The dark side of the Force. Why the product team should have a project manager
I recently reread my old article on managing people, written about three years ago. At that moment I was a novice project manager and the “dark side of the force” in project management seemed distant and unreal.
Then my responsibility was to custom project with clear requirements, "my" team, which I set tasks, defended and protected from the outside world, the schedule, which I made and defended in discussions with management and customer. I communicated from the position of the team and defended its interests with the customer, as well as with the management: that the deadlines were sufficient, that the new requirements did not appear “from nowhere”, that the claims to quality had real bases and so on. The relationship with the team was, in my opinion, close to the ideal. Of course, there were conflicts and disagreements, but, in most cases, they were resolved instantly and painlessly.
After a while I headed another department. In fact, it was a separate company that was engaged in the product development of components for .NET and JavaScript . Accordingly, product management was added to the scope of my tasks, as well as overseeing marketers and sales managers. In fact, a business component was added to my responsibilities.
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After some time, I noticed that I began to rapidly move away from the ideals of the “light side”. I began to devote much less time to motivating and training employees. He sometimes began to criticize the guys for all, even without taking him aside and even (much to his shame) allowed himself a couple of times to raise his voice.
At some point, looking back, I was horrified by how much my management style had changed, and how much I became similar to that vile and unprofessional PMA, whose image (with the words "and from where only SUCH people come from") drew myself when just starting to work.
Of course, I really did not like it (in general, I love it when they love and respect me;). Accordingly, I decided to consider why this happened, and what should be done to prevent further “degradation”.
The first thought that came to mind was salutary: I simply do not have enough time to “be good”, and a large number of constantly solved current problems that do not allow to enter the stream , just out of balance.
I decided to check this fact and reduced the load by breaking the team so that each group would be headed by a team leader, to whom I would give a pack of tasks with priorities and not follow their further fate until the testing specialist says “everything is ready” . In addition, I delegated employee training and focused on the development and promotion of products. Indeed, work on the formulation, specification of tasks and control development has become much less. But, nevertheless, it didn’t help much “to return to the bright side”.
Thinking a little more, I realized what was missing in the current situation. There was a lack of a sense of unity with the team that could go on for months on customized development.
Lacked a strong credo of any project manager: I create what my team creates . On the contrary, the feeling did not leave: the team makes my product . The team is doing what I need, what I have planned. And it looks like this is the key point. The problem is that I began to look at the team from the business side , while being a PM, I was part of it myself.
In the past, people’s management was reduced to setting tasks, motivating, learning and protecting against external influence. Now - to the formulation of tasks, motivation, training, hiring, salary increase, etc. If you look closely, there is one important factor missing. It is protected from external influence . In fact, the external influence is myself !
Thus, business problems immediately descend into the team, bypassing PMA - the very shield that eliminates unnecessary, structures the flow of tasks, does not allow customers to change priorities on the fly, reshape requirements and do everything else that they ( and now we can say “we " ) So love to do.
So, the moral of this somewhat lengthy case: programmers need a defender for good work, who will serve as a filter and adapter for continuously changing business requirements. This is almost always the task of the PMA. Therefore, if programmers work with the business directly and receive tasks directly from there, they are left without a shield and receive a continuous demotivation charge. Thus, if the product is at the same time the project manager, then the path to the “dark side” is provided to it in any case.
PS There is one reservation - a good process may well protect the team, but this is another story .
Then my responsibility was to custom project with clear requirements, "my" team, which I set tasks, defended and protected from the outside world, the schedule, which I made and defended in discussions with management and customer. I communicated from the position of the team and defended its interests with the customer, as well as with the management: that the deadlines were sufficient, that the new requirements did not appear “from nowhere”, that the claims to quality had real bases and so on. The relationship with the team was, in my opinion, close to the ideal. Of course, there were conflicts and disagreements, but, in most cases, they were resolved instantly and painlessly.
After a while I headed another department. In fact, it was a separate company that was engaged in the product development of components for .NET and JavaScript . Accordingly, product management was added to the scope of my tasks, as well as overseeing marketers and sales managers. In fact, a business component was added to my responsibilities.
')
After some time, I noticed that I began to rapidly move away from the ideals of the “light side”. I began to devote much less time to motivating and training employees. He sometimes began to criticize the guys for all, even without taking him aside and even (much to his shame) allowed himself a couple of times to raise his voice.
At some point, looking back, I was horrified by how much my management style had changed, and how much I became similar to that vile and unprofessional PMA, whose image (with the words "and from where only SUCH people come from") drew myself when just starting to work.
Of course, I really did not like it (in general, I love it when they love and respect me;). Accordingly, I decided to consider why this happened, and what should be done to prevent further “degradation”.
The first thought that came to mind was salutary: I simply do not have enough time to “be good”, and a large number of constantly solved current problems that do not allow to enter the stream , just out of balance.
I decided to check this fact and reduced the load by breaking the team so that each group would be headed by a team leader, to whom I would give a pack of tasks with priorities and not follow their further fate until the testing specialist says “everything is ready” . In addition, I delegated employee training and focused on the development and promotion of products. Indeed, work on the formulation, specification of tasks and control development has become much less. But, nevertheless, it didn’t help much “to return to the bright side”.
Thinking a little more, I realized what was missing in the current situation. There was a lack of a sense of unity with the team that could go on for months on customized development.
Lacked a strong credo of any project manager: I create what my team creates . On the contrary, the feeling did not leave: the team makes my product . The team is doing what I need, what I have planned. And it looks like this is the key point. The problem is that I began to look at the team from the business side , while being a PM, I was part of it myself.
In the past, people’s management was reduced to setting tasks, motivating, learning and protecting against external influence. Now - to the formulation of tasks, motivation, training, hiring, salary increase, etc. If you look closely, there is one important factor missing. It is protected from external influence . In fact, the external influence is myself !
Thus, business problems immediately descend into the team, bypassing PMA - the very shield that eliminates unnecessary, structures the flow of tasks, does not allow customers to change priorities on the fly, reshape requirements and do everything else that they ( and now we can say “we " ) So love to do.
So, the moral of this somewhat lengthy case: programmers need a defender for good work, who will serve as a filter and adapter for continuously changing business requirements. This is almost always the task of the PMA. Therefore, if programmers work with the business directly and receive tasks directly from there, they are left without a shield and receive a continuous demotivation charge. Thus, if the product is at the same time the project manager, then the path to the “dark side” is provided to it in any case.
PS There is one reservation - a good process may well protect the team, but this is another story .
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/156487/
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