Yes, Project Management Skills Trump Tech Skills

I was having a great interview for a Project Manager position. It was a team interview and as we neared the end, everyone was acting as if I was a member of the group, I knew I had the job. As I was getting ready to leave, I asked my standard exit question, “Does anyone have any questions or concerns about my skills that have not been addressed yet?” Normally this leads to a bunch of “Nos” — but not this time.

One of the team members asked the fatal question: “If someone on the project is out sick or on vacation can you step in and write test scripts and do QA analysis while they are out?” As it had been years since I had done anything along those lines, I had to say “No, I cannot.” Needless to say, I didn’t get the job.

IT Project Management seems to be splitting into two camps, functional PMs and technical PMs. Technical PMs appear to need a skill set that is half technical and half project management. In this case, the PM is not just a PM, but also a stand-in for absent people, Tier III support, etc. For small and/or non-critical projects this is a good approach. But for anything else, this can cause a disaster.

It’s something like this: If someone you love is sick and needs a heart replacement, which doctor would you want to do the surgery, a dedicated heart surgeon (functional PM) or a General Practitioner (technical PM)? The GP may know a lot more about medicine as a whole (the technical aspects of a project) but the heart surgeon has specialized knowledge that the GP does not (the functional PM). If you have a business critical project, why would you not want someone specialized in project management skills versus someone who has only half  – or less – of the PM skill set?

I can personally attest that a PM’s abilities can transfer between fields without any underlying knowledge of a project’s technical aspects. Once I was hired to manage a major construction project even though I had zero experience in construction. I was successful because I had a team that didhave the expertise and could provide me with the details I needed. The fact that I didn’t know how long a slab of concrete of a certain size and thickness needed to cure was of no importance, because plenty of people on the team did know.

So how do we get across the message that PM skills are more important than technical skills? I’m glad you asked.

The authors of a 2008 study How do Project Managers’ Skills Affect Project Success in IT Outsourcing? reached this conclusion:

We find that PM soft skills significantly improve both cost performance and client satisfaction feedback. We further show that their impact is much stronger compared to that of hard [technical] skills.

Another point is the technical vs. functional difference has been around for quite some time, yet has had no impact on the overall success of projects. The table below highlights this.

Since 2002 there has been almost no improvement in the success rate for IT projects while the failure rate has increased. Whether this is due to PMs being required to split their skill sets between being PM and tech support is still unknown. However, whenever someone’s time is divided between two unrelated abilities, neither one tends to be done well.

I started project management from a technical background. As my responsibilities increased in complexity and scale, I still got involved in technical issues. My boss then finally took me aside and told me that the next time I touched the hardware or software he was going to fire me. Needless to say, that got my attention. He explained that if I wanted to manage critical projects, I needed to concentrate on being a PM as opposed to being part PM and part technician. Since then, I’ve realized he was correct. I was glad I took his advice. Plus, I kept my job.

The next time your company needs a critical or large-scale project done, think about how important what you’re trying to do truly is. Saving a few dollars on project costs by hiring one person to do two completely different jobs may not be the best way to save money. This is especially true if the company’s heart is involved.

How to answer : where do you see yourself in 5 years

How not to offend your colleagues

Many times you would have ended up in a situation where you offend someone (unknowingly) and ask yourself "Why did I say that"...Here I will go through some suggestions and discuss how to avoid this situation where you offend someone unknowingly. Having a health relation with your colleagues is very important in surviving and succeeding in professional world.

Don't indulge in unnecessary discussions at work

If you don't have any control over what you talk and you feel that sometimes you put yourself in trouble by choosing wrong words during your conversation. You need to work on correcting this otherwise you could be in trouble one day.

Don't say something for which you have to regret in future. For example don't make fun of someone at work, no matter how close he or she might be. Sometimes people don't like your joke and you could be in serious trouble. Always refrain yourself from loose talks.

When I landed in the free country (USA), I had done my homework on cross cultures, I had gone thru cross cultural training, but still there are few things which can't be corrected. I am basically from India and first thing we ask when we meet someone in India is: which state he or she belongs to. Whether he is from North India or not or he speaks Hindi or not.

Here I met a Chinese looking lady she was my client and when she was behaving over friendly to me I asked her if she is from China. I could clearly see that she didn't like it, she said I am American. But I didn't stop and I asked her again if her parents or ancestors are from China. I was lucky that she was kind enough to explain me that I shouldn't ask anyone in America tat which country they belong to. All Americans are proud to be called as American so this kind of question is little insulting, unless they themselves are mentioning their home country.

I did some research and I found that there are many Asian countries who don't like China very well and their citizens hate to be called as Chinese. Be careful, every Chinese looking person is not Chinese.

Ok, here I didn't provide you the solution, whenever you have a question on someone's nationality and you can't control yourself. Go to Facebook, LinkedIn, twitter, look at their profile and get an idea of where they have come from. This will give you a fair idea of the nationality and other information about the person you were looking more information for.

Asian countries are not good at racism and sometimes we get trapped in our own words when we talk about a particular race. For example we don't have anybody feeling about Black people but calling an African American person Black could be dangerous in professional world. Even if your Black friend is calling himself Black, doesn't give you a right to call him Black, always use African American or just African when you resemble someone whom you think is black.

I don't know who you are talking about

Adopt a habit of saying I don't know, never support or oppose any controversial public figure at work. This may lead to unnecessary heated discussion and you won't gain anything out of it.

Never involve in any loose talk at work

Always be cautious at work, don't involve in any of the loose talk. If you can't control yourself then listen to music or note down the topic to discuss after office hours. Don't offend anyone at work whether it's knowingly or unknowingly

Many times we are in a situation where people around us are involved in some loose and vulger talk, about some manager or some other colleague.

Don't get involved in that, try to make some excuse and leave that place, if you still want to know what they were talking, you can take this matter to after office hours.

There are cunning people who look trustworthy and will pull you into the dirty discussion, and after sometime, will use this discussion against you. Be careful if you want to survive and succeed in professional world.

Always review your email before sending it

Many times we reuse our old email or edit someone's email before we reply. It's a great practice to always review your email before you send it over. email that you send contains the zist of the work you have done.
I am not taliking about the email etiquette here, but one thing I would like to suggest you is to review your email before you press send button. Sometime we miss to delete unnecessary content or name or signature from the message we copied.
When reusing your last email, always check the subject line and remove Re: or Fw:... 

Never give average rating to yourself during self appraisal

Keep it in your mind, mix it with coffee and drink it as I say.
Never give yourself an average rating while filling self appraisal document. Leave all your modest and generous thinking and give your self the best rating available.

Suppose, if you think you have not contributed towards learning or not filled timesheet on time or didn't earn a required certification. Don't worry just fill 5 out of 5.

You need to come up with a nice alternative, like:
> You have always given input to others and help them prepare the learning document. Despite of your busy schedule, you have developed a tool which helped other save some time and work towards leaning document.
> You have helped others in filling their timesheets. you have always formally and informally sent reminders to your colleagues to fill their timesheet. You have made sure that freshers in the team understands the importance of timesheet.
> You were single handedly managing all the assignments and couldn't get time to schedule a certification. But you have always learnt from your experience and refer certification materials whenever you get time. very soon you are going to schedule a certification test as soon as your next major release gets over.

My answers might not suit everyone, but you have to prepare your own excuse.

What will happen if you don't give best rating to yourself during your self appraisal ?
Sometimes we don't know that we in the list of high performers or in the good book of our supervisor, good self appraisal helps us in getting an extra edge when there is a tie situation.
When your supervisor is new and he doesn't know much about your team, then its the self appraisal document, which tells him what you have achieved. 

How to survive and succeed in IT industry (or at your workplace)

IT industry is no different from other industries, so all the rules are applicable to any industry you are working in. I have explained below wrt IT industry.

In IT world, you would have commonly seen that what you have read in books and what you follow at work doesn't match. Unfortunately you should follow what's happening in real world.

Here I will mention few steps on how to behave in IT world, so that you succeed at your work place. It should help you in securing your contract or getting promoted at your workplace.

1> Learn and build a solid knowledge base of standard IT procedure and Software Development Lifecycle.

Although you wont be able to use it much, but keeping a strong knowledge base always helps and it will help you in bypassing your supervisor. There are situations when you have a fight or cold war with your supervisor and sometimes the issue escalates to higher management. At that time your higher management cares about your basics, if your basics are correct, you can always prove your manager wrong and secure your job. Sometimes you might get a better position, if your higher management likes your argument. Your

manager must not follow standard IT procedure and SDLC, you will get an advantage of that.

2> Follow what others are following at your work place.

If you are not the best performer and company or project doesn't depend on you, then follow what others are following. by this way you will be secured and you can work on your weak areas and when time comes you can jump to next level. Remember IT world walks like herd of sheep and sheep walking out of the herd is killed first. Always follow what your supervisor want you to follow, slowly when your supervisor becomes fully dependent on you, you can start applying your thoughts.

3> Always work towards a professional goal.

You goal can be anything from switching your company to getting promoted. Always keep your goal in your mind. Sometimes your fortune may change in seconds. Keeps your ears wide open and try to find out whats going on around your workplace.

4> Build your competency.

Read books, do certifications, attend training, do whatever you can to improve your knowledge and competency. Remember your knowledge can't be destroyed, so keep upgrading it.

5> Show your management that you are upgrading your knowledge.

Always try convey your manager whenever you upgrade your knowledge or complete any new certification / training. By that way you will be standing out of the queue. Show them that you are willing to spread your knowledge across the team you are working in. How much you want to share your knowledge it's up to you. It's not a good idea to donate everything you have earned with your hard work. I know ethically it'a not right, but this is how IT companies work. Help others but make sure they don't compete with you.

6> Never discuss your weak areas with your colleagues.

Don't tell anyone that you don't know something. Put it in a way that you know it but you want to confirm it or you have worked on similar tool but the current one looks little different. By this way you are telling them that you don't know how the tool works but you are experienced enough to handle similar tools. 

7> Never be modest about your work.

If you have achieved something, you have a right to say that you had to work hard to achieve that. many people say that I was lucky to get it done or I did nothing, it just happened without much effort. Please don't be so down to earth, if you can't change yourself then leave IT world. You colleagues and manager will seriously start thinking that this guy was lucky enough to get the things done.

You won't get proper appreciation of what you have achieved. For example : you had to get some critical information and to get that info you were suppose to send several emails to several teams, but you got that info in a single email. Never reveal that you got it in a single email, let them think that you have completed this task with a lot of hard work , if someone comes to you and say that you were lucky to get it in a single email, let him know that you had to make several phone calls, attend meetings, chat over instant messenger to get this thing done. It seems like a single email, but it's not.

8> Don't lie at your work.

If you have forgot to do something and you know that it can impact your client or company, accept your mistake. By this way you can get help from others. Everybody makes mistakes but lying will make your problem bigger and sometimes it may lead to a serious revenue loss. In case if your mistake has already created a big problem then provide the exact steps which caused this issue. Take the ownership and work on a plan to make sure that this type of mistake doesn't happen again. Don't let the ownership go to some other team member. You need to build that confidence that you will manage it well from next time. You need to reveal your mistakes only when you are asked to or it has created a big scene, don't need to accept your mistakes if no one cares about the issue or it was resolved without much impact.

9> Always keep every communication in your email.

Please don't take any task or assurance over phone or in person, ask them to send an email or you send an email with minutes or your discussion. By this way you can secure yourself when management asks you for proof or evidence. Many times we feel like not sending email because recipient sits next to you or he has explained well or he has asked you not to send an email, in that case, create a question out of your discussion and send an email asking him for clarification. In that email mention what you have discussed and then put your question at the end, you question might be silly but by that you have conveyed everyone what you were asked to do.

10> Be punctual and behave in a professional manner.

No matter how close are you with your manager, don't involve in any loose talk at your workplace. Behave in a professional manner and always be punctual at work. Professional attire plays a major role in your professional advancement. Just keep your self at your manager's place and think what you expect from your subordinates. Don't be too casual with your supervisor or colleagues. Don't offend your colleagues at your workplace.

Beside all these you need to keep up a good health and keep your cholesterol under control.

What if I don't have enough assignments at work and my contract renewal is pending

If you are not getting any indication from your hiring manager that you will be removed, then leave yourself on your destiny. People dependent on you won't let you leave. Asking will unnecessarily bring your Hiring manager's attention that you don't have enough work. None of the managers want to disturb a resource or position, until it is absolutely necessary. 

In the mean time create a plan for 3-4 months in advance and get your supervisor's feedback, if he gives a positive feedback and includes you in the plan then you don't need to worry about your contract. If you get a negative response then you can ask him if he doesn't see your future in this organization.

Remember: never go by yourself and ask your supervisor to extend your contract. Always do it in passive manner, let him talk about your contract first. You may share issues your are facing in your personal life to get a feeling of your situation, for example: ask him if it's ok to renew your apartment lease or you are planning to buy a house in this area, which depends on your contract renewal. Pretend that you are in dilemma and not sure if you should buy a house near office, because you don't know about your future in this organization.

How Busy People Can Lower Their Cholesterol

The schedules most adults keep could kill a horse. You get up at five in the morning, commute to work, stay all day and return home. Do you get to drop into an easy chair and rest? Nope, there's too much stuff that has to be done. Dinner has to be prepared, homework checked and that annoying leak in the bathroom sink needs fixed.

All of this leaves many of us with a problem. We've got high cholesterol and most of the means of reducing it take time. Unfortunately, time is at a premium, and the cholesterol problem gets shoved behind cleaning the cat box and fixing the regulator in the oven.

There are ways to slip in some of the things that can reduce your numbers. It will take a little planning and perhaps ingenuity on your part, but you can do it.

To be honest, most people who have desk jobs eat at their desk. In fact, they often go down to the lunch truck, get a burger or burrito and bring it back up so they can keep working. The only benefit to this scenario is the walk to the truck.

Instead, bring your lunch. Unless you happen to like sandwiches, you don't have to go that route. There are some fairly healthy, lower cholesterol frozen meals available at the grocery store now. Most of them even taste good.

There is also the option of making something at home to take to work. Lunch boxes and their accessories have come a long way since our childhood days, and it is now safe to bring some stuff, especially if you can keep it cold until time to eat it.

Do you really have to work through lunch? You might find your afternoon far more productive if you take a little time out for a walk. Most people can do a mile in about fifteen minutes. This helps you clear your mind, reduce stress, and yes, cut cholesterol.

You may also want to take the 10,000 steps a day challenge. It's easy. Get a pedometer…they're about six bucks…and start walking. Park at the back of the lot at work or at the grocery store so you have to walk further. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Go for your lunch walk and/or take the kids when you get home. It's not a difficult program and it sneaks exercise into your life.

Garlic, fish oil and flax seeds may be beneficial in helping your cholesterol numbers. While recent studies question how much garlic is helpful, it's still often recommended for cholesterol problems.

There is another supplement that may be recommended. This is not an argument against it; I think it could be a helpful tool for some. I am saying that caution is necessary. Red yeast rice contains elements that act like statins. Because it does act like one, there are major drug interactions to watch out for…particularly if you are already on a statin. The FDA is also considering banning its use as a supplement. The idea is that it is too much like these prescription medications and taking it without a doctor watching over you could be dangerous.

If none of the above work, or they don't work enough, you may need medications. Your doctor can explain what he or she wants you to take and how to take them. Test will have to be done periodically to check for potential side effects, particularly involving the liver and kidneys.

You can lower your cholesterol, even if you lead a busy life. You may also find that the steps you take make you feel better in other ways.