Are you a technology manager or a project manager?

Editor's Guide ： Although technology management and project management are two roles with different division of labor , But in the product team, technical managers are often more valued than project managers . Why? ？ The author of this paper starts from the concepts of the two , The reasons behind this are explained in detail , Share with you .

A friend joined a company as a R & D director through headhunting a few years ago , He used to be the head of a development team in a software outsourcing company .

When I first entered the company , The company attaches great importance to it , He is also in charge of the three armed forces , But a year later , Although the position hasn't changed , But I'm only responsible for the R & D of one team , And it's strange that he only does project management 、 Things related to external communication , There is also a technical leader in the team , The superior of all technicians is the technical director , The technical director's superior is him .

What will come to mind at this time ？ If the technical director is not a project manager or has poor communication skills , This friend basically has no place in this company .

Final , The friend resigned passively , Is really a pity .

In fact, my friend is a very competent project management talent , His projects, both internal and external communication , Or the process control of the project is still in place , But he didn't write code for many years , No technology , Usually also ignored the attention to technology , At the same time, there is also a lack of product thinking , This is probably related to his previous working experience in an outsourcing company .

So in a product team , His long board is useless , And his short board has been magnified , Can't make a product , And you can't control technology decisions , It's impossible to unify different technology systems in the company , Improve the team's technical and architectural capabilities , It makes the boss dissatisfied , The subordinates are not convinced , Although in the technical management position , But it's not up to .

Through this case , When we really become managers , Ask yourself , Am I a technology manager or just a project manager ？ What's the difference between the two ？

One 、 Understand the concept of both

The Prime Minister of the spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period , They were the counselors of the Three Kingdoms period , There are two kinds of skills ： Strategy and directors . Strategy is to find a way , Directors focus on doing things . Modern technology managers still need these two core skills , It's just that there are some changes in the form .

• Strategy ： Technical architecture construction 、 The evolution of new technology and the selection of models , Solve the problem of what to do and how to do .
• director ： Task and personnel coordination 、 Distribution, etc , Solve who's going to do it 、 The question of what to do in advance .

First, let's understand the definition of project management and technology management ：

project management ：

Refers to the use of expertise in project activities 、 Skill 、 Tools and methods , Make the project possible under the limited resources , The process of achieving or exceeding set requirements and expectations . Project management is related to the successful achievement of a series of goals （ For example, the task ） Overall monitoring and control of . This includes planning 、 Schedule and maintain the progress of the activities that make up the project .

—— Baidu Encyclopedia

technical management ：

For planning 、 Develop and implement technical capabilities , Achieve organizational strategy and operational objectives . Technical management usually refers to the management work done in the technology industry , Managers generally have a high level of technology , At the same time, lead the team to complete a technical task .

In the practical operation of Technology Management , The emphasis is on the technical allocation of managers to the team they lead , Technology direction and technology supervision . Managers use their own technical knowledge and ability to improve the efficiency of the whole team , And then complete the technical task .

Technology management is the integration of technology and management , It is an advanced industry with high knowledge capacity .

—— Baidu Encyclopedia

From the definition of project management and Technology Management , Project management focuses more on a single Director , Technology management focuses on strategy , And take into account the Directors . So an excellent technical manager is not necessarily an excellent project manager , But also a good project manager , But a good project manager does not necessarily become a good technical manager .

Two 、 Talk about project management

To grow into a good technology manager , Project management is a necessary stage for us , Because to be a leader of a team is to constantly hone and emerge in a specific matter , Everything is a project , Project management will be the starting point for us to become a manager .

Project management focuses on how to do things better , So project management takes project delivery as its core . For a project, of course, the ideal situation is “ many 、 fast 、 good 、 province ”.“ many ” A wide range of work ,“ fast ” Time is short 、“ good ” High quality ,“ province ” Low cost . These are the four elements of project management .

But as we all know , The famous iron triangle theory in project management , Raising one indicator reduces another , There is a relationship between them , So in fact, this ideal situation is very difficult to achieve .

Think about how those bean curd projects came into being . We're in a hurry , The cost is pressing down again and again , Demand increases, demand increases , At this time, how to complete without sacrificing quality ？ If the customer or the boss asks for quality assurance again , You can just throw this picture in your face ！~~ Wait a minute. Don't be impulsive , A qualified project manager is to manage these key elements well ？

The following is the main process of our product development project ：

in addition , There is a big difference between the projects of external customers and those of internal R & D , Compared to R & D internal projects , External projects have higher requirements for project management , Better communication skills, for example , The ability to control demand is stronger , Stronger public relations ability in emergency , This is also the reason why a professional project manager is indispensable in the team .

3、 ... and 、 How to grow into a technology manager ？

In the definition of technology management, it is clear that technology management is the integration of technology and management , If poor technology doesn't prevent you from becoming an excellent project manager , If the technology is not good, it must be difficult to become an excellent technology manager .（ Of course, technology here refers to technology in a broad sense , Such as technical ability , Technical decisions , Technical leadership, etc , It's not just the ability to use certain technologies to solve problems .）

In a project company , The role of project manager is very important , salary , Development channels should be better than technology managers , But in R & D or technology led enterprises , Technology managers are the ones who have absolute say , Leading the development direction of team technology .

I mentioned the career development plan of programmers in the previous chapter , And technology managers are also the development direction of many programmers .

How to be an excellent technology manager ？ First of all, we need to understand the main work or responsibilities of technology managers ：

（1） Human resources and technical support during the project

The project is temporary , Short period , After the project is delivered, the life cycle of the project is over , So team management in many companies is not project centered . The resources on the project come from the support of the technical department . Technology managers should start from the interests of the company , Reasonable allocation of human resources to specific projects , And provide full technical support in this process .

（2） Control of development quality

Some big projects , There are usually roles like architects to control the quality of technology development , An architect is a kind of technology manager , To guide the direction of technology completely from the perspective of technology , Control the quality of technology development . Project managers tend to focus more on progress control and internal and external communication and coordination .

（3） The construction and application of technology platform

If the project manager's work is the normal delivery of the project , Then the work result of technology manager is the accumulation of team technology , Technology capitalization , Therefore, creating an excellent technology platform is the most direct and effective output of technology managers .

（4） The cultivation of technical talents

Technology managers should take on the sharing and application of new technologies 、 The cultivation of technical talents' ability , Team capacity building is the biggest difference between technical managers and project managers , Because project managers are responsible for things , And technology managers are more responsible for people .

（5） Technical system and standard construction

As a senior technology manager , In order to better guide the work of technology development, the correct , efficient , Steady execution , Need to build a complete set of technical system and technical specifications , By transforming one's own experience and knowledge into institutions and norms , So as to guide the work of the technical team in the long run .

（6） Development and supervision of technology strategy

As the top technology manager in the team , such as CTO Or technical director, etc , How to establish the technical route of the team , How to innovate technology , How to adapt to the trend of technological development , How to maintain the core competitiveness of the team through technology strategy , Leading team technology to the future , Create greater benefits , It's a big thing that we have to think about and act on .

After understanding the work content of Technical Manager , You can decide whether you want to be a technology manager or not , If you want to , How to exercise ？

1. To transform technology management , Need to be clear about their own characteristics and expertise , Technology managers should be excellent in both technology and management ;
2. In my daily work , Solve more technical problems , Help other colleagues solve technical problems , And can form the knowledge base within the team ;
3. Develop your core competencies , Strengthen the overall grasp of technology , Enhance the ability to understand and grasp the business ;
4. Technical managers should be expert in many aspects , At ordinary times, we should strengthen the study of a wide range of technologies , Understand their technical principles and application scenarios ;
5. Seize every opportunity to take charge of a project , Improve your project management experience , Win the battle again and again and get the leader's approval .