, but as a youth scout leader, I often ask myself the question as to how I can help the patrol leaders in the troop become better leaders, and by extension plan for summer camp, klondike (the big competition between scout troops), and similar things.
What I've learned over the past few years I've been trying to help my ...
7
You mentioned that you're still a student. I don't know what you are studying, but I assume it's Computer Science or Software Engineering.
If you are not involved in internships or side jobs that involve programming, maintenance, and/or software development, then this is a great way for you to gain more experience as a programmer. Most organizations will ...
7
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pxe_TG43G0
This little video was created by a man named Dave Wood from Canada.
I would dig deeper into this issue as something more sophisticated than a communication issue. This is more of a teaming issue, sounds like, and the way various personalities mix and work together and your communication issues are symptoms, ...
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
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 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
Your feelings on the matter are irrelevant. What does matter is the salary and wage data for your position in your area and your best alternative to a negotiated agreement, balanced against your employer's set of alternatives.
If you choose to make this approach, you need to come armed with data. What is the salary range and distribution for your role ...
6
Welcome to the ranks of project management! You're in an interesting place a lot of us are not going to have direct correlation to. For example, I had already been working in various high tech roles for over a decade when I backed into project management. We're really only seeing project management as a career path starter recently.
The first major question ...
6
Leave it out, but mention during the verbal interview (personal or phone). A two-month long period is really short, I don't think you'll benefit from it when you are looking for new PM jobs. When companies are looking for PMs they expect years of experience, because this job simply requires experience.
There is another aspect. When HR looks through CVs they ...
6
I'll take the opposite position than Zsolt and say no, a PM does not need to be a public speaker.
While I agree with his premise, my view is that the PM needs to be a 'leader' more than a speaker. So the PM needs to spend their time honing their leadership and influence skills.
Public speaking is sometimes a part of this, but I've known some great leaders ...
6
Project Management is Process Management
Whether you are a traditional PM or an agile practitioner, project management is about managing process. Like any knowledge domain, the deeper your understanding of the underlying processes and procedures you're dealing with, the better you will be able to manage process flow and identify risks and impediments to ...
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