Little support as project manager

[Flytrapp]

Wondering if anyone can give some advice. I am an experienced project manager. I joined a new role a few months ago with no prior knowledge to the industry. I have responsibility of managing projects which I can do but I am struggling to get a grasp of the technical side. The longer I am in the job, the more detailed questions I am getting from all the different teams I am working with. But I have zero prior knowledege of these things. I mostly take direction from my Director who is rushed off his feet and in meetings all day. He is very difficult to meet 1-to-1 so most of our communication is via email. But even if I ask several questions he replies with one word answers. I have spoken to my line manager but she is not involved in the work I do and also has little contact with the director.

Recently, one of the teams seemed a bit annoyed at advice I had given them and asked for further advice on a subject (same topic I have only started working on in this role whereas Director has specialised in this subject his whole life). Director was copied in but did not respond to email. This is one example but there have been a few things like this. I feel like I've been left alone in this position without any guidance. Where I am meant to get support from?

Are you a “project manager” in the new sense of the term where your job is to keep projects on task and keep on top of the little details? If it is that type of role, my understanding is that it isn’t your job to know the technical answers, it is your job to know who on the team knows the technical answers and direct the question to them.

I'm not sure what you mean @Ponderingwindow by new sense of the term? Yes, that is my role to manage projects from start to finish. I shouldn't know these technical answers but I am being asked them by different teams. Only the Director can answer fully but is too busy/leaving me to do it. So any tips on how I can improve this situation as I have started to feel quite overwhelmed.

Are you sure it’s not expected that PM can answer some of these questions. Different business have different expectations for PMs i.e our PMs are expected to build up a good technical understanding of common tech stuff and only rely on SMEs for tricky or unusual support. On the other hand I’ve previously interview for an PM job that way just logistics management.

Can say what field you are in? EG a construction PM is very different to a PM in IT.

I have a similar role to you op, in a very technical (not IT) field. Over time I have been expected to pick up enough knowledge to know if something is wrong / missed out / cocked up. The buck doesn't stop with me though, that is always down to the PD. Give it time would be my advice, you will get to grips with it.

I have tried to answer some of these questions but this is from my limited knowledge as I have only been in the role a few months. Without saying too much this is a very niche subject which needs many years of training to understand in depth.

Do you work in a structured Project environment with a PMO or where projects have Sponsors and Steeribg Groups? If so, i'd be inclined to raise a Risk on your Risk Log that the project has insufficient Subject matter expertise resource. I'd be seeking your Sponsor or Steering Group's support in increasing the resource in this area.

If however, it's you and your Director, that's trickier.

As a PM, I try to use the PM tools (Risk log, status reports, governance structures) to escalate issues and build traction / get things moving. I'd not stay for any length of time in PM role where I couldn't use these tools to influence.

@Blankiefan it's mostly me and my director. We are a big team but no one else is working on the same projects as me so I am responsible for my own projects.

It's not about using PM tools. I am not getting enough support in niche area. For example, I will speak with the director. He will say we need a, b and c as per industry regulations. I will know what those regulations are and send info and deadlines to different teams. And then I get a whole load of detailed and complicated questions on these niche subjects which I cannot answer. Only director can answer these. I forward these to director but he rarely answers and the teams are getting more and more demanding in their questions. I've never had a PM job like this with so little suppport from someone higher than me. How can I get support/grow in role if director barely answers and I do not have expertise to comment on detailed queries?

So you are project managing things without any project team, and no knowledge of the technical side so it sounds as if you aren't really managing a projects but doing projects. Which is different.

Can you go higher up than your Director and explain what is happening? The Director is not answering the technical questions as asked directly and so it's hindering your whole team

@AlisonDonut I am managing the projects of external teams.

@rattlemehearties unfortunately, there is no one higher up. Yes, it is hindering my work and team work in general. Not sure what else I can do.

I think you need a project management document visible to everyone with clear documentation of what risks and issues there are and who is responsible for what. Combined with a minuted weekly/monthly project meeting where these things can be discussed that everyone involved can attend you should find people know it's not you the question goes to. Basically if it's logged as an issue and communicated clearly there's little else you can do.

I agree with @Isonthecase Whilst the tools aren't the problem, they are your support / should be the solution. Projects are temporary organisations created to make a change. As such, the rules of engagement are often fuzzy. Matrix management is common. Time is always constrained (because people tend to resource up for the day job, not for change). The tools support delivery in this type of ambiguous situation.

The tools I'd use to tackle this:

• raise it as an issue on your Issue Log. Include it in your next Status Report. Flag it to your steerco. The mitigation is improved comms with Steerco oversight
• agree a drumbeat of meetings with your director specifically to answer technical queries.
• Create a log showing the queries with an Open Date, Closed date and notes/ updates. You can categorise the issues if appropriate by topic or complexity or severity or urgency etc (or a couple of measures)
• update at each meeting. If your director doesnt show up note this
• you've agreed regular updated with steerco (your issue mitigation) so summarise your tracker into a slide showing high level bullets/ chart (x issues opened by category x resolved, x outstanding). This gives you a data-based way of escalating the issue.

The Steerco either accept the risk of this or they resource up. If you can provide a proposed solution with the problem that's good too (eg x Consultant at £x per hours per week).

Either that gets you a response or you know the lay of the land and either put up with it being shit (but your ass is covered) or it's not an environment you can work in so you leave.

@Blankiefan put it beautifully. I haven't used some of those terms since my apmp!

They've obviously got a resource problem, are they going to bring in more resources or take longer to do it?

Thank you @Blankiefan and @Isonthecase Very helpful. I have a similar log but not as detailed so I will do as suggested and as you say this will take some of the pressure off me and hopefully the responsibility of tasks/answering queries will become clearer to everyone including the director. Thanks both.

I used to scoff at a risk log, but I recently ran quite a large project [28 million of government money] and the risk log is where I brought all the key members together, each fortnight and each risk anyone identified was dealt with as a team there and then and it basically helped us to concentrate our focus every time. It really is a great practice and helps all team members to have their say without any agenda as if it is a risk, of any kind, it goes on there.