Tired of typing code? Do you want to be a Project Manager, do nothing, and earn money? Do you think that the Project Manager keeps coming and telling you that something is supposed to be done yesterday, that it’s five minutes of work? Are you fed up? Do you want to be the kind of person in the company who manages instead of taking on challenging work from now on? If you are wondering how to become a project manager, I invite you to read on.

Being a real estate developer is a rewarding career with challenges and opportunities. However, at some point, many developers ask themselves: What’s next? What are the next steps in your professional journey? If you dream of a role where you can shape projects, lead teams, and influence strategic decisions, a project manager position may be the perfect fit.

Moving from a developer role to a project manager is not a simple task, but it is achievable with the right approach and preparation. In this article, I will share practical knowledge about the skills that will be useful to you if you decide to become a Project Manager.

Buckle up and get ready for an exciting journey from code to command!

What skills do you already have

First of all, you have a wealth of technical knowledge. Your experience as a developer is a huge asset. You know technologies and software development processes, and you can assess the complexity of tasks and technical risks. This will help you communicate, plan, and make decisions with your team. On the one hand, a Project Manager does not have to be familiar with the technical aspects of project implementation. On the other hand, project managers who know the field in which the project will be implemented are often invited to lead projects. I also prefer to have at least basic knowledge of the subject in which the project is conducted. It is then easier for me to understand what and when we will implement in the project and in what order the tasks must be carried out.

Another advantage of yours is experience in teamwork. As a developer, you probably worked in a team, which gave you experience in communication, collaboration, and conflict resolution. These are essential skills for a Project Manager. What’s more, you understand the specifics of developers’ work, and it will be easier for you to reach them with the message or understand their problems. In projects, development teams often complain that Project Managers or the business does not understand them, but you can easily break this stereotype.

There is one more advantage that will give you an advantage over other project managers, and that is knowledge of tools. You probably know project management tools like Jira, Trello, and Asana. This will make it easier for you to get used to your new role. What’s more, you also know other tools used by development teams, such as code version management tools, code quality monitoring, or other specific tools used by development teams, which can help you determine the actual progress of work. Sometimes, development teams are too optimistic or pessimistic about task pricing; you will be able to support the team in such moments with your experience.

What skills will you need?

Project Management is the most crucial skill you will need as a project manager.

You will learn the most about project management from everyday practice, but to start with, you can learn a lot about project management from the Google course, which is available for free on the Coursera platform Google Project Management Professional Certificate: | Coursera

As a developer, you already work in Agile, Scrum, or Waterfall methodologies daily, so you know what planning, sprint, or Kanban board looks like. Completing this or that course will show you what project management looks like from the Project Manager’s side.

You must supplement your knowledge of planning, budgeting, risk management, communication, and reporting.

If, on the other hand, you are interested in what running a real project looks like on a daily basis, I invite you to read my book. In it, I discuss running a project from the perspective of a project manager. There is no theory in it, only the real life of a project manager.

Another skill necessary for a project manager’s daily work is soft skills. Some people are born with these skills, but even if you haven’t had the need to use them so far or maybe even be aware that such a thing exists, don’t worry about it at all. Soft skills can be learned.

As a project manager, you will need the ability to communicate, mainly by listening and noting down what others have to say. Agile capture of the needs signaled by each of the interested parties is very important.

The ability to negotiate will also come in handy because the reported needs very often conflict or are simply not possible to meet in full within the assumed budget or time.

Problem-solving skills will also come in handy. No project starts and ends according to the adopted plan and schedule. Invariably, during the project, something will happen that we did not expect at the beginning, requiring you to be creative and find a solution.

Another skill needed to work as a project manager is motivating the team and building relationships. A Project Manager must be a leader who can effectively cooperate with people. You need to be someone people want to work with and positively impact the group. Finding a quality in yourself that others value is significant and using it consciously increases the chances of success in your projects.

At the end of the list of skills worth having in the position of Project Manager, I left Business   Knowledge. It is true that as a Project Manager, you have a project to complete and move within the goal you have to achieve, but business knowledge, or a sense of business need, is a kind of project manager’s sixth sense. Understanding the project’s business goals and the context in which the company operates is crucial for making accurate decisions. This is one of the elements that allows you to be a better Project Manager. Of course, if you don’t have a business sense, you can still run projects with great efficiency, but in my experience, if you have a good business sense, then the business side will be more willing to work with you. This business sense always comes in handy when there are two options in the project, at first glance, with similar effects, but you still have to choose one of them, and then the business sense is the sense that helps a lot.

However, if you don’t feel good about business at the beginning of your path as a Project Manager, don’t worry. Make sure that you have a good Business Owner or Product Owner in the project. Their role is to make business decisions, and you can calmly communicate to them that there is a decision to be made and let them make this decision.

What is the difference between being a developer and being a Project Manager?

It’s time to learn the differences between a developer’s and a project manager’s positions. Although they both work on the same team and on one project, they have completely different roles and tasks to perform.

Planning

If we were to compare it to esports, the Project Manager would create a strategy for the tournament. It divides the project into “qualifying rounds” and sets specific goals to achieve in each round. A developer, on the other hand, is a player who focuses on achieving a predefined goal in each round.

Project Manager

A project manager’s task during planning is to prepare a detailed schedule. This includes setting deadlines for each stage of the project, identifying the resources needed to complete the tasks, and identifying key milestones that will determine the progress of the work.

The project manager must also be flexible and ready to change the schedule as soon as unforeseen circumstances arise. Finding a balance between sticking to the plan and adapting to new challenges is crucial to the project’s success. This role requires strategic planning skills and the ability to make decisions quickly in a rapidly changing environment.

Developer

The role of a developer during project planning focuses on the technical aspects of task implementation. A developer analyzes the project requirements and breaks them down into more detailed steps, determining what technologies and tools will be needed to implement them. It also creates a detailed technical plan that considers the dependencies between the different modules of the system and potential difficulties that may arise at the implementation stage.

The developer must accurately estimate the time needed to implement individual functionalities, taking into account their experience and possible unforeseen problems. They also work with other team members to ensure that all components are compatible and that the entire system works as intended.

Communication

A Project Manager is like a sports commentator. He does not influence the course of the game, but he must ensure that each interested person has a full picture of what is happening on the pitch. A developer, on the other hand, is like a player. He does not communicate with the spectators watching the duel, but he has to communicate very efficiently with his team members to achieve the intended goal.

Project Manager

He is responsible for all communication that takes place in the project. At the beginning of the project, he plans the communication strategy. It determines who, when, and how will be informed about work progress. This includes creating an agenda for meetings, selecting the reporting frequency, and choosing the most appropriate communication channels for stakeholder groups. They need to clearly understand the information needs of the project team, sponsors, clients, and other stakeholders to ensure that everyone is up to date with the project’s progress and can respond quickly to changes.

However, the role of the Project Manager does not end with planning the communication strategy. During the project, he must enforce the prepared strategy, which requires consistency and discipline. They must hold regular team and stakeholder meetings, create and distribute reports, and update project schedules and plans. An important aspect is care for open and transparent communication, where problems or delays are quickly identified and discussed. The project manager acts as a mediator who ensures that all parties to the project have access to the necessary information and that they can participate constructively in the decision-making process.

Developer

Although developers focus mainly on the technical side of the project, their communication skills are essential to ensuring that all elements of the project are coordinated and integrated as planned. Developers must effectively communicate their comments and needs to both the Project Manager and other team members.

Troubleshooting

A project manager is like a one-man crisis management team. When the game does not go as planned, when the team encounters problems in the implementation of tasks that were not taken into account at the stage of planning the strategy, the project manager begins to frantically look for a way out of the situation and a way to change it to achieve the intended goal. During this time, developers are like competitors; they give their best while telling the project manager what they are facing, where the problems are, and what they need to solve them.

Project Manager

A project manager must be ready for any unexpected difficulties that may arise during the project’s implementation. In crisis situations, his task is to quickly identify the problem, understand its causes, and find an effective solution.

Sometimes, the project manager can propose a solution to the problem, but sometimes, he has to gather a team of people with the right knowledge to find a solution together.

However, solving the problem alone is not enough. The next stage is to implement, monitor, and document solutions and lessons learned from the problems encountered. This allows you to avoid similar difficulties in the future and improve the processes related to project implementation.

Developer

Developers are often the first to identify and report a problem to the project manager. Thanks to their technical knowledge, developers can quickly diagnose problems and propose solutions that effectively eliminate them. However, developers’ problem identification and problem-solving are mainly concerned with the technical part of the project.

Working closely with the Project Manager, developers provide the necessary information and suggest alternative approaches to find the most effective way out of a difficult situation. Their ability to think analytically and solve problems creatively is invaluable, especially during crises that require quick action.

Risk management

Continuing the sports analogy, the Project Manager must take a broad view of the upcoming match, analyze all the risks that come to mind, and prepare plans to respond to these risks if they arise. Perhaps the opponent will field a different line-up than we expected, our squad will lack a key player, or the weather will not be favorable for us. The Project Manager has to think it all over before the match. Developers, on the other hand, are like racers. I implement the previously adopted strategy, and if they observe any risk during the duel, they quickly report it to the Project Manager, asking for instructions on how to react.

Project Manager

Risk management is one of the key responsibilities of a project manager. A project manager must be prepared for unexpected difficulties, proactively anticipate potential risks, and develop appropriate management plans. In practice, this means identifying risks, assessing them in terms of the probability of occurrence and potential impact on the project, and then developing strategies to minimize them.

Effective risk management also requires constant monitoring of the situation, updating the list of risks, and quick response to new threats. The project manager should communicate regularly with the project team to ensure everyone knows potential risks and how to respond to them. In a crisis, the project manager coordinates the team’s activities to minimize the negative impact of risk on the project and ensure its continued success.

Developer

The role of a developer in project risk management cannot be overestimated. With deep technical knowledge and experience in day-to-day project work, developers play a key role in identifying potential technical risks at an early stage. Their daily tasks often allow them to notice disturbing signals that may indicate future problems quickly.

Developers can see technical complications that may not be immediately obvious to a project manager. This allows them to report these risks in advance, which allows them to be effectively managed. In addition, their analytical skills and ability to quickly find solutions enable them to propose alternative methods of dealing that can minimize or eliminate risks.

However, in addition to technical risks in the project, we deal with a whole range of other risks that you, as a developer, do not have to worry about.

Process optimization

If something goes well, nothing stops it from going even better. Project management is like winning matches in competitions. The easier the team gets the desired points, the better—less risk of injury in the better-rested squad before the next match. The coach is attentive to the opportunities that allow the team to achieve the goal with less effort. A project manager is like a coach, he always wonders if something could have been done better. Developers also wonder if a piece of code could have been written faster and better with fewer errors.

Project Manager

Optimization of project processes is an indispensable part of the project manager’s work. To achieve maximum efficiency and effectiveness, a project manager must constantly analyze and improve project management processes. This means identifying bottlenecks, eliminating redundant tasks, and making improvements that allow your team to work faster and more efficiently.

A project manager should regularly conduct process audits, assessing their performance and identifying areas for improvement. Cooperation with the development team is crucial, as developers know the daily challenges best and can provide valuable feedback. Thanks to this, the changes introduced will be practical and effective.

One tool that a project manager can use is retrospective meetings. During these meetings, the team analyzes the completed stages of the project and identifies both good practices and areas for improvement. Joint solution development allows for continuous process improvement and avoidance of repeating the same mistakes.

An important aspect of process optimization is also introducing automation where possible. Tools for project management, bug tracking, and continuous integration can significantly improve your team’s work and reduce the amount of manual work.

Currently, AI can also improve project processes. My book explains how AI can be used in a project manager’s work.

Developer

As mentioned in the paragraph above, developers work closely with the Project Manager during retro sessions, where they share their comments and thoughts.

I wrote about how to carry out retro in the article effectively:

Since software development is mainly the responsibility of developers, optimizing this process seems to give the greatest value to the pace of delivery of project products. From their perspective, developers very often have accurate comments about the quality of tasks prepared for them, business requirements, and technological limitations.

Developers can also optimize their work using the tools they use or write reusable code, which is unattainable for a Project Manager.

Summary

As you can see, as a developer, you already have quite a solid foundation to become a Project Manager. Use your experience and technical knowledge to get started. The next step is supplementing your project management knowledge and improving your soft skills. These are essential elements that, on the one hand, will allow you to look at project issues more broadly and, on the other hand, will allow you to find a thread of understanding with other members of the project team.

At the same time, you can join the project as a project manager’s assistant to get to know the workshop better and see what the project manager does daily efficiently. Another opportunity to learn about how a project manager works is to look closely at how a project manager works in your projects. Talk to him or them; they will undoubtedly be happy to share their knowledge and good practices.