ICT Management > Managing ICT Projects

Project Management - A technical project manager?

By Lasa Information Systems Team

Project management skills are a valuable asset to voluntary organisations.

Within the voluntary sector it is common for the person who manages a project to be the one who had the initial idea, raised the funding, and who has the enthusiasm and the dedication to make the project succeed.

This type of Project Manager is more likely to have skills in the area of work involved rather than in project management itself. A different approach is often taken in the wider world where Project Managers are appointed on the basis of their project management skills. This recognises project management as a technical skill in its own right, and this becomes the basis of the appointment rather than knowledge of the particular area of work.

The PRINCE2 model for the Project Board is based on this approach. The Project Executive is the manager with overall responsibility for the project while the Project Manager plays the more technical role of running the project day to day.

There are advantages in this separation. In the voluntary sector model the person who initiates the project is often the custodian of the vision and the driving force behind the project. This person may not have project management skills, and there can be a tension between their desire to maintain the vision of the project, and the ability to deal with the detail of running the project. But can this approach work within the voluntary sector where resources are less often available to support this division of labour?

We may not be able to afford specialist Project Managers, but it is worth considering how these skills can be developed. Recognition of the value of these skills is a start, as is the provision of training for those who need it. Larger agencies have developed project management units within their organisation to be available to projects as and when needed. Smaller agencies may identify one member of staff to be trained in the specialist skills needed to help colleagues run projects.

We have followed the path of developing project management skills within Lasa and this paper is a result of that strategy. We’ve also successfully offered assistance to other organisations in terms of supporting their project management, especially on ICT orientated projects.

For more details contact the Information Systems Team at Lasa – ist@lasa.org.uk, 020 7377 1226.

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