Comments for Wayne Goulding's Blog

Comment on Technical Project Manager: A Curious Expression by Diane Belknp

Diane Belknp — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 22:39:29 +0000

Thanks for your comments. I have seen some jobs posted under this title and was wondering just what it meant.

Comment on Technical Project Manager: A Curious Expression by Shailesh Sahasrabuddhe

Shailesh Sahasrabuddhe — Wed, 12 May 2010 05:54:08 +0000

Hi Wayne,

Nice thoughts. I couldn’t agree more with your observations, experience and suggestions.

At times (more often than not), I’m surprised and I feel sorry that senior management expects the PM to be just a “do”er in technical domain. The reasons could be – lack of organizational PM maturity, difference in education, culture and operating style of management – or combination of all above plus some other factors ..

I sincerely hope senior management at all organizations understand and appreciate the differences in roles of “technical project lead” (complete hands on technical “do”er whose sole responsibility is to worry about technical aspects of the project) and “project manager” (completely in-charge and responsible for the outcome of the project, who has reasonably sound technical/domain expertise, who has good interpersonal skills and someone who can get things done).

Comment on Best Practices – What are They? by Wayne Goulding

Wayne Goulding — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 19:20:38 +0000

As a follow-on to this post, a column appeared in the April 2010 issue of the Harvard Business Review, titled: “Best Practices Get You Only So Far” by C.K. Prahalad. In essence his point is, if everyone in a business is using the same Best Practice there is no competitive advantage from one firm to the next. Implementing Best Practices is a catch-up tactic. He coins the phrase “Next Practices” for moving the organization forward, competitively into the future.

What is a Next Practice? It is something that your competition is not doing, may be something being done in another industry that is adaptable, it could be something radically innovative — In a nutshell it is usually a collection of small things that makes you better than them.

In the project environment, it is a more effective execution of projects, better business outcomes from the projects, and better utilization of the organization’s resources.

It is not something that is easily obtained, but is pursued with passion by us unreasonable men and women.

Comment on The Truth about Transitioning Techies to Project Management (5 of 5) by Wayne Goulding

Wayne Goulding — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 23:05:26 +0000

Ivars, I totally agree. Especially with your point about Project Manager versus Project Leader. Although the person in charge of the project does have to utilize both management and leadership skills, it is the latter that will determine the relative success of the project.

Comment on The Truth about Transitioning Techies to Project Management (5 of 5) by Ivars Lenss

Ivars Lenss — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 18:04:14 +0000

Wayne, I was persusing your blog, and as a techie of 18+ years (while typically holding a position of project leader, whether official or referent), I’d like to include an observation I’ve made along the way to becoming a PMP: there are leaders and there are managers. (I’m sure you’ve heard the old saying that a manager does things right and a leader does the right thing)

I think that’s what Kerzner is also saying in a different way.

A major impediment seems to be that those to whom a manager is responsible often do not allow that person to act as a leader. By relegating leadership indirectly, the more remote leadership becomes to the project itself, the greater the risk of failure.

My preference would be for the industry to switch the term “Project Manager” with “Project Leader”.

What do you think?