How does IT grow from team leader to project manager?
Hello friends!
According to the results of the article “ How can I become a project manager in IT, if before that I worked (a) in a similar position, but not in IT? »Questions arose, but what about Team Leads (TL), which are already working in IT? How do these Team Leads become project managers? This article intentionally will not mention the position of Tech Lead, which in my understanding is no different from Team Lead, in terms of growth from it in PM. Thus, the abbreviation TL can be read both by Team Lead and by Tech Lead.
I want to stress right away that there is not just a lot of material on this topic, but a lot of it, and it is completely unrealistic to put it in one article. Moreover, meeting even several articles is also an almost hopeless task. Literally, every point that will be discussed further pulls out numerous training sessions, a huge number of books, articles on the Internet, discussions with mentors and many, many, many personally your practice in working on yourself. And then all the listed time, force and nerve costs repeat once more.
')
If, after reading this introduction, you still think that for some reason you still need to grow from TL to the Project Manager, and you are ready to invest time and energy in your development - welcome to read further. If you are not ready to invest in yourself and learn, practice, learn and practice again - there is no further reading. Do not waste your time.
To avoid some confusion, it is worth mentioning that I am analyzing only the “TL-> PM” variant in this article. The option “Engineer-> TL” is not considered to reduce the length of the article.
How does TL become PM in normal life? The main options are as follows:
1. There is no one else. The team has grown and it is necessary to appoint someone, but there are no other candidates.
2. The only person in the subject (knowledge holder). Knows about the technical side of the project, almost everything.
3. Multiple TLs, one position. Choose someone one.
3. "Motivation" TL new job title. Your position was simply renamed, but you are doing the same thing as before. Motivation is a very controversial term in this case, therefore in quotes.
5. New vacancy PM (new or pilot project, where you need PM).
6. TL is already working as PM. Performs the functions that PM must do, i.e. already really ready to be PM.
Delusions
Being in the role of PM, our Lead remained inside exactly the same person as he was before, that is, Lead (except for item 6 from the list above). All the misconceptions about the role and functions of PM that PM really has to fulfill - our Lead has remained unchanged. What are these errors?
1. I am a great TL, I help my team, about 50% of my time I write code (if the Lead is a development team) or I do testing (if the Lead is a group of testers), or I deal with specifications and requirements (if the Lead is an analyst group). So in the role of PM you will have to do about the same thing , only even better, more qualitative, even faster. It's like next level in the skills that I already have.
2. Since I am doing my job excellently, the others should also do their job at least perfectly well.
3. I must understand all that my subordinates are able to, so that “if anything happens,” I would be able to do the work for any of them. And to understand at the level exceeding the level of my subordinates.
4. I’m a cool TL, and now I’ll only do a couple of new reports over and above my usual duties - I can handle it easily!
5. PM gets a big salary, but it works less - I want it too!
6. PM should only make reports, sit at meetings and call the customer - it's easy - I can handle it!
Admit it honestly (no one will know, except yourself) - do you have at least one of these six misconceptions?
We often do not even suspect how much it takes to be PM! And we do not know this, not because we are stupid. Often, this is simply because no one has told us about it, and we have remained captive to our above-described errors. And we are not capable of discovering this “brave new world” for ourselves, because it’s completely different. And now it will become a little clearer why this is so.
Career ladder
Usually, in the minds of most IT staff, this staircase looks like this:
In fact, it is completely different, more correctly, these are different career ladders:
And since these are different ladders, then the skill set required for these ladders is different! I will say more, it is not just different, but completely different. In fact, this is a completely different profession . Have you changed your profession in your life at least once? Here is the transition between these stairs - about the same. You can estimate how long it takes on average to master a new profession, at least at the level of "mediocre." Looking ahead to say - this is a few years minimum.
Moreover, the knowledge that helped you on the ladder number 1, the second ladder will sometimes disturb you. You risk falling into the deadline assessment trap - I myself as a <developer | tester | analyst> would do this task for so many days, so my new subordinates will do it for exactly the same time. This is a serious mistake by novice executives who have grown from TL!
The second common mistake is the desire to "code." Yes, yes, it is the code (either to test or work with the requirements). Project Manager should not do this in any way! It turns out that if you switch to the PM position and stop coding, your skills as a developer (tester, analyst) will fall. For half a year of work at the PM position (stair number 2), your skills from stair number 1 will squeeze, but not critical. After a year, it is already critical and it will be very difficult to go back. Perhaps, but really difficult. And the return will require approximately another six months or a year of reverse “addiction." Why might want to come back? About this next.
Do not forget about the six common misconceptions. If they were, they did not go anywhere. And seriously prevent you from being a PM. Get rid of them as quickly as possible!
Underwater rocks
So you are PM, grown from TL. What surprises, at first glance, you will encounter?
1. Code . It is necessary to stop "writing code." Yes, once again - stop doing it. Immediately. Otherwise you are not PM.
2. Knowledge . Your old knowledge as a specialist can disturb you. To realize this fact is difficult. Even harder to accept it.
3. Degradation . You are degrading as a specialist (ladder number 1).
4. Bosses . You need an understanding of how the customer / boss actually thinks (this is both reporting on them and correspondence / communication). You are now on the other side of the barricades, and it is necessary to understand this side. Especially customer. He suddenly ceases to be an enemy, generating "strange" wishes, and becomes one whose position and whose view you need to find out and understand. Many PMs cannot achieve this skill for years.
5. Not yours . You are no longer yours if you have become the leader of your colleagues. They suddenly cease to share with you their experiences, opinions and situation in the project. After all, you have acquired the power to reward and punish. And the wrong word they say can lead to the deprivation of a bonus or any other bad for them. So do not share.
Along with such a serious blow to your picture of the world, a change in your area of responsibility takes place. Now you are responsible not only for a part of the “code”, but also for people, for all delivery (time, quality, scope, customer satisfaction, etc.), sometimes also for a budget with salaries, and a contract.
This is a completely different level of responsibility. Not everyone is ready and able to withstand it. Especially if you wanted to be a PM because of 4, 5 and 6 errors (see above). Just imagine - now you will be flown in a hat not only for your own failure, but also for the failure of each of your subordinates! If you have 10 subordinates, then this is 10 times more "arrivals on the cap" than you had before. It is on this responsibility focus that many are turning back before it is too late and you have not degraded as a specialist. And this degradation is relentless. By the way, sitting down one Zh on two chairs will not work. Being a full-fledged PM, while at the same time professionally closing TL questions, will not lead to anything good. You will fail both directions, and with not a weak risk for your entire career, and possibly for your health, which is not healthy at all.
Do you all need to be PMs?
Remember the principle of Peter Laurence (Dr. Laurence Johnston Peter) or re-read the book of the same name.
How to identify thosewho really need someone who wants to become a PM?
Do they really want it? What does their behavior, facts, results say?
TL must want and be able to become PM!
If you are a manager and choose whether to raise your TL - think whether he will be able to perform completely new duties? Can he do it? Do you want to? His verbal statements alone are not enough. TL must demonstrate with facts and deeds that he wants and can (can) be PM. Assign him a pilot project, make it possible to make mistakes, support him on “difficult turns” and, based on the results of the pilot project, discuss with TL the level of his readiness for a new role (and not position). And if readiness is not 100% yet, then what is needed is 100%. Make a list with dates and clear milestones. If TL is ready to go on this list - it is PM PM. If he is not ready to invest and is not aware of all the above, then it is not his. Perhaps not yet.
If you are a TL , and you want to be a PM , you learn and practice being a PM no matter what your manager plans. If your boss helps you, great. You are very lucky. No kidding. Such help is very expensive. If your leader does not help you - this is not bad, you just have to put a little more strength. Show him not in words, but in deeds, with the facts that you are ready to take responsibility for others and are already doing it (here is a list of when it happened and what positive results it ended). Ask yourself a small sandbox pilot project where you could practice. Where they could make mistakes (everybody makes them) without a critical risk for the main project. Ask your supervisor for help in the form of advice. One hour a week. Half an hour a day. Any convenient for him regular time slot. Do not be afraid to make mistakes. Do not be afraid to ask. Make a plan with the manager that you need to master in order to become PM. Do not be alarmed if the plan turns out big. Remember - this is a completely different profession. And knowledge with skills there needs are completely different.
In conclusion:
1. TL should realize that "sit on the pope exactly"! = "Guaranteed growth in PM in a few years."
2. Thinking in the style of "got up and done" - exactly what is required from PM. Thinking in the style of "salary-loan-Egypt" - something that seems to be still suitable for TL, but not at all suitable for PM.
3. Be proactive - who needs the most?
4. It is important to perceive yourself and your role in a team, project, company.
5. It is really necessary to be able to work with people.
6. Constant willingness to work on yourself, learn and change, take responsibility for others is critical.
All this and much more is Soft Skills, without which you will remain TL, but outwardly you will put on PM (new writing of the post) epaulettes. The shoulder straps, of course, warm the soul, but inside you are still the same TL. And you need it? For the sake of this, have you all started?
Well, you realized that you have to? Really realized? Still want to become PM? If yes, then reconsider the list of delusions and pitfalls. Yes, yes, go back to these lists right now and revise them carefully, even if you still remember them.
Revised? Are you still here? Then I’ll write for you in the next article, which, in my opinion, is worth starting to start rebuilding your mind set in the direction of "being PM", if you are really ready to do it, you are ready to become a real leader (one of the traits of which says Simon Sinek in his TED talk ).
The motivation to be PM is the desire to do something that one person cannot do in principle.
PS: the original of this article (and other interesting materials) can be read in my blog: consultpm.com
Share this article with friends.
Like and Share - welcome and give a plus in karma.
Thank you and success to you!
According to the results of the article “ How can I become a project manager in IT, if before that I worked (a) in a similar position, but not in IT? »Questions arose, but what about Team Leads (TL), which are already working in IT? How do these Team Leads become project managers? This article intentionally will not mention the position of Tech Lead, which in my understanding is no different from Team Lead, in terms of growth from it in PM. Thus, the abbreviation TL can be read both by Team Lead and by Tech Lead.
I want to stress right away that there is not just a lot of material on this topic, but a lot of it, and it is completely unrealistic to put it in one article. Moreover, meeting even several articles is also an almost hopeless task. Literally, every point that will be discussed further pulls out numerous training sessions, a huge number of books, articles on the Internet, discussions with mentors and many, many, many personally your practice in working on yourself. And then all the listed time, force and nerve costs repeat once more.
')
If, after reading this introduction, you still think that for some reason you still need to grow from TL to the Project Manager, and you are ready to invest time and energy in your development - welcome to read further. If you are not ready to invest in yourself and learn, practice, learn and practice again - there is no further reading. Do not waste your time.
To avoid some confusion, it is worth mentioning that I am analyzing only the “TL-> PM” variant in this article. The option “Engineer-> TL” is not considered to reduce the length of the article.
How does TL become PM in normal life? The main options are as follows:
1. There is no one else. The team has grown and it is necessary to appoint someone, but there are no other candidates.
2. The only person in the subject (knowledge holder). Knows about the technical side of the project, almost everything.
3. Multiple TLs, one position. Choose someone one.
3. "Motivation" TL new job title. Your position was simply renamed, but you are doing the same thing as before. Motivation is a very controversial term in this case, therefore in quotes.
5. New vacancy PM (new or pilot project, where you need PM).
6. TL is already working as PM. Performs the functions that PM must do, i.e. already really ready to be PM.
Delusions
Being in the role of PM, our Lead remained inside exactly the same person as he was before, that is, Lead (except for item 6 from the list above). All the misconceptions about the role and functions of PM that PM really has to fulfill - our Lead has remained unchanged. What are these errors?
1. I am a great TL, I help my team, about 50% of my time I write code (if the Lead is a development team) or I do testing (if the Lead is a group of testers), or I deal with specifications and requirements (if the Lead is an analyst group). So in the role of PM you will have to do about the same thing , only even better, more qualitative, even faster. It's like next level in the skills that I already have.
2. Since I am doing my job excellently, the others should also do their job at least perfectly well.
3. I must understand all that my subordinates are able to, so that “if anything happens,” I would be able to do the work for any of them. And to understand at the level exceeding the level of my subordinates.
4. I’m a cool TL, and now I’ll only do a couple of new reports over and above my usual duties - I can handle it easily!
5. PM gets a big salary, but it works less - I want it too!
6. PM should only make reports, sit at meetings and call the customer - it's easy - I can handle it!
Admit it honestly (no one will know, except yourself) - do you have at least one of these six misconceptions?
We often do not even suspect how much it takes to be PM! And we do not know this, not because we are stupid. Often, this is simply because no one has told us about it, and we have remained captive to our above-described errors. And we are not capable of discovering this “brave new world” for ourselves, because it’s completely different. And now it will become a little clearer why this is so.
Career ladder
Usually, in the minds of most IT staff, this staircase looks like this:
In fact, it is completely different, more correctly, these are different career ladders:
And since these are different ladders, then the skill set required for these ladders is different! I will say more, it is not just different, but completely different. In fact, this is a completely different profession . Have you changed your profession in your life at least once? Here is the transition between these stairs - about the same. You can estimate how long it takes on average to master a new profession, at least at the level of "mediocre." Looking ahead to say - this is a few years minimum.
Moreover, the knowledge that helped you on the ladder number 1, the second ladder will sometimes disturb you. You risk falling into the deadline assessment trap - I myself as a <developer | tester | analyst> would do this task for so many days, so my new subordinates will do it for exactly the same time. This is a serious mistake by novice executives who have grown from TL!
The second common mistake is the desire to "code." Yes, yes, it is the code (either to test or work with the requirements). Project Manager should not do this in any way! It turns out that if you switch to the PM position and stop coding, your skills as a developer (tester, analyst) will fall. For half a year of work at the PM position (stair number 2), your skills from stair number 1 will squeeze, but not critical. After a year, it is already critical and it will be very difficult to go back. Perhaps, but really difficult. And the return will require approximately another six months or a year of reverse “addiction." Why might want to come back? About this next.
Do not forget about the six common misconceptions. If they were, they did not go anywhere. And seriously prevent you from being a PM. Get rid of them as quickly as possible!
Underwater rocks
So you are PM, grown from TL. What surprises, at first glance, you will encounter?
1. Code . It is necessary to stop "writing code." Yes, once again - stop doing it. Immediately. Otherwise you are not PM.
2. Knowledge . Your old knowledge as a specialist can disturb you. To realize this fact is difficult. Even harder to accept it.
3. Degradation . You are degrading as a specialist (ladder number 1).
4. Bosses . You need an understanding of how the customer / boss actually thinks (this is both reporting on them and correspondence / communication). You are now on the other side of the barricades, and it is necessary to understand this side. Especially customer. He suddenly ceases to be an enemy, generating "strange" wishes, and becomes one whose position and whose view you need to find out and understand. Many PMs cannot achieve this skill for years.
5. Not yours . You are no longer yours if you have become the leader of your colleagues. They suddenly cease to share with you their experiences, opinions and situation in the project. After all, you have acquired the power to reward and punish. And the wrong word they say can lead to the deprivation of a bonus or any other bad for them. So do not share.
Along with such a serious blow to your picture of the world, a change in your area of responsibility takes place. Now you are responsible not only for a part of the “code”, but also for people, for all delivery (time, quality, scope, customer satisfaction, etc.), sometimes also for a budget with salaries, and a contract.
This is a completely different level of responsibility. Not everyone is ready and able to withstand it. Especially if you wanted to be a PM because of 4, 5 and 6 errors (see above). Just imagine - now you will be flown in a hat not only for your own failure, but also for the failure of each of your subordinates! If you have 10 subordinates, then this is 10 times more "arrivals on the cap" than you had before. It is on this responsibility focus that many are turning back before it is too late and you have not degraded as a specialist. And this degradation is relentless. By the way, sitting down one Zh on two chairs will not work. Being a full-fledged PM, while at the same time professionally closing TL questions, will not lead to anything good. You will fail both directions, and with not a weak risk for your entire career, and possibly for your health, which is not healthy at all.
Do you all need to be PMs?
Remember the principle of Peter Laurence (Dr. Laurence Johnston Peter) or re-read the book of the same name.
How to identify those
Do they really want it? What does their behavior, facts, results say?
TL must want and be able to become PM!
If you are a manager and choose whether to raise your TL - think whether he will be able to perform completely new duties? Can he do it? Do you want to? His verbal statements alone are not enough. TL must demonstrate with facts and deeds that he wants and can (can) be PM. Assign him a pilot project, make it possible to make mistakes, support him on “difficult turns” and, based on the results of the pilot project, discuss with TL the level of his readiness for a new role (and not position). And if readiness is not 100% yet, then what is needed is 100%. Make a list with dates and clear milestones. If TL is ready to go on this list - it is PM PM. If he is not ready to invest and is not aware of all the above, then it is not his. Perhaps not yet.
If you are a TL , and you want to be a PM , you learn and practice being a PM no matter what your manager plans. If your boss helps you, great. You are very lucky. No kidding. Such help is very expensive. If your leader does not help you - this is not bad, you just have to put a little more strength. Show him not in words, but in deeds, with the facts that you are ready to take responsibility for others and are already doing it (here is a list of when it happened and what positive results it ended). Ask yourself a small sandbox pilot project where you could practice. Where they could make mistakes (everybody makes them) without a critical risk for the main project. Ask your supervisor for help in the form of advice. One hour a week. Half an hour a day. Any convenient for him regular time slot. Do not be afraid to make mistakes. Do not be afraid to ask. Make a plan with the manager that you need to master in order to become PM. Do not be alarmed if the plan turns out big. Remember - this is a completely different profession. And knowledge with skills there needs are completely different.
In conclusion:
1. TL should realize that "sit on the pope exactly"! = "Guaranteed growth in PM in a few years."
2. Thinking in the style of "got up and done" - exactly what is required from PM. Thinking in the style of "salary-loan-Egypt" - something that seems to be still suitable for TL, but not at all suitable for PM.
3. Be proactive - who needs the most?
4. It is important to perceive yourself and your role in a team, project, company.
5. It is really necessary to be able to work with people.
6. Constant willingness to work on yourself, learn and change, take responsibility for others is critical.
All this and much more is Soft Skills, without which you will remain TL, but outwardly you will put on PM (new writing of the post) epaulettes. The shoulder straps, of course, warm the soul, but inside you are still the same TL. And you need it? For the sake of this, have you all started?
Well, you realized that you have to? Really realized? Still want to become PM? If yes, then reconsider the list of delusions and pitfalls. Yes, yes, go back to these lists right now and revise them carefully, even if you still remember them.
Revised? Are you still here? Then I’ll write for you in the next article, which, in my opinion, is worth starting to start rebuilding your mind set in the direction of "being PM", if you are really ready to do it, you are ready to become a real leader (one of the traits of which says Simon Sinek in his TED talk ).
The motivation to be PM is the desire to do something that one person cannot do in principle.
PS: the original of this article (and other interesting materials) can be read in my blog: consultpm.com
Share this article with friends.
Like and Share - welcome and give a plus in karma.
Thank you and success to you!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/291192/
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