I realized a few years back that unless I wanted to be only a software developer for the rest of my life I needed to grow professionally beyond just staying latest and greatest in software development. Lately I’ve been noticing a number of my peers having decades more experience and still basically doing the same job. There’s nothing against that as it’s a high pay, low stress profession that allows you to solve new problems every day. However I got in to software development because I enjoy the challenges but my time working with others who are more experienced made me realize that eventually it’s all the same thing even with the business problems you have to address. I’ve thought of earning an MBA(still am thinking) but something came upon me that allowed an opportunity to grow right now.
To me it seemed if I really want to take it to the next level then I’ll need to move in to project management or architecture and I was lucky enough to move in to the project management sort of role around a year ago. Being double lucky they’ve enrolled me through the Business Project Management Program at LSU and for me it’s really added so much perspective in my day to day as a software developer let alone my growth as a Project Manager. The courses are designed to develop you in project management as defined by the Project Management Institute which is “the” organization for the promotion of project management as a profession. Essentially if you learn to manage a project their way you can manage a project anywhere for any business sense. But that aside I have to say that as a developer you gain so much more insight on goals and objectives within an organizational structure. Things that previously made no sense about why certain things were being done become clear or you at least understand the possible reasons your enterprise might be doing what they’re doing.
To me becoming skilled as a project manager is also exciting because not only can I manage IT and software development projects but I can also manage any project in any business beyond IT with their framework. By pursuing this extension of my skillset in to this field I’ve given myself a world of new possible opportunity where I was presently pretty much set on being a developer. You might think “Does this mean you’re thinking of leaving software development?” and the answer is no but options for consideration are nice to have. I love developing software but I’ve had friends talk about their fields and thought it’d be exciting to work in that direction. As a skilled project manager you have a niche that allows you to move across industry beyond a certain functional area.(IT)
As I said the program at LSU allows you to learn as it relates to the PMI but it also bridges gaps between yourself and other professionals. For instance in the construction business you have planners & estimaters who consider many of us software developers so alien we might as well be from Mars. However when they saw PMP study guides and material in regards to Project Management they instantly had something to talk about from their perspective. On the other hand I found myself better capable of discussing software development with them. So instantly this was positive and showing to be a worthwhile investment. Further in later discussions
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