In Part 1 of this article, we covered the “terrain changes” in making the transition from a Project Manager (PM) role to a Delivery Manager (DM) role.
Terrain changes include the aspects to “learn” and “un-learn”. In Part 1, we covered the following:
– Terrain change #1: Portfolio diversity
– Terrain change #2: Dynamic aspects of “delivery assurance”
– Terrain change #3: Enabling rather than controlling
In this part, we will cover the remaining three terrain changes.
Terrain change #4: Greater focus on people & their development
Learn: As a DM, a key responsibility for you would be people development – especially development of PMs. You need to learn to use project situations as a way to achieve that goal.
For example, reviews, besides being project necessities, provide an excellent opportunity for people to learn.
If you adopt a natural coaching style of management, people in your teams would develop a greater sense of responsibility and ownership over time.
Also, be conscious of the fact that you are now managing managers and seek guidance on its nuances from your senior management and coaches.
Unlearn: There may be a big change in mindset here for you. As a PM, you are probably very conscious of seeing people mostly as part of a work schedule – a result of task orientation that is natural for the role.
As a DM, you need to see people in a more holistic fashion – as long term employees, future leaders & lasting assets of the organization.
Terrain change #5: Change in stakeholder context
Learn: There is much to pick up for a new DM to deal with this terrain change. Your customers would want to know your specific contribution and value-add to their projects (they may never ask PMs this question!).
Your line management would expect you to actively support new business acquisition and grow business in existing accounts. They also expect you to lead significant initiatives in delivery improvement.
Your project teams expect you to showcase their achievements in the organization, gain them recognition & growth. They look up to you to help chart their professional and career growth beyond projects.
You would also tend to work with your peer DMs a lot more, sell your ideas and influence them. You indeed have a big list to address!
Unlearn: Do not focus only on delivery assurance – remember it is only one part of your job as a DM. Your stakeholders now expect a lot more from you than just that.
Don’t let fire-fighting and operational aspects swamp you all the time – find root causes and address them with help from your senior management (the first root cause may be you yourself, your beliefs and convictions!)
Terrain change #6: Increased operational support & cross-functional coordination
Learn: This is often a pet peeve of new DMs – that they did not anticipate so much of “operational stuff” as part of the job – things like recruitment, getting infrastructure in place, coordinating travel for project staff and so on.
Well, it is part of the DM role to provide the right environment for the project to succeed! No doubt, support functions need to be highly responsive and deliver on time – projects would not succeed otherwise.
But as a DM, you need to recognize the inter-dependence of your projects and support functions. You need to foster an environment of mutual respect and team work. You need to understand the people in support, their challenges and constraints.
You also need to be keenly aware of your time spent on operational aspects, contain it and not let it frustrate you.
Unlearn: As a PM, your work interactions within the organization were mostly with technical staff. Unlearn the limits you are placing on your work/social network – it now needs to include people in support functions.
Your sphere of influence (not just control) needs to expand!
In conclusion, if you continue to wear the PM hat as a DM, you may well find yourself bogged down and unable to scale up to your new role.
But if you understand the terrain changes above, prepare to deal with them and continue to learn (with support, guidance and coaching as needed), you would find that the DM role is indeed very fulfilling and at the very epicenter of exciting events in your organization!
If you have stories to share from your own experience on how you achieved the PM-DM transition, it would be nice to hear and learn from them.
If you are facing some new terrain changes that we have not covered above, we would be very interested to hear them too.
To know more about our offerings for Delivery Managers, email us at info@pm-powerconsulting.com.
About the author:
Subramanyan Sivakumar (“ShivK”) has over 25 years experience in software development, project and software delivery management. Since 2006, he has trained and coached several hundred project managers and delivery managers in IT/software organizations. ShivK is a founder-member and Principal Consultant at PM Power Consulting, Bangalore (www.pm-powerconsulting.com). He holds B.Tech and M.Tech degrees from IIT, Madras and also the ITIL Manager Certification from EXIN, Netherlands.
