Also, have completed certifications (PMP, PMI-ACP, Scrum Master, Product Owner) in both domains gives me a unique perspective. Having worked as a Product Owner and Agile Project Manager in different companies from large to medium size. A decision to follow my passion or the money.īoth have great opportunities and bring their own challenges. In the opposite situation, the project might succeed from a business standpoint, but it is very difficult to have excellent quality work done without an on-site project engineer providing oversight and technical problem-solving.Throughout my career, I have struggled to understand product manager vs project manager salary and the career path. With a good project engineer and a poor project manager, work can be completed on time and within budget, but there is a significant risk that the result may not achieve the desired business results. The on-site manager makes sure that the business is functioning optimally, while the business owner is more focused on high-level facilitation and ensuring that business objectives are met. Instead, the project manager can able to focus on being a facilitator so that the project engineer can drive results from an engineering standpoint.Ī project manager is almost like an absentee business owner who hires an on-site manager to take care of daily operations but still watches from behind the scenes to make sure that the business stays profitable while the on-site manager is responsible for daily operations. Without a project engineer, the project manager would have to be on site all the time, solving technical problems and directly managing staff while handling the business side of the project separately. The differences in focus between the two roles are critical.
The project engineer wants to schedule, mobilize and motivate technical staff to deliver the best product in the shortest time possible within budgetary constraints, which is mainly an engineering task. Simultaneously, a project engineer is concerned about the project from an engineering perspective. Project managers implement a project to achieve a business objective and are primarily concerned with the viability and success of a project from a business standpoint.
Based on this example, we can see that both roles are necessary.
In a case like this, the project engineering aspect was carried out successfully, but the project management was executed poorly because the benefit of the project was not realized in an acceptable time frame. The facility is built on time, and budgetary requirements are satisfied, but afterward the target benefits from the new plant are not achieved due to cultural barriers and poor commercial planning that extend the ramp-up time for the new facility to start earning money for the business. For example, suppose a new plant is constructed in a unique location by a large construction firm. Project engineers and project managers are both necessary for projects because of the differing perspectives they bring. Conflicting or Complementary – How do the two roles work together?