linaro-project-management team mailing list archive

[Jamie Bennett <jamie.bennett@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On 7 Mar 2011, at 19:49, Joey Stanford wrote:
> I'm trying to clarify the value add that project managers bring to
> Linaro's Engineering team. This doesn't concern Landing teams because
> the value of a good PM is much more evident there.

[SNIP]

> ACTION: I'd like for you to please answer these questions in a reply email:
> 
> 1) What activities you are currently doing for your team leads today?
> e.g. status reporting, blueprint tracking, documentation updates,
> requirements planning, etc   Please be as specific as you can without
> writing a book. Bullet points would work best for me.

As a part-PM I can give you only my insights:

 * Heavily involved in the requirements capture process
  * Help the team identify Blueprints
  * Help the team define Blueprints
  * Setup infrastructure in Launchpad
  * Help with specification drafting and review
  * Ensure Blueprints have sufficient work items and are representative
 * UDS and sprints
  * Ensure team is booked for the event
  * Be first point of contact for travel and event questions 
  * Ensure required hardware and other resources are available at the
    event
  * Help the team in any way at the event including meeting 
    arrangement, resource requests, first point of contact, general 
    other tasks
 * Regular Monitoring
  * Blueprint and work item monitoring to ensure tasks are progressing
    as planned
  * Early identification of issues, 'stuck' Blueprints, behind tasks,
    engineering progress e.t.c.
  * Regular contact with the team lead to discuss progress and issues
  * Ensure deliverables are to be on time and communicate (or encourage
    the communication of) these to a wider audience
  * Keep abreast of other teams in Linaro (reading the weekly activity
    reports is good here) to identify potential collaboration points
    and any issues that may arise from interoperability
 * General Admin
  * Chair (if necessary) team meetings either on the phone or on irc
  * Arrange (or take if not the chair) notes for the meeting. Ensure
    these are posted to the relevant places (email the team, mailing
    list) in a timely fashion. 
  * Ensure the wiki captures the meeting correctly (logs, notes, 
    actions)
  * Chase any actions the team generates
  * Ensure all team members produce a weekly activity report
  * Collate the activity reports, with a keen knowledge of what the
    team is doing, and produce an informative weekly team report
  * Be involved in team discussions on mail and irc
  * Help to satisfy IS and hardware requests
  * Be representative of the team at the Release meeting
 * Contact
  * Be first point of contact for team, process and general enquiries.
    Resolve any issues or escalate where necessary. 
  * Provide a buffer between the the tech leads/management and the
    engineers for trivial and straight-forward issues.

> 2) What activities could you do to add value that you are not already
> doing? Again, bullet points are probably the best way to document
> this, with clarifying comments as needed.

I think if the list above is executed completely the PM provides a very
valuable service. The problem lies with the tech lead taking some of
these items and diluting what a PM *could* do. I'd like to see the PM's
become more knowledgable of their teams projects to be able to 
contribute not only PM-related cycles but valuable insight too.

> 3) Write down any comments as to the value of a PM over an admin
> specifically in/for Linaro Engineering. Why do we need PMs in Linaro
> Engineering?  What does a PM do that an Admin could not? What
> impact(s) would occur if we hired an admin instead of a project
> manager? What if we transitioned everything over the team lead?

For Linaro I see the ideal PM being a 'PM-minded' technical resource
rather like any other engineer but concentrating on the process,
monitoring and reporting of the team as a whole rather than the 
day-to-day engineering work on the projects themselves. In addition to 
this any spare cycles should be occupied by the 'technical-PM' getting 
involved with the work itself to contribute to discussions, keep abreast 
of technical topics and get involved in any other useful way. 
Traditionally the hybrid PM/technical role was provided by the Tech Lead
but as the overhead for 'running' a team and keeping it in tip-top
condition increases, the tech lead is more and more occupied in areas
where they are not utilised to their fullest.

Just my 2p, hope it helps.

> Joey

Regards,
Jamie.