Wanna migrate from analyst to project manager?

 

How to successfully make the transition from analyst to project manager?

 

 

Not all project managers want to be in this position forever. Sometimes some of them may want to have a better and more technical interaction with the teams, as the analyst does.

The same way, there are some analysts that don't want to be an analyst forever. They might want to achieve a new level of responsibility in project managing dealing more with clients and less with the team, considering that the analysts are the pivot to a good relationship between project participants.

If you are considering moving from analyst to project manager, here are 5 points that I believe you gonna have to dedicate more energy in order to successfully achieve your goal. 

Training and certification

If an analyst is decided to make the full transition to project management a good start would be proper training and certification. Acquire a PMP (Project Management Professional) certification is the best way.

The candidate must have a certain experience to make the test, but there are places where you can study and get this certification in five days. 

Learning the system

Yes, there will be software involved. We are in 2018 and you don't want to manage a project with more than 100 hours without using more than a simple sheet. Independently of your favorite tool, the ones that your friends are going to recommend or the ones that your client will tell you to use, just use it. Generally, they are very similar to each other and you might be able to input tasks with due dates, the dependency between tasks and resources associated with tasks and costs. Once you're doing that you're almost ready. 

Learn to see the big picture

As an analyst, you probably are used to seeing tasks, requirements, business processes and diagrams in a more detailed level. As a project manager, you have to consider this details, but you are going to have to get used to seeing things from above, to get the big picture.

This means to analyze in a higher level the tasks impacts, the tasks progress, resources, and dependency. You'll need to know how this affects the project right now, a week from now, a month from now, how it affects the team, how it affects the client and how it affects other projects. 

Make decisions

The analysts are always making decisions - probably as much as the project manager or even more. The decisions generally are different, with the analyst focusing on technical issues, next steps for the development and specification, backlog definition and problem-solving. The project manager usually is focused on taking high-level decisions such as distribute tasks, change resources, dates and etc.

Having this in mind the analyst that is making this transition must feel comfortable with some situations where he's gonna have to make decisions faster and with less information, without the presence of the team, the client or any other stakeholder that can provide crucial data. 

Communicate and facilitate

The analyst making this transition to project manager must be a great communicator in his current position. Disseminate information is not enough. You gonna have to be a great listener. You'll need to understand what's being communicated, what's behind it and what's beyond. The product expected from a meeting must be previously communicated to the ones invited so they can get prepared. 

Summing up

Project managers and analysts, they're both leaders. Both have to be excellent communicators, facilitators team leaders, decision-makers and also must know how to deal with a client in different manners. Each role gets you well prepared to migrate to the other. Maybe the migration from analyst to project manager will be easier because of the analyst's technical background, which is not mandatory to a project manager but it might be handy in some situations.