The Traditional Project manager is like a Lion; king of its jungle and fast going extinct as a species.
Lets understand why PM jobs, as they are called, are going away. To do that, let’s look at how this role came into being.
During the early days of my career, there were a bunch of us programmers at the bottom of the pyramid. Next were a few quality assurance (fancy for testing) team members. Then came our offshore lead, the onshore lead cum business analysis (we were an onshore-offshore model). Finally, at the top of the pyramid was the King = = our PM, who managed us unruly kids.
Only our manager understood the complete software development cycle. He was our ‘one size fits all’ problem solving approach.
Essentially, the manager was a shepherd for us sheep. And the ‘need for such a shepherd’ created the need for the Project Manager role.
Next, let’s look at why they are going extinct. To do that, let’s look at a vanilla manager’s garden variety tasks.
Tasks
People in the manager’s role typically had some 5+ years of experience. And they did tasks such as …
In other words, his role was to “oil the software creating engine”. An important job. But, something within the task’s nature also made the role extinct. Let’s understand…
Shallow
Shallow task – one that takes less time to learn
Deep task – one that takes long time to learn
Most, if not all, of a manager’s tasks were “shallow” in nature. Meaning, the learning curve of each task was low. An average person could take up any one task after 1-2 weeks of training. Such “shallow” nature of the tasks became the undoing of the role. More on this in the next section …
(Shallow nature of the tasks also created a low entry barrier to this role. The low entry barrier allowed many incompetents to become full fledged managers in 3 to 6 months. But that’s just me ranting …)
Non-Core
I mentioned that a manager’s role was to “oil the software creating engine”. This also intends to highlight that the manager was not part of the software-creating engine. This is another reason for the role’s extinction.
Notice that none of the above tasks produced or improved code. Sure, they supported the development of code, but hardly made a difference to the quality of the final product.
The tasks were mostly based on excel sheets. So, I call them “Excel sheet managers”. (long live Microsoft !)
A manager role had its need. He had the most understanding of the development process. And understandably, played a vital role in the team. Then the era changes …
Automation Age
… The age of tools begins. Remember the “shallow” nature of tasks. A shallow task is easy to automate. So, many companies did !
Many project management tools came in. viz. Jira, Azure DevOps, Trello, YouTrack etc. Suddenly …
Deployment management tools, like Jenkins, CA Nolio, Bamboo etc., reduced the code release headaches.
Version control – Git, Bitbucket and others
A lot of work got automated. And each automation chipped away at the manager’s tasks. Till one day companies realized – if half the tasks are automated, why pay a full time employee for the remaining half ? See where I am going ?? Managers became overpaid for their roles.
Organization’s perspective
Let’s look at this change from an organization’s perspective.
A company exists to make profits i.e. have more income and less expenses. With the incoming tools, manager’s heavy salaries suddenly became “not so justified”.
Also, if a software can do the same job, then …
This means more productivity and less cost.
Sure the software costs more, but it earns even more. Based on the cost:profit ratio, it was the right choice for most organisations. As organisations switched to softwares, the ratio of developers to managers became 100:1 from the earlier 5:1. Meaning, 19 out of 20 manager positions were eliminated. That was a huge saving for the organisation.
(Opportunity : if a company needs new software, then it also needs someone with knowledge to manage it. More on this below … )
Business changes
During business downtimes like the Covid situation, organisations tighten their belts. Since companies get paid for writing code, anyone NOT contributing to writing code is an overhead. The overhead can be kept during normal business. But during downtimes, the overhead needs to go first.
With the above in mind …
After a while, team members become familiar with the ‘systems and processes’. Once they do, companies could ask them to take over the managerial overhead, and let the managers go. Remember the manager’s tasks were “shallow” and did not require a specialist. Since companies could, companies did.
Once a manager was removed, his tasks were re-distributed among the existing team members (slightly overloading them). Impact to code production was minimal and organizations saved money during difficult times.
Automation age brought the PM role to the edge of a cliff. Difficult business times gave the push. Down tumbles the PM role !
To Do
What do we do ? Let’s start by asking ourselves a question …
Does it take at least 6 months to get good at my job ?
Yes – Your job is safe.
No – you should be worried.
The need for a shallow skill is no more. As we discussed, this is because they have been automated. Market needs deep skills. Translates to – people who know things in and out. Deep knowledge might be related to the domain, technology, the company, a brand or else. So long as the person has inside knowledge, he will be valuable to the marketplace.
For techies early in their careers – I recommend planning another growth path. Marketplace doesn’t require the vanilla Project Managers anymore.
For those already in project manager roles – you need to add more value than the role demands. There are two approaches to do this. And remember, each will take hard work.
Go Wide
Engage in bigger aspects of the software producing engine.
OR
Go Deep
Pick one area the core role demands, and become an expert.
Create dashboards, live reports, automated delegations etc.
I believe that if someone does work that directly results in code, then his job remains safe.
(Disclaimer : I am a techie by job and heart. Therefore, I have a bias towards technology. Please use your discretion.)
Also, don’t hide behind certifications. Certifications are good to keep the learner in us alive. That’s it. In the real world, nobody gives a shit about them. When a software comes to take our jobs, no certificate will help.
When deciding, ask yourself. Does it take at least 6 months to get good at my job ? If the answer is yes, your job is safe.
New Age Roles
I get unsolicited job calls.
Some calls are for the position of Project manager. In the last 5 years … I have observed that almost all companies ask for tech managers, working with a 80:20 ratio. i.e. 80% of the work for the Project Manager position will be technical, and only 20% will be managerial.
This tells me that organizations now look to merge roles.
This confirms what I mentioned earlier. Managers are overpaid. Therefore, manager positions are not viable to be paid separately anymore.
The trend of merging roles has created new designations in the industry. The new designations highlight additional roles managers play.
Solutions Manager – Project manager + architecture/ technical solutioning
Program Manager – Project manager + Client engagement
Product Manager – Project manager + project delivery
These are opportunities for those looking to shift gears. Anyone willing to go the extra mile on the additional skills i.e. client engagement, tech solutioning has opportunities waiting for them.
Final Thoughts
Yes, there was an era when projects couldn’t be executed without PMs. But, that era is gone. Now we are into Covid times. If you don’t already know, the virus mutates with each attempt to subdue it.
I knew a manager, let’s call him Neeraj. He was a good techie, but also had a value adding mindset.
Executing a project, he not only worked on completing it, but also made recommendations to save future costs. As luck would have it, he received some funding and was able to execute his recommendations. The organisation saved hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.
Next thing – Neeraj was promoted as a Director and is happy.
I know many managers who lost their jobs. Neeraj won’t ever be one of them. He mutated to add more value than he was asked to. Therefore, he is an asset to the organisation. And assets aren’t let go.
Project Managers – Learn from the virus. Mutate to survive.
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