Early in my career, I worked for a computer company in Silicon Valley that saw the importance of developing technically-minded folks who could manage projects effectively. They brought together a group of early career folks from across many departments who spent a few days every month learning about a specific skillset. Over the course of a year, I learned many useful things, but what I remember most is a one-page article that talked about the dualities of managing projects. The insights from that article are especially valuable at this time when ITS is managing responses to a rapidly changing software vendor environment, and when many campus initiatives are enabled by technology.
The first duality was that project managers (“PMs”) need to see both the forest and the trees. One needs to see the strategic value of the work being done and to ensure that the project serves the big picture needs of the organization. The PM also needs to be aware of all the tasks and obstacles and to have enough detailed information to ensure that the tasks will be finished on time.
The second duality was that project managers need to have a lot of ego and no ego at all. Technology projects are very complicated and they require a certain degree of confidence and persistence with both the tech team and users in order to get through complicated issues. However, the project manager needs to listen with an open mind and defer to the expertise and needs of the team members and their supervisors.
The article had several other dualities and an overall message that the key was knowing which end of the duality is needed at any given moment. That call to situational awareness is so important for those of us who lead technology projects.
One big gap in my training (and that article) was that it didn’t address the impact of change on the users. Nor did it talk about the constraints of how much time and attention users can put towards any particular project. It didn’t take me long to figure out that community members don’t ask for very many of the technology changes that end up affecting them. I take the negative impact of that very seriously.
You are always welcome to reach out to me if you feel that the reasons for changes aren’t clear or the process could be improved. Open communication is especially important at times like this, where there is a lot of technology change and a reduced capacity to absorb it.