Technical Manager

What is a Technical Manager?
I often see Managers branded as a Technical Manager or a People Manager or a Coordinator or a Business Manager.So what exactly is a Technical Manager?.
A Technical Manager is usually a person who has worked in the Technical Domain and is a master of his skillset, knows his stuff like the back of his hand.
He is a well rounded individual with great Technical prowess as well as Management skills.
Focus of his Job profile includes Technical aspects of Project execution i.e. he acts as a liaison between the business teams and the development, QA and testing groups.
What would a Technical Manager do in a P&C Insurance Policy or Claims System implementation?
The Business Analysts have interacted with business and documented the requirements, now it is the job of the Technical Manager to understand and translate these requirements to proper design documents, Identify risks and mitigation strategies, Test plans, test cases and scenarios with the help of the requirements, development and Testing Teams. He is wholly responsible for the design, execution, control and monitoring phases of the project.
There is also the people aspect i.e. resource management, stakeholder management activities that require strong communication and soft skills. A Technical manager has to have these qualities to translate technical issues and topics to non technical stakeholders and get their buy-ins.
This point needs a mention here as Technical people are known to be less 'people friendly' and are more aligned towards a silo-work or are lone rangers as that, because that is how they must have worked during their pure hands on development days, the Technical Manager role requires you to be someone more than just a Technical expert.

Roles and Responsibilities
So at a very high level the roles and responsibilities of a Technical Manager include,
 - Help identify the correct standards, procedures, tools and techniques to be followed in a project so as to benchmark and track the project progress
 - Help identify the correct resource pool based on their strengths and weaknesses for requirements, development, testing and QA etc
 - Help identify the configuration and change management procedure and ensure adherence to the same.
 - Help in properly guiding teams in requirements, design, development and testing phases.
 - Help identify the risks and issues associated with a project and plans to mitigate or resolve them.
 - Plans for code reviews, testing plans and strategies as per the project standards set
 - Help in System, user, regression testing and post production support activities.
 - Lastly, monitor and control the project financials, so the projects stays ontime and within budget and within scope.

What makes an effective Technical Manager?
To be an effective Technical Manager
1> Strong Technical skills
Make sure you know what you are talking about. Be knowledgable about the Technical aspects of your project.
  - Your Team members will respect you either for your Authority (which will not last long if you do not have the command over your Technical skills) or they will respect you for your 'Skills and Technical' knowledge - make your choice
 
2> Good communicator
Like i said before, your Technical development and Tech guru background will only get you so far. To progress to the next level, go up the career chain, you MUST have this one skill. As a Manager you will have to interact with different folks. e.g.
Stakeholders like the policy underwriters, Claims Representative, Financial executives, operations personnel etc.
Project Teams - Requirements, development, Testing, Infrastructure etc
This communication skill is a definite must because
- Internal development Teams will need to communicate with them about the development topics, milestones, issues faced, propose and discuss resolutions etc
- Stakeholders - To communicate the project risks and status items. To negotiate and get buy-ins on project topics etc

3> Good TeamPlayer
A project is as successful as the Team. So first and foremost, the project Manager has to ensure he has selected an effective team. The team is on mark with their deliverables and development and testing schedules. In case of any issues - personal and professional, you will have to work with the team to iron the issues out. A Project Manager has to be a strong influencer for his Project Team, there has to be a level of trust and understanding between the two.
Technically make sure the team follow the project standards and guidelines. Ensure that there are sufficient rewards and recognition, reviews and appraisals occur throughout the project. Ensure that there are some morale boosting activities like Team building workshops, team gettogethers
All of this is not possible unless the project Team works together.

How to progress your career as a Technical Manager?
Some of you may have got to this position as a part of career growth path or some may have been taken this option as an alternative job path. Whatever the case may be, make sure you perform your job sincerely and effectively.
All of the above points, not only help you be successful in your project, but they will also help you be a better Project Manager in the long run....What do you think? Let me know your thoughts and comments.....