Should PMs have an IT background?

They're project managers. As long as they get the answers from the IT group....then an IT backround isn't needed.

In an ideal world, a Project Manager without IT skills should be able to lead projects.

But I would suggest I've never seen it happen.

I don't think you need to have been a programmer or a sys admin. But you have to have had some exposure to such things as the software development lifecycle(if its a software project) or had some experience with datacentres if its a a datacentre project. You don't have to be a subject matter expert, but some background is helpful.

As a project manager you have to be able to assess the inputs you are getting from users, subject matter experts and stakeholders. Pretty difficult to do if you don't have a passing acquaintence with the subject at hand.

James

I have NEVER bought into the shopworn argument that a good manager can manage anything. If life were that simple we probably wouldn't need managers at all.

An IT project manager does not need to have been the world's best software engineer. In fact, those people have generally spent their lives developing other skills and often don't have the social skills and the intuition to be good managers. But it's extremely helpful to have developed some software, to have gathered some requirements and to have inspected some, to have done some testing and troubleshooting, to have dealt with unhappy, untrained, or ornery end users, and in general to know what life is like for the software engineers that the project manager will be managing.

My experience has shown that like any absolute statement, this one is not 100% correct. Sure, I've encountered a couple of people with no IT background who became really good PMs. But I've met a lot more who were utterly incompetent, loathed by their team members, and a complete liability to the organization.

Profound that.
LOL

Guess it depends on your definition of an IT project.

You should only get to be the PM of a project if you have experience in the goal of the project.

If it's to put new sales order processing system in, an IT professional with experience designing/implementing those systems would be a reasonable choice, but a sales professional with experience of using them would be far better one in my experience anyway.

If you are the PM in charge of producing such a piece of software then yes you should have as a minimum experience of managing similar projects.

I don't see how at least in business you can be an experienced PM without some knowledge of IT issues, but unless it's an IT business, I don't think you need a technical background to manage the project.

Even if you did have a technical background it might end up being irrelevant. My background would be of no use at all if the project was implementing a corporate network. I'd be posting questions on here trying to understand what the technical guys were saying.

If it was choosing the technology to do so, I'd now have enough experience to resign and quick.
LOL

An IT background is not as important in project management as the ability to recognise and use the strengths within the team. Obviously an IT background helps with credibility at the outset but this will soon be forgotten if leadership skills are lacking.

...would make good PMs.

It is very important that the individual has a technical background, as it will induce positive decisions and informed ideas. I think that it is vital for a PM to be involved in the project at the same level as his/her associates.

The main issue with an IT based PM, is that the individual needs to take a step back in order to view the project as a whole, and where it fits in with the corporate strategy and direction, financially, functionally, and otherwise. I know very few techs who I would nominate to the position, as they are more connected with computing related issues, than they are with management and business sense, but the right people would be a more valuable asset for sure. I've seen senior IT executives make or break the flow based almost exclusively on their backgrounds in the field.

Yes, for IT based PMs - that is not to say a non-tech couldn't do a good job.

Chris

1) The PM needs to understand what should be done.
2) Usually PM with tech background gets more respect from techs in the project.

A good PM knows this, and either learns or relies on technical expertise.

A medium/bad PM might not realize this.

So IT experience is a "pro", but if the PM is a good one, then it is probably not neccessary.

Choosing between a good PM without IT exp. and a medium one with IT exp. I would choose the good one 5 times out of 6. In "heavy technical" projects this would have to be reconsidered.

just my 2c

There is a simple way of looking at this. If you want someone to manage a project (properly) you hire a project manager. In your job description you should extol all the virtues of project management that you require. If you want someone to be a C# programmer you hire someone to write code in C#. In your job description you should extol all the virtues of software development using C#. If you want a C# programmer you don't go out and hire a chartered surveyor. So if you want a project manager you shouldn't go out and hire a C# developer. The only reason this confusion arises is because often organisations actually want their project manager to also act as the development manager (and other disciplines too).

Chris

I do not think project manager's should have an IT background. Currently, I am a victim of a PM with IT background who has sacrificed all other areas, surprisingly including communications with the users/client.

I feel PMs should understand the environment and be better placed to sell ice to the Eskimoos.

I have seen projects managed by non-technical and by technical project managers. More by technical. I think some technical experience is needed to predict user experiences, but not necessarily programming. Ability as communicator and administrator is prime.
I agree with your classifications of Proj Man and Proj Ldr. I am often amazed by people in the S/W business who think that a team leader is a Project Manager, especially if their job title is Team or Project Leader. In some places simple Account Managers are called Project Managers too. It's probably lack of training and experience in managed project environments and is typical of SMEs. The big companies (especially utilities) in England always seem to do it more or less properly.

How is a PM going to know how long things are going to take to implement if they don't have any background? They would have no idea what could and what will go wrong in a project if they don't have a background in that area. You could be talking about replacing a hard drive and the PM sees it as just taking a piece out and putting a piece back in if they don't understand. When in fact that would be the first step while the next steps would include istalling an OS, then all the drivers, and then move all the users data back to the drive.

So to make a long story short yes the PM needs some background and understanding of the IT field he/she will be managing.

I'm a PM who manages infrastructure projects. I have found that being able to combine project managment skills with an understanding of the technical environments makes for a much better project. Plans are more comprehensive and issue resolution is much quicker. Based on experience, PMs who are thrown into the technical arena offen cause negative impacts on their projects just because of their own lack of understanding.

I think little bit of IT background would help, but sure don't have to be great techies.

As an IT Manager, and Project Manager, my own experience is that a lot of "my" projects were not "pure" IT, but where in fact business process projects enabled and/or supported by technology.

So does that mean the PM needs to be a process expert ?

The company I worked for assessed competencies at different levels. e.g. you may be required to only have a 'Basic Awareness', or a "Working Knowledge", or be "Fully Operational", or be an Expert (e.g. at Industry/Region/World level and be the person setting the standards).

I think a PM needs (at least) a Basic Awareness of the area of IT/business s/he is dealing with. This not only helps with credibility, respect, language and communication and so on, but also saves time in understanding.

But thats just my humble opinion ;-)

PM training is a skill needed for all project managers, individual projects first, then small group, before bigger projects. Heavy duty supervisor, and management training is needed for the next levels of getting work done through people -

Just saw a several-million-dollar high-end sales training project driven into the ground by someone coming out of IT support, who had completed the PMI course, but who knew nothing about Training and development, sales training or sales people, people management, event coordination. All big talk and fancy spreadsheets, but chaos.

The key point in this discussion is 'lead' and 'IT
background'.

A person can come in without any experience in the IT
industry and still be a good leader. However, underlying
this is the person must start from the basic first and
understand how development take place.

In essence, that is gaining experience. Without the
experience of starting from the basic, there will be a gap
between understanding the team's needs.

Imagine if you are the PM, and you have to ask the team's
opinion for every question that the user or client posed. But
someone, who have gone through the stages would be able
to gage the potential impact of fulfilling certain decisions
with the support and confirmation from the team.

This helps builds trust and respect within the team.
Leadership is about understanding situation and impact of
decisions. It is also about communicating effectively.

Project Managers should manage a project.
Project leaders should lead a project
(development) team.
Project managers require negotiation,
management, coordination, risk
management,planning skills (this is a
non-exhaustive list of the skills).
They also need to have a broad view of the
technical financial, ergonomic and business
aspects of the project.
Leaders must have a deep technical know how of
their part of the project and the ability to get
their part of the project done on schedule.
A project leader could manage a small project if
he can kep his nose out of each sentence of
code.
I saw a beautiful example of the this in a NASA
web site a few years ago.
Two pictures:
A doctor putting a Band Aid on his finger -
small project.
A doctor performing an Appendectomy on
himself...........

As a professor who teaches PM on the baccalaureate level, I can tell you that this is not an either/or situation any longer. Many universities have developed programs that give candidates enough technical courses to understand the basics of IT plus courses in management and communication. More and more young people are coming into the work force with a combination of training.

I have recently started with a new company as a Corporate Project Manger. It is a new position within the company and I report the VP in charge if I/T and Strategic Planning.
I have over 20 years of experience within the Industry, with different companies and in different roles. I have no formal I/T background but having spent enough time in the business and having to embrace and grow along with all of the technological advances, I have learned enough about "I/T" to be dangerous.

Talk about OJT, day one we began three corporate initiatives involving disaster recovery, a new billing system and a customer contact repository. This was in an attempt to move away from mainframe technology into the oracle world. Our industry is a simple one, made more difficult by the other complexity of the systems we have developed. In the very short time it has become apparent that left up to the I/T department these projects would have become very complex and complicated. Luckily we have been able to avoid that. During the early stages of these initiatives the C.I.O. gave me a very good complement by saying ?he was thankful that I was leading these projects in that we remained focused, grounded and as he put it because we used the K.I.S.S. theory we were able to accomplish all the business requirements upper management had placed upon us.?

The experience is one that I?ve enjoyed greatly and look forward to more of the same in the future. Remember just because someone doesn?t have a formal technical background doesn?t mean that they don?t or can?t contribute and or manage highly technical projects. It?s all about the people doing the work and enjoying what they?re doing and achieving some sense of satisfaction upon completion of the project

If you have PM's with little technical background you will need to assign part of one or two of your technical leads to the project to insure that the "technical" task blocks are accurately described, assigned and are on track to completion.
If your technical leads don't have any PM experiance or training you will find that many times the project "organization", progress, and reporting will be less than optimal. Plan on having project leads study PM courses to get best effort.

When I read this article I agree for the most part, but I have seen first hand how PM's make or break a project. I belive Pm's should have a good working knowledge of IT especially when you have to have routers, switches, and cabling. Working for the Government I have seen how a non tech PM's cost the Government money especially in the bidding war. Its cheaper to pay this non tech person who has to rely on so many project managers wasting time looking for answeres when the PM can make many decisions and move a project along saving time and money where some of the money can be redistibuted for better equipment. In so many words knowing more than basics as a PM might cost the company more in pay but the project will move more quickly and be completed with far better results and less down time for the customer.

Most of the postings in this thread are correct because I think it is a question that depends upon alot of factors -- and each reply speaks to its own set of circumstances.
To answer with a different 'spin' I would say that most IT professionals should have at least a basic PM core capability. This will make them more proficient technical project leads on large scale projects where they will have better grasp of the big picture and their role in the overall project or program.
In my position we are trying to educate our IT staff and help them understand the importance of proper project management techniques, but we are not trying to make them all PMPs. Now when we speak of WBS and Risk Planning we don't get a lot of blank stares -- they know what to expect.

I believe that a highly proficient and effective Project Manager should possess a wide variety of technical skills, knowledge and experiences.., basically a well rounded individual whom can put together a plan that no matter whether it is a Database Project or a Storage Upgrade Project.., they will have in place the personnel, equipment and the schedule of what will occurr, when and by whom so that the Customer Base will be completely unaffected by the activity taking place or atleast with minimum interruption of normal daily services. Also, insuring that appropriate departments and organizations are kept informed as to the progress/ status of the project(s)...

This Project Manager would also definitely have superior People Skills which would enhance the Technical Skills...

"A leader is a person whom has the ability to gain obedience, respect and loyalty in order to accomplish the mission/ tasks/ projects"....

Having a broad-based management experience, I took to managing IT professionals on IT projects fairly easily. But, it is an individual achievement process with a steep learning curve on various types of IT projects (from infrastructure to Portal to ERP selection/implementation). Appointing a technical IT professional as a "PM" without providing intense PM training or mentoring is a failed project in the making and very risky if it is on a external client project. A strong PM with excellent business savvy and superior people skills is a much better choice since the real emphasis is on the PM managing the process while the functional IT professionals "own" the technical activities set out by the Project Plan and Statement of Work.

I agree with them, when I put an order processing system in the most important part is the software, that's why I don't let any of them nasty sales types use it.

My personal experience for a Sheriff's Office Jail mangement software/hardware project was to have a consultant who had a management background. His philosophy which I agreed with was to make the software/hardware fit the management philosophy of the user. It worked very well. He did utilize a techy person with him but he was the dominant advocate of the projects direction. I worked as the project manager with his tutelage.

It really depends on the culture and the people involved. PM purists may say "If I have the right SME's and technical resources I don't need to know the details" and in many cases, this is true. However, the PM in this environment MUST be a facilitator and not a dictator. All too often, PM's end up "telling" the technial experts how to and how long it should take them to do their work. If the PM becomes the coordinator/facilitator it has been my experience (over 20yrs) that these projects have the highest degree of success and quality. Now if the PM is a technical expert then they must avoid the "It only took me a week to do that when I was coding" mentality because ultimately, we are all "people" and not "resources" that are seamlessly interchangable.

I think PM's in IT related areas must have a good IT background, even if somewhat broad, gathered through IT experience or just extensive PM experience. Just like a general contractor building a house must coordinate and be held responsible for all trades, for a PM to be effective, they must coordinate many different aspects and specialties within a project.

Ideally all of the "trades" would be experts, self-sufficient, and could manage their time and budgets without error. But in real life those specialists are there to be just that - specialists in their own areas. And sometimes they are not that interested in being lead by a PM as well, regardless of that their management might say.

So given what the PM must be able to deal with, and the many unknowns in a project, they can't afford to not understand a good deal about what goes on in the different areas. While a PM could possibly succeed without specific knowledge, the likely hood is that a) they will take more time and wasted effort than the IT experienced PM, b) they are less likely to catch mistakes or "misjudgements" in the departments, and c) won't know soon enough when things are not proceeding the way they should.

Looking at this another way, if you were a manager supervising staffmembers in different departments, could you really know what was going on if you weren't very familiar with the processes and issues unique to each area? (ps, I'm not saying there are not manageres like that out there, just that this is not an effective approach!)

Just my 2 cents

I have a mixed background of server support and project management. In my career I have (and still do) take tickets as mundain as swapping a mouse out, to setting up server clusters, to small one off projects to programs where I once had 12 project managers on my team.

I find that PMs who are techies at heart tend to have the advantage in several ways (as long as they don't forget their roots):
1. having been in the trenches gives them better ability to problem solve the inevedable "that can't be done." That is to know how to get around it and to know when to accept that "defeat."
2. They have much more realistic timelines, they know the effort it will require to complete a task.
3. They listen better to SMEs.
4. They are more likely to stick up for and look out for techies in sponsor meetings
5. They know how to work well with techies since at heart, they are still "from the tribe"

My opinion on the criteria a PM requires in IT (systems developmnent/implementation projects) is as follows (very high level):

Project Management skills 50%
IT knowledge & skills 30%
General Management skills 20%

What do people think??

I have managed projects and worked for other project managers. I believe that by being too deep in the technology limits the project managers thinking and blinds him/her to options outside of thier expertise. My perception is the more technical a project manager is the more he/she will revert to their roots especially when the going gets tough. They also have a tough time standing up to management when issues arise. A technology project manager should understand the people who understand technology more than the technology itself.

As an IT expert and project manager with significant large project exposure, I spent several years on an aggressive, enterprise, build project "debating" this with one very aggressive and limited-IT experience user. Other significant users watched or waded in at their convenience. If this user had succeeded I believe that other major users would have abandoned the project because they couldn't be sure this area would represent them well. I won the debate in theory (debate did not help career much) and the project was very successful with a life of over 15 years.

On a smaller, add-on project mainly in their area, this user won the PM debate. However, the user now had significant experience in the new project management methodology, the capabilities of the technology being used and the business and IT development team. In addition one of our most experienced and capable IT analysts was joined to the user PM's hip and they too succeeded in implementing this smaller but sophisticated project.

My conclusion is it depends on the user, their commitment of good people to the project, their fairness to other stakeholders, their willingness to listen to the IT expertise and advice, etc. You get the drift.

Although PMs need to be familiar with enterprise functions, without a solid background in program development methodologies like the Software Development Life Cycle steps, the translation of business needs into system specifications becomes more difficult. We all know the cost of system re-writes.

Hi Editor,

One of the major issue with outsourcing, particularly deliverables with stringent time lines is the project manager's capability of the execution, montioring & control and closing phase.

I have seen many skilled tech leads being upgraded to Project Manager,due to the lack of competent resources to run the project.
This is disaster, the integration prespective and more over the wholesome approach of how the project fits into the planned environment is necessary.
A project manager cannot be replaced by an IT specialist or even what we call a technical PM.

But it is always important that the PM understands technology and he has experience in implementing related technology in the industry.

How many service managers weren't mechanics before?

I worked with PMs that didn't have any IT or technical aptitude and all they were were data entry clerks for MS Project. You could tell them anything and in it went into MS Project.

I used to believe that the best project managers should rely on the team for hands-on and focus on managing the project and not be tempted to jump into the weeds just because they can do it too. But I have since tempered that belief. They need to know enough to gauge whether something makes sense or not. Otherwise, they will be taken for a ride.

If you're referring only to hard skills, such as network administration, database coding, etc., then the answer is no. You don't necessarily need those skills to successfully manage an IT project. That's like asking if you "need" an MBA before you start a business.

But if you're talking about often overlooked "soft skills" - excellent communication abilities, getting along with others, problem-solving experience, positivity, and other factors that comprise one's social intelligence - then yes, you will need those skills. Especially if you lack the hard skills.

At its essence, project management is about managing resources and activities towards production of defined deliverables within a specified period of time. What the deliverables are, and what the environment is, should make no difference. Managing a project requires skills and abilities that are generic and applicable to any project.

However ... this is only true if we are free to take a purist approach to project management! In real life, project managers are often (usually?) expected to take on responsibilities that strictly should not be theirs.

If business people (the project director, for example) abdicate some of their responsibilities, it is often the project manager who has to take up the slack in order to ensure project success (generally, this will go unrecognised). In which case, a knowledge of the business would be more than a little helpful. The same is true on the IT side of things.

Project managers will tend to specialise in a particular business field, or on IT projects, or both. It is highly likely therefore, in the light of their deep and broad experience, that they will chose (consciously or otherwise), or be given, responsibilities beyond the pure project management role.

Almost nothing is black and white in this life. Project management (and IT) almost always requires compromises between many (often opposing) factors.

I find myself often answering questions with "it depends", and this topic's question gets the same answer from me. Whilst this can sometimes be an irritating answer, it does I think show an appreciation of the realities.

If you are a purist project manager, you need know nothing about IT or the business. If you have responsibilities in either realm, then you will need to know about it, and may well fail if you do not.

The purist situation is rare, so perhaps I am edging towards "yes, you must have domain knowledge", but ... it really just depends!

IT project (and projects in other areas) has some similarities and differences. Things like resource allocation and project-issues resolution may have the same treatment for any project. But, each project has other differences in any other areas. PM ,by default, must understand the complexity of a project. Thus, for an IT project, PM must understand the complexity of it. IT background will surely help PM understand the scope and complexity, and he/she can manage the project better.

I am an IT PM, with some IT background. It is essential for me to understand the Product being deployed, and the environment it is going to be deployed within, however, I do not think it is necessary for me to have a full scale IT background. I would say that one needs to have a good understanding of IT concepts, capabilities and shortfalls. My projects are successful with this knowledge. Having said that I DO rely on my teams for certain specific IT knowledge. It is not as simple as saying YES or NO to this question. As wiht everything I think we need to strike a good balance between IT and business knowledge. It is equally important to have good Risk Management skill/knowledge

Project management in and of itself may only require having the right resources at the right places at the right times, but the key here is knowing whether or not the resources are actually "right" for the job. Only someone with a qualified IT background is capable of ensuring that the resources are suitable for the project at hand. Not having an indepth knowledge of your project's subject matter is asking for trouble. If your project manager isn't an IT professional, you'll get what you asked for.

Any project needs three critical elements, 1. A knowledgable sponsor, 2. A good Project Manager and 3. A savy System's Engineer. The Sponsor needs to have knowledge of the end-use system and user base. The System Engineer needs to have relavent technical knowledge and experience. The Project Manager needs experience managing projects ... and sometimes skills of the other two depending on their strength and depth of experience. Often the PM is actually filling one or both of these other two roles... so ... sometimes technical experience is necessary and sometimes not. It really depends on the abilities of the project's System Engineer.

I agree that project managers do need to know in general what technologies are being employed, and the basics of each. But at no time in my years of project experience has it been necessary for me to be able to code, or have an extensive IT background. Nor has it been of great import to my fellow project managers (we all take on IT projects as well as business projects). People forget that a project manager is usually a manager, not necessarily the person doing all the coding, the person doing the business analysis, etc. Would any of us jump up and down screaming that a project manager for a business process improvement must be an expert in the business process? It is better to be a good manager and have a good pool of human resources than to have an excellent IT background.

I do not believe IT skills are a requirement to successfully lead an IT project. That said, some IT knowledge would be beneficial; knowledge about the IT people assigned to the project and knowledge about who to ask outside the project if you feel you don't have enough information to make a decision or ask the right questions would be key. IMO, the PM needs to understand more about the business needs being met than what hardware to buy. There will be people on the project that have the skills to make that determination. Those individuals need to be able to convey to the PM the necessity for hardware configuration A vs B and the risks, etc involved in the options.
Someone said that a PM wouldn't know how much time to assign a programmer for a given task. Probably true, the programmer should be able to come up with that piece. Hopefully, PMs are not deciding which direction to take a project without sufficient knowledge about the issues. I tend to ask the programmers on my project how long certain tasks would take. That is after the options for direction have been discussed by the technical people on the project, the best options are chosen, and the functional decision makers chose the option they prefer. Then we go back and flush out the detail tasks involved, time requirements, etc and go from there.

In my organization, a local gov't, all "IT" projects are led by IT PMs. I was an IT PM, converted from accounting, payroll, and payables management, that's right a user became an IT PM. I am now a PM in ERP support that resides outside IT. Our group not reporting to IT is a direct result of IT decisions driving a project rather than the business needs driving the project.

"know where to get the answers"

I believe I.T. Project Managers should have some kind of background in I.T. This does not mean they need an extensive background, but they need to be able to understand not only the needs of the clients but how to interact with the developers. They need to translate what the developers are saying into language the client understands.

An Information Technology (IT) Project Manager (PM) needs to have IT skills. However, these skills need not be specific to the industry, as long as the PM is able to quickly acquire the crucial, influential factors associated with the industry. For example, a Senior Project Manager, with extensive IT skills in the Finance industry, should be able to function quite well in the bio-technology industry. Provided, she, or he, is able to assimilate and integrate the stringent Federal Guidelines governing Technology development projects.

Too many times those with IT and non-IT backgrounds forget the Project Managers are professionals with skills specific to managing projects. Many of us are certified through a very rigorous process.

I have managed technical projects for 20 years. I have a BA in government.

I agree that you have to know enough about technology to understand how to size a project, know when somebody is giving you bull, ask the right questions, etc. You should be familiar with common technical issues, processes, etc. That doesn't mean you have to have been a coder or technician.

Mainly you need to know how to get the answers from the right technical and non-technical people, translate that into a project that is completed on time, on budget, and most importantly, to the customer's satisfaction.

PMI - the professional project management organization - states that 90% of what a project manager does is communication. That means being able to communication with a variety of different people with different skills and personalities in such a way that they will work with you on a project.

Based on that, there are so many technical and non-technical people who are brilliant but wouldn't be able to project manage themselves out of a paper bag.

That's OK. I can't design a complex technical system. I don't want to "sell." I leave that up to professionals of other kinds and respect their skills.

I just wish more technical and non-technical professionals in other areas would learn to respect that Project Management itself is profession just like any other.

Thanks!

being PM in today's business environment it is necessary to have a background in IT..but not really an expert as we may say..its still how he implement the methodology in managing a project.definitely PM nowadays interface with the technology-based tools to record, analyze and solve certain project requirements, issues and concerns but those are just tools..its the analytical thinking that counts..i would say a 80 -20 ratio..IT is 20% of the skill needed..

has a "fruit basket turnover" every few years to keep ideas fresh and current.

This works fabulously in every department except IT.

It's taken my three piddly offices two years to recover from and IT Director and PM who had no IT background.

It's possible for an IT PM to not have an IT background. It's also possible to sit in a bathtub full of ice...

Why would you volunteer for either?

has a "fruit basket turnover" every few years to keep ideas fresh and current.

This works fabulously in every department except IT.

It's taken my three piddly offices two years to recover from and IT Director and PM who had no IT background.

It's possible for an IT PM to not have an IT background. It's also possible to sit in a bathtub full of ice...

Why would you volunteer for either?

I feel it is necessary for project manager to have an IT background. As the project life cycle involves lots of IT related features and descriptions, one should aware of it before handling the things in rightway.

Also right from Analysis to implementation the quality and productivity to be clearly followed by the manager that is most IT based. Even to handle the problems during the maintainance of th project the manager should know to appoint appropriate person for attending that problem.

Also to asses the performanance of the development team project manager needs to know the level of each team member in terms Technology which is most dependent on the IT knowledge and experience of the manager

Project managment is a discipline which crosses industries, and when you have a project you need a PM whose overall experience is in line w/ the proposed project. Seems axiomatic to me.

I have worked w/ PMs (or rather, consultants w/ a shiny new MBAs representing themselves as qualified PMs) who have nothing to offer but methodology. In the worst case, the methodology is something devised by the consultanting group for their clients, and bears no relationship to any professional criteria for project management methodology. Because this is unacceptable to most organisations these days, one sees less and less of this. In the best case for any project, the best PM is one w/ experience w/ the sort of project under consideration. The best experience is from knowledge gained in that subject area. But I also believe the best PMs are those who have done the necessary work to become PMs, including course work and getting professioanl certification.

I am a PMP who specialises in healthcare software development because that is where my experience was gained. I would not dream of doing a construction project. I am currently a PM on a data warehouse project, and I have no data warehouse project management experience. However, there are many well qualified data warehouse people on this project. What the project needed, and what I bring, is experience w/ structured project management methodology. I'm not about to direct the WBS process from a technical perspective, but I do want the technical staff to review it and sign off on it. Am I the best PM for this sort of project? No. A better PM would be one w/ extensive data warehouse experience. I'm just the best PM for the environment and the industry because it's a clinical data warehouse, and I do have experience w/ the applications which capture the data which populates the warehouse. Plus, I did happen to be available on site when it was clear that PM methodology needed to be applied to this project. And, I have made it plain to all and sundry that I am not the resident DW expert.

Would I put a PM on an IT project who had no IT background? No. I would also not "promote" an IT person to a PM role unless that person was will to do what is necessary to make the career change to become a PM. And I would want that to include PMP certification.

IT skills get out of date. IT is a fast changing industry. If you want both current IT skills relevant to the project and PM experience and training (and certification), you will pay for it. If you want the best possible out come, this is the route to go. Not everyone had deep pockets and such PMs are not easily availabe in all markets.

As in most cases, it's a trade off.
C. Henig

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Really depends on the project and how large it is. If the project is large then the PM will have technical advisors.
The smaller the project then IT expertise is a must to be able to react quickly to fix problems. Effective people management skills are a must in most projects.
One of the most important functions that a PM can bring to a project is their knowledge (or management of knowledge (of advisors) in the case of large projects) which can be used to keep a project on track when things go wrong. The secret is QUICKLY knowing what to do strategically when the sh*t hits the fan.

If I ask the service manager a question that he or she should know about the repair and the answer isn't satisfactory, you can be assured that my car doesn't go back to that shop. Repeat business is the name of the game and to get repeated business you need to be competent in the area you represent. Boy, do I know a good mechanic for you.