IT Project Manager Career
An IT project manager is responsible for defining and managing large bodies of work that help the business to align to strategies and meet objectives. A project management career involves individuals specializing in the delivery of projects over an extended period of time generally measured in years.
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Different Types of IT Projects
IT project management roles vary between Systems & Infrastructure installation and upgrades, hardware rollouts and/or software development. Each project carries a unique set of constraints and for this reason an IT project manager sometimes specializes on one type of project such as software development or infrastructure upgrade projects.
IT Project Manager Career Path
There is often a grey area between large tasks and small projects. Some organizations chose to classify just about any body of work as a project and others define projects only on larger more expensive bodies of work. This presents an opportunity for technical staff to naturally transition into this role.
Senior Engineers and Consultants and often find a natural career deviation into project management because of their historical involvement, hence experience, with previous projects. The most difficult aspect of this type of transition is the ‘delegation’ learning curve.
Many established project managers also transition quite naturally into management roles because of the similarity in skill sets between the jobs.
IT Project Manager Market Value
As with all Information Technology roles, experience and a proven track record is a major contributing factor to the market value of an individual. Degrees and certifications help to enhance an application as does a technical background and knowledge of project management methodologies. Market forces such as demand and supply also affect market value.
Key Personal Attributes
Whilst there is a natural progression into the role from a technical background not all techies are able to make that transition. The key attributes that make a good PM include delegation skills, diplomacy, communication skills, organization and drive.
Of the aforementioned skills delegation stands out as a key challenge for ex-technical staff and communication stands out as a key challenge for experienced Project Managers. Some communications are so complex in large projects that a communications team is established in order to manage the flow of information.
It Is All About Delivery
Milestones and deliverables are the measure of project success. In order to ensure that large investments are progressing as planned project managers often have a number of milestones and deliverables to mark the completion of a particular phase. The project sponsor, a project board or key stakeholders are parties that may monitor the progress of the project against the schedule.
Delivery on time is the name of the game when it comes to project management. The struggle to meet deadlines is a constant risk to the project budget and PMs are often selected based on the perceived ability of the individual to meet targets.
