Why choose to be a Technology-Focused PM or a Business-Focused PM? by Anticlue

Lately there has been a bit of discussion about the technology expertise a project manager needs to have. After the events of this past week, I even found myself considering the need to read up on storage area network, telecommunications and networking - perhaps just a quick review of the basic Cisco CCNA books. From a technology understanding perspective, these are my weak points.

Stepping back again, I'm considering why this understanding is needed. One does need to have a basic understanding of which widgets are needed to connect a business to business network connection. It is also good to have a sense why it is needed to obtain bandwidth utilization, understanding growth for the next couple of years, and then place the order for the circuit. As one explains these scheduling needs to the program sponsors - especially perhaps when explaining the need for escalation funding for a circuit order.

For a while, I have been a truly business-focused pm, we discuss how to achieve the desired business benefits early in the planning process. The implementation is completed, and the organizational change process kicks into full gear. We plan out our approach to the organizational change as we move from paper to electronic processes. After all the overall desired business purpose is what we are trying to achieve.

Truth be told the level of project management an organization desires is the level of project management they will receive. Often as we move from project management maturity levels a larger organizational change is occurring. I empathize with the pm being tagged to lead the march towards meaningful use and achieve new levels of automation in organizations which have chaotic project management and a capability maturity model of 1.

However, our mindset is within our control and is it necessary to be business focused or technology focused. After all the different tactics for the mindset are listed below:

Technology-Focused	Business-Focused
Projects are driven to stand-up a commercial product.	Projects are driven to achieve business benefits.
Delivery is measured by project milestones	Delivery is measured against stakeholder value.
Focused upon implementing an application or technology	Focused upon realizing a business opportunity.
Project Schedule is lifecycle focused either software development, system development, or infrastructure implementation.	Project Schedule includes achievement of organizational change initiatives
Success measured upon the successful rollout of the application	Success measured upon realization of the business benefits

Perhaps the truth of the matter is now a days that the PM needs to have both. After all how would you drive adoption of the new workflows for improving patient care if the beside medication barcoding wasn't there? Maybe it is just best to have all techniques and approaches within your toolchest. There are other tools than just a hammer. And if all you know how to use is a hammer, everything looks like nails.

Have you had a similar experience? What did you uncover for yourself? If you enjoyed this post, you may want to check out these other posts:

• Top Ten Characteristings of a Chaotic Project Management Environment
Improving your Healthcare IT Credibility by developing your project management maturity
• Levels of Project Management Maturity
• IT Value - Is IT an expense center or a value center?

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