Both knowledge of technology and people skills are needed to be an effective project manager, says Dr R Srinivasan

We have been discussing that People, Technology and Process, are the major factors in influencing the success or failure of projects in software development. Software experts like Steve McConnel, Jim McCarthy, Moyinhan, McClukey and several others have repeatedly stressed upon the point that all these three factors must be evenly balanced; if any one of them is not dealt with properly, software development will suffer. Mistake committed in any one of this can cause may result in technical failure leading to development of a wrong product or premature termination of the project; naturally it will speak on the cost of development. It is therefore highly essential for the Project Manager to maintain the balance among these three factors.

Unfortunately it is not always easy for some organizations to find such a best-fit Project Manager. As mentioned in one of my earlier articles, a Manager, in addition to his technical capabilities, should also have leadership qualities. William Brown, et al in, 'AntiPatterns in Project Management', classify a Project Manager who does not have leadership qualities into two categories - Mismatched Project Manager and Unempowered Project Manager. They describe that there are two variations under the Mismatched category, viz. one who has no experience as Project Manager, but hired by mistake by the organization. The second variation is when an engineer or developer is taken up the ladder to the position of Project Manager, due to his success as a technologist. The basic fact is that the necessary qualities and the required skills of a Project Manager are orthogonal to those of a good technologist.

An organization should take note that the leadership processes are personality driven, people oriented and instinctive and simply not on technical skill of a person. Under the second category also, there are two variations. One is the case where a good Project Manager, with required skills, is shadowed by the one above him/her in the hierarchy. Under this situation, the projects are directly engineered and controlled by this person at the higher level. The second variation is the case where the Project Manager may not have the capability to communicate properly with the upper level management and instil confidence in them. The result will still be the same, viz., the higher level person tries to take over and manage the project. In either case, it will result in uneasy experience in the project team and will end in disaster because the members of the team have already developed good rapport with the Project Manager in many respects and moreover won't feel comfortable to work with people at upper level management.

Tony Collins, et al in, 'CLASH Learning from the World's Worst Computer Disasters', focus on another factor which leads to the failure of a project - due to the shaky characteristic of the person at a higher level to whom the Project Manager reports and who is the focal point for the review of the progress of the object. They point out two typical characteristics - pusillanimity and credulity. According to Webster's dictionary, pusillanimous means cowardliness, fear or timidity. Under the context of project management in software development, pusillanimity would stand for the characteristic of a Chief Executive who is responsible for tracking the progress of the project but shies away from it because of his/her fear that he/she is ignorant of software development and may even be lack of knowledge in use of computers.

What would be the consequence of this? Even though it is assumed that Project Manager takes good care of the project's progress, there is always a need for periodical review by the top executive like CTO. But because of his/her fear, the problems will arise when cowed by the mistaken belief of ignorance, the Chief Executive is the one who has the quality called "credulity". Again, as per Webster's Dictionary, it means "disposition to believe on slight evidence" - in Project Management concept it will mean the mark of feeble mind that will lead to some grave mistakes to slip through without taking proper action on time.

We have thus seen that one of the main factors in the success of software development is "people", which in a project comprises of the Project Manager, Software Architect, the developers, the Q&A person, a top level management person and of course the customer. Interaction among these people is very important and it happens in two ways - Horizontal and Vertical. Horizontal interaction is among the same peer group having shared goals, while the Vertical interaction requires iteration and negotiation among the subordinates and supervisors. The Project Manager is part of both and is the main centre of gravity in project development. According to Dutch proverb, "A ship on the beach is lighthouse to the sea". So is the Project Manager to everyone in an organization.

(The author is Chief Technology Officer, Internet Component Management Group, Bangalore and can contact at r.srinivasan@iCMGworld.com)