Whether you will be a good project manager to a team of programmers and technicians is a problem that is regularly discussed and often arises in the mind of novice project managers. What we want to tell you is that you don’t have to worry.
This question was sent to us by our readers who are now starting the project management profession.
The thoughts you currently have go through almost all professionals in similar activities and professions. This is quite natural.
For many years, the topic of whether I could be a project manager for a project whose technologies I do not understand well has been debated thousands of times and has been discussed regularly on social networks and articles.
If you understand a lot of programming, you would probably be a programmer.
Rarely, however, there are highly specialized professionals who choose to change their profession and become project manager for example.
The productivity of project management activities depends entirely on their preparation in the new subject matter.
If the team is going to mislead you, then you have serious problems and they are not related to your professional skills. The problems are with the organization, the team leaders and the team members themselves.
If your teams are misguiding you, then it is likely that the requirements and scope are not well understood and the topic is not discussed in sufficient detail.
These are the two main topics for such unpleasant mistakes.
In practice, there are two main approaches to dealing with these potential problems:
Have an adequate and responsible team leader who is responsible for and makes decisions on behalf of the entire team and has the final say. He often consults the project manager on technical issues, time estimates, and more. You should require such an atmosphere and habit of co-operation, if not required.
Another practice commonly used by Scrum teams is group decision-making, group discussions, and practices, where the entire team participates equally with all the work required to plan, evaluate time and share project goals responsibly.
How this would happen in your organization would depend entirely on the already established ways of working.
If you have doubts about your project management skills we may recommend attending good project management online course so your knowledge, skills, and confidence will boost. Remember that the most important quality in this profession is your relaxed and confident management style, not the programming or technical skills.
Greetings!