PM and Domain Knowledge

My experience tells me that, all things being equal, a solid Project Manager (PM) can effectively lead a team to build a bicycle or a rocketship. While these “projects” vary significantly in risk and complexity, a key factor is engaging the stakeholders and subject matter experts into a cohesive team to formulate a plan and execute.

That said, a PM provides increasingly more value with knowledge of, and experience in, the domains s/he is working. Domains may include:

• A specific industry
• Process / functional area
• Technology (hardware, software, infrastructure, security and/or applications)
• Business administration

The PM has an advantage when s/he has:

• Significant depth in a particular niche / domain; or,
• Reasonable depth across multiple domains; and, most importantly,
• The wherewithal to leverage their domain knowledge on projects they manage.

If a PM lacks domain knowledge (breadth or depth) or doesn’t apply this experience on their projects, they can be perceived as a detached participant. They may be seen as present in form but not in spirit. Viewed as a meeting scheduler, planner, status checker and note taker: a project administrator. While this may be all that is needed in certain cases (small/short/narrowly focused projects), those aspiring to be a High Performance PM must bring so much more to the table.

So, in addition to acquiring the foundational skills necessary for Project Management, those aspiring to be a High Performance PM are encouraged to develop SIGNIFICANT domain knowledge. You pick the domain or domains, and the depth/breadth. This can be accomplished a number of ways:

• First, and foremost, by performing in a job relative to or within the domain
• Attending training including online and/or night/weekend courses at a local college
• Reading trade rags, books and blogs on the topic area
• Joining trade associations; taking on a volunteer / leadership position in the industry

Many of these activities will qualify as training and education that an employer will pay for. The alternative, for activities that don’t qualify or if our employer is unwilling to pay, is to pay for it “out of pocket.” We are talking about OUR future here…

Whether the PM has domain knowledge pertinent to the project being managed or not – WE MUST EXERT OURSELVES. We must question everything. Asking “why?” a lot! We must make sure we “get it” and that right (business and project) decisions are being made. We must ask ourselves: “If this business problem was mine personally (vs. my company’s or client’s), do I understand the direction / decision? Does it sit well with me? Or, am I being complacent and letting it go for the sake of expediency or for fear of asking a dumb question?”

There are NO DUMB QUESTIONS! I’ve found that, more often than not, the question I’ve asked was in the mind of one or more of my teammates or should have been.

When I find myself in a perplexing situation or have made a unique observation in an area I’m not familiar, I’ll start my question or comment with: “Folks, I’m the dumbest person in the room – on this particular subject…” then I’ll state my question or observation seeking feedback from the team. More often than not, my outside / objective perspective (observation or question) is what was precisely needed at the time to enable the team to break through an obstacle we were facing…

If the PM didn’t previously have the domain knowledge (or the desired depth), this method will certainly help to acquire it. This approach will also add SIGNIFICANT value to the team as others learn in the process (expanding their horizons) while making it even more likely that the project will succeed.

In closing, if you are looking to improve PM performance and capabilities in your organization, feel free to reach out so that we may discuss how I can help.

Click here to return to our topical index of articles on High Performance Project Management.