When evaluating Project Management experience for a role, is there a risk in tipping the balance in favour of a PM with a specific technical SME background?
Project managers are often drafted into projects based on their relevant technical background. The intent is to mitigate risk of a knowledge gap and to ensure that subject matter expertise is readily available in the project.
Whilst this approach has some merit, careful consideration needs to be given to project manager selection to ensure the right project manager is engaged.
Hire the right expertise for the right project
Project managers arrive in a role with a range of experience. Matching the needs of the project with the expertise and skill of the PM is important for success. Critical questions asked at the outset can ensure you put the right expertise in the project and may include the following.
What type of project is this?
Understanding the nature of upcoming projects helps to determine the right PM for the job. For example:
- Is this a “paint by numbers” project that is well understood both from the process to implement and the outcome to be delivered (such as infrastructure builds)? These projects require little negotiation, can be low risk, highly predictable and easily managed.
- Is the project more like a “walk in the fog” where the path to success is not well understood, requiring strong leadership, negotiation and influencing skills both at the executive level and within the team?
A key enabler of success is therefore to make sure the project manager’s “style” fits the project type to be delivered.
What is the project manager’s role?
The answer is in the title itself….”to manage” which means to plan, monitor and control the project not to provide the SME contribution of solutioning.
When the PM comes from a technical background, there can be a tendency to leverage their technical knowledge at the expense of managing the project. Whilst the project manager will use their experience to question, they should be stopped short of solutioning – they certainly should not be both PM and SME.
Where the PM starts leveraging their knowledge to act as the SME, there is an inherent risk that – when time poor – the PM will be drawn into solutioning and the PM fundamentals get neglected which creates a higher implementation risk for successful delivery.
What happens when you put two specialists in a room with different views?
Specialists by their nature are experts in their field and are difficult to be moved from a particular position they feel strongly about.
If the SME PM and SME are at loggerheads you have a recipe for a complete traffic jam, leading to tension and risk to project deadlines. To diffuse this roles and responsibilities must be clear, adhered to and often objective external advice recruited in as needed to resolve the deadlocks.
Focus on PM expertise rather than SME in a project role
So when selecting the right PM for the role be sure to focus on the right characteristics and skills needed from a PM for that project and not subject matter expertise.
The inclination for an SME PM comes from the project risk aversion and the mitigation of leveraging their knowledge and experience – just be sure that this approach in itself does not create a whole other set of risks to be managed.
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