Project Management for a 15 year Technical person 1

[Trigeek1234]

I have been working as a Network Engineer/administrator for 15 years. However I have had many jobs via contracting or working for vendors where I did what I would term Project Management. It appears PM is becomming or maybe has become a recognised need in IT. Mostly I hear talk about PM on development/programming projects but what about other IT Infrastructure types of projects. That is my background. Network routers switches. servers, load balancing, firewall etc. I would like to make a career move and get away from a purely technical role and use my technical knowledge as a step to doing more pure Project Managment work. How should I start this - with a certification? What is the market place loooking for with respect to IT infrastructure type projects and PM?

 

[johnherman]

PMI, Project Management Institute offers certification in PMP "pimp" Project Management Professional. There are also project managers in other industries, so the field is not narrowed to just IT.

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The trouble with doing something right the first time is that nobody appreciates how difficult it was - Steven Wright

 

[karen4201]

Basically, a project is defined as a task that has a beginning and an end. The PMI tries to organize best practices of project management for a project within any field. IT certianly has its own qualities that need to be considered while doing project management, but the basics of PM can be applied everywhere.

Good luck!

 

[eyeswideclosed]

Most important, first learn corp speak, ie, instead of just saying "ok guys let's do x now and let's do it right", say: "in order to further implement our key strategic integrated solutions structure within a team-oriented paradigm hands-on approach on a global go-forward basis encompassing our corporate vision and core competencies with our key enablers with a fast-track deliverable, we will focus on our talking points in a highly motivated synergistic way while thinking outside the box with our value-added up-selling win/win philosophy and action item challenges within an emerging growth industry in order to leverage our major accounts with a highly focused impactful initiative."

 

[pgn]

eyeswideclosed, where'd you get that succinct piece of corporate triplespeak? Well done, it brightened my day

 

[HughSamson]

Trigeek,
I come from a similar background as yourself (my speciality was OpenVMS systems Management, and Data Centre Management). You will no doubt have done some/many of the basics of PM already during your technical days - basically it is formalising what I assume you are already doing - planning, implementing & controlling the implementations/rollouts etc... I made the transition to PM fairly easily, as the corporations I have previously worked for expected the plans etc to be in place (statements of work, costings, timelines, resourcing etc) for all works that I did - which aligns neatly with the PM methodologies.
As a starting point to see what you are in for, try getting a PM manual - you'll be surprised how easy the transition can be. Although there are many books available, I purchased Dennis Lock's book, and it gave me the fundamentals.
Good luck with it!

 

[eyeswideclosed]

pgn, I actually came up with that off the cuff, I worked for a company where management actually spoke that way, albeit that was a bit overdone there, and ever since I have been waging a war on corp/management speak, I absolutely hate it, meaningless dribble, yet so many people talk like that to varying degrees. Where I work now everybody speaks normally, thank god, although I did hear "Going forward" the other day. "Going forward"?? Which way are we going to go? Sideways?? Corpspeak must be eradicated!

 

[A0C61ZZ]

Trigeek1234,
I faced a similar situation as yours a year and half back -I was techie guy with QA skills, Oracle 9i OCP cert etc. But now I'm firmly entrenched in this PM role.

In hindsight I can propose you find yourself a mentor. In my case one of our client partners mentored me and continues to do so. It really helps when he pointed me to the right resources, methods to tap info, avoiding pitfalls and managing crisis and dealing with the client and other stakeholders.

eyeswideclosed will dislike this. - Client partner here is corpspeak for a marketing/sales guy who also manages client relations. Even I'm not a fan of corpspeak, but I'd guess I'll have to live with it.