项目管理:职业生涯的一个阶段（转）

PMP现在已不是一个新鲜事物了.在最近的数十年间,几乎在所有的工业领域,它已变成为一个主流职业.有越来越多的人正在从他们原来职业中转行变成为一个PM. 当功能组经理同他们的业务分析员测试人员开发人员谈到有关职业话题时,经常会听到他们说他们期望变成为一个PM.不过,刚毕业参加工作的大学生却很少有人想成为PM.

我们可以看到,成功的项目经理能够充分理解他周围的环境,这种理解力只可能通过他们的工作经验才能够获得.任何人都可以学会作为PM所需要的基本技能,但项目管理却决不仅仅是工具和技术的简单相加.它是艺术,而不是科学.为了将他自己的风格融入到项目管理中去,PM需要具备一定程度的组织力,学会情绪控制等一些软技巧.

一个公认的事实是,无论何种工业领域,人们都需要项目管理.那么,为什么如此多的组织认为项目经理这种职业的发展已经没有了发展空间?一些利己主义者想当然地认为PM存在于食物链的最上层,自然不可能再会有新的发展. 很显然事情不是这样的. 既然如此,为什么那些组织还会认为职业经理职业的发展已经裹足不前呢?

项目经理之后的职业发展是什么?
首先想要说的是,项目经理在项目实践中有很多机会获取成功的经验.但也会有例外的情况,总会有些时日,过高的投入将会给项目经理们带来他们未曾经历过的挑战.

那些没有进一步发展机会的项目经理们,他们中的绝大多数会选择怎样的道路呢?也许有人会加入到PMO组织从事项目控制及审核工作.也有人会从事项目方法论及过程的研究.不管怎样,要么退出这支队伍,要么在激情过后仍选择留下继续作他的项目经理,或者从全职状态慢慢退出.

从微观讲,一个项目就是一项独立的完整业务.很多组织自豪地对外宣布说他们是基于项目的业务组合体.这是在阐述他们的组织是由很多项目有机组合在一起的单位. 话到这里延伸一下,我们可以理解每个项目经理实际上就是某一项业务的业务首脑.如果你愿意深入比较,你还会发现很多有趣的事.

我们的项目经理们每天都会面临下面的挑战:
· 项目团队的管理—确保正确的人在正确的时间做正确的事
· 项目预算的管理—硬件资源,软件资源以及其它
· 发布决定—团队成员遇到问题,他们将首先去找项目经理.
· 沟通—在这方面项目经理起着决定性的作用.如果项目经理不能够与不同的项目关系人进行有效沟通,并采取不同的沟通方式去适应他们,那么项目将必然走向失败.

关键的地方我在这里已经列举出来.可以看出,项目经理们所面临的这些挑战同一个功能经理一个业务首脑甚或一个CEO相比并没有多少区别.当然,通常说来一个CEO所管理的人员数目比一个项目经理所管理的人员数目要大一些,管理的工作和角色也各有不同,但他们间的管理原理是相通的.

我觉得一个人的职业途径应该是很清晰的.当他被推荐给高层管理者后,他就要先在某个适当的时候担任项目经理的角色.一个有着成功经验的项目经理,在他转入功能部门从事管理工作后,或者当他担当其它执行角色时,他将更容易获得成功.

认清潜力发掘潜力
我并不是建议每个项目经理都得去努力坐到CEO的位置,事实上他们中很多人对此并无兴趣.我的意思是,一个成功的项目经理通常具备良好的经验,这可以帮助他们去运作某一项业务,就如同他们运作一个项目一样.

在决定公司人员架构时,公司领导层会检讨公司需要什么样的人才. 这一点,不同的公司会有各不相同的答案.决定什么样的人才类型需要考虑到诸多方面的因素.比如公司的类型,他们的价值观,他们所从事的行业等.另外,项目经理身上具有的某些特点,也可以供他们参考以弄清楚他们需要些什么样的人才.

将来的企业执行官可能都是些有经验的项目经理,工作中他们将充分发挥他们的项目实践经验并取得良好的工作绩效.他们能够在事前将那些可能变成大问题的问题点找出来,消除于萌芽状态.这一类项目经理在组织中的各个层面都是些拥有高超技巧的沟通者.他们理解自己的同事,知道同事们在工作中将会有什么样的表现.还会基于同事的个人需求想出办法来激励他们.

在有些人看来,我似乎是在描述一种关于项目经理的理想状态.他们在怀疑,这是不是真的?为什么这种状况还没有出现?部分原因可能是项目管理模式并没有形成为垄断的管理方式,还存在有其它优秀的运行模式. 但答案不会如此简单,其实项目管理模式与其它管理模式并没有很明显的区别,它们各自的技巧是相通的.

那么该如何举荐一个项目经理去担当领导角色呢?项目的推动者似乎并没有出于战略上的考虑去作出安排,这很有代表性.他们的理解是,只有在提出项目要求时或者一项业务刚刚获得批准时,才用得上项目经理.

在项目的立项阶段让项目经理有机会参与一些决策非常重要.在项目的起初阶段,他们可能是信息的接受者而不是发出者.对于项目的推动者来说,这种安排是有益的.

另外,对项目经理来说,参与项目立项的讨论并不会占用他们多长时间. 除此之外,他们便天天同他的项目团队在一起.如果有了上面的安排,他们将很清楚他们需要完成什么样的工作,还会归避某个项目关系人影响到他们将来的工作.所有这些都是实实在在的好处,不管项目经理人期望与否.

结论
没有什么银弹用来识别出完美的领导者并给他们指出正确的路线升任为高层管理者,领导者也不应该仅仅被当做组织不可动摇的一部分.成功的组织应该去发掘有潜质的人才,无论是从那里用何种方式去发现他们.

项目经理们具备一些很好的管理经验,我们也能从业务管理者们的身上发现到这些经验.即使如此,组织还需要得到些帮助,以将这些管理经验在不同的项目中和企业的董事会上得以分享.

如果你已是个项目经理并希望走得更远一些,你最好多考虑考虑你有哪方面的经验,考虑这些经验如何能被其他职业经理人所借用,还有哪些方面需要进一步发展等问题.如果你是个业务领导,你最好多审视一下你周围的项目经理们,没准你会有惊喜的发现.

原文：
　　　　Project Management as a Career Step

Andy Jordan December 7, 2005

The project management profession is not new. It has been a mainstream profession across virtually all industries for decades now, and yet project managers continue to be created part way through their careers. When functional managers have career discussions with business analysts, testers, developers, etc., they will often hear that the staff member wants to get into project management, but rarely do you find an undergraduate who wants to be a PM when he or she enters the workforce.

This is logical: Successful project managers have an understanding of their environment that you can’t get except through experience. Anyone can be taught the basic skills that a PM needs, but project management is more than a collection of tools and techniques. It is an art, not a science, and in order to put their own style into their management a PM needs a certain degree of organizational and emotional maturity as well as superior soft skills.

This is recognized throughout the world, across multiple industries--people need to evolve into project management. Why then is it that so many organizations think that the evolution stops with project managers, that the career stops there? While it is good for the ego to think of the PM as the top of the food chain, it is clearly not the case. So why do organizations not continue down the path that they have started?

From project management to?
First off, let me say that there are plenty of opportunities for project managers to have successful careers within project management, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. There will always be multi-year, huge dollar initiatives that can give the PM the kind of challenge that few will ever experience, but these are the exceptions.

What happens to the 99 percent of PMs who will never have those opportunities? Some will move into PMO leadership and related disciplines--project control, audit, etc. Others will contribute to project management methodology and process. However, many will either resign themselves to remain as project managers long after the thrill has passed (often on a contract basis) or will drift away from the profession entirely.

A project is a wonderful thing--it is a business in microcosm. Today, organizations are proudly claiming to be project based businesses, effectively saying that they are a collection of projects that together form the collective company. By extension, therefore, the project manager can be compared with a business unit head. And when you start to delve more deeply into that comparison, it makes a lot of sense.

Consider the challenges that a project manager faces on a day to day basis:
· Management of the project team--ensuring that the right people are doing the right things at the right time
· Management of the project budget--hard dollars, soft dollars, resources, etc.
· Issue resolution--the PM is the first person that the team will turn to when problems occur
· Communication--the cornerstone of any project manager. If a PM cannot communicate effectively with different audiences and different media, using different styles to suit the situation, then he or she will be destined to fail.
·
I could go on, but I think the point is made. The challenges of a project manager are no different from the challenges of a functional manager, business unit head or CEO. Sure the numbers are generally bigger for the CEO than for the PM, and the specifics of the tasks/roles being managed are different, but the discipline is the same.

To me the career path is obvious. If an individual is being groomed for top management, then at some point in their careers they need to be project managers. To be more PM-centric about it, if a successful PM has the inclination to move into functional management (and particularly if they wish to move into executive management), then they will probably be very successful.

Recognizing the talent and making it happen
I am not suggesting that every PM will make a great CEO, and many will have no interest in taking that path. What I am saying is that a project manager will provide very good insight into the way that they would run a business unit by the way they manage projects.

It is for each individual company to decide what personal attributes they value in their executives; it will be impacted by the style of the company, the values that they embrace, the industry that they are in, etc. However there are certain traits that PMs will demonstrate that will help indicate their suitability and readiness for the next level.

The future executive will probably be a practical PM, using their process and methodology skills as a support, but recognizing the need to apply them to individual scenarios. They will be proactive, seeking out problems long before they become major issues and trying to head them off. This type of PM will be a comfortable communicator at all levels of the organization, will understand the perspectives of each of the people in their project and will seek to motivate them based on their own individual needs.

This all sounds remarkably obvious--I’m describing an ideal real world project manager in many people’s eyes. But if it is so obvious, why is it not happening other than as the exception? Part of the answer is that there are wonderful future executives in all disciplines--project management doesn’t have the monopoly, but it’s more than that. The connection is not being made that projects are so similar to the business that the skills are easily transferable (or at least can easily be evolved).

So how do you groom a PM to take on a leadership role? The piece that is most typically missing in the PM’s experience is the strategic elements around project drivers. The perception in many organizations is still that a project starts the day that the requirements are delivered, or at best when the business case is approved.

It is important to ensure that PMs have an opportunity to become part of the decision-making process that leads to the approval of a project. Initially they may be consumers of the information rather than contributors to the process, but this insight into the true business drivers behind the project is invaluable; it will guide a project manager when making decisions far downstream in the project.

Additionally, it won’t take long for the PM to start contributing to the discussion. After all, they are the people who work with the project teams day in and day out, they have an understanding of what can be accomplished and generally don’t have a politically motivated agenda to influence them. This is true whether the PM has aspirations to progress or not.

Conclusion
There is no silver bullet that will identify the perfect leader and point them the right way to get them to the top, nor should leaders be considered from just one part of an organization. The successful organizations will look for top talent wherever it can be found and look for ways to leverage that talent.

All I am suggesting is that PMs have many of the skills that are sought out in the business leaders of today (and tomorrow), but sometimes organizations need some help in realizing that the skills are transferable beyond projects and (ultimately) into the boardroom.

If you are a PM with aspirations to go further, think about the skills that you have, think about how they can be adapted to other roles and think about where you need to develop further skills. If you are a business leader, take a good look at your project managers--you may be pleasantly surprised.

Andy Jordan has 16 years of experience covering practical project management, project methodology development and delivery, and PMO leadership in both Europe and North America. He is currently a Senior Consultant with R3D Information and Technology Consultants in Toronto. Andy welcomes comment and debate on his articles and can be reached at andy.jordan@r3d.com.

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