How to Become an IT Project Manager Without having a Technical Background?

Have you ever planned events around your home or neighborhood, like holiday activities or a baseball tournament?

If you have, that’s a plus! You may be pretty close to qualifying as an IT project manager without a technical background. But wait, there’s more.

In the simplest terms, a project manager is a professional who delegates tasks to a team in pursuit of a feasible goal. Within this, one notable factor involved with project management is being highly organized and well-planned with a project target in mind.

Moreover, communication is also key. If you’re going to be a major stakeholder in any process, you will need to establish or follow a process and be able to communicate effectively with your client primarily and also with all those on your team.

Now the question remains; is that enough, though, for being an IT project manager?

Well, perhaps not. Let’s uncover what skills and experience are mandatory for a project manager’s repertoire.

Importance of People Skills

Many of us underestimate the essence of having soft/people skills. Truth be told, these are the true ingredients that help build an effective leader. And an IT project manager has a leadership role to fill.

So, what are people skills?

Some of the more important ones include:

• Communication
• Critical Thinking
• Leadership
• Positive Attitude
• Teamwork
• Work Ethic

Learn more about the skills project managers possess in our recent blog post.

The Basics of Transitioning to the Project Managerial Role

People may change the course of their careers for a variety of reasons. For some, the idea of a more challenging or rewarding career offers sufficient motivation to move into another career. And wouldn’t it be awesome if a bright new career could be yours without a degree to match it?

There aren’t too many fields that allow you an easy entry without a relevant degree or a relevant background; however, you need to make a pivot with your existing education and identify your managerial experiences that are aligned with project management. You’ll be surprised how many aspects you have in common with this field once you begin this exercise. You will, of course, need to have real-life or some practical community experience with handling events and projects. They will all count.

Along with this, an IT project manager needs relentless determination coupled with people skills to succeed.

Polish Your Skills

Becoming an IT project manager requires some innate or tweaked superpowers. Let’s take a look at them:

Stress Management

Dealing with unexpected changes in an ongoing project and tackling them with a looming deadline is a lot of stress for you to handle. Are you good at managing stress?

Speaking

Attending multiple calls of stakeholders and project owners with a convincing and satisfactory voice tone. Can you do that?

Communicating Your Project Vision

Ability to be crystal clear while pitching your project vision to a non-technical individual. Have you got what it takes?

Mindfulness

Capability of perceiving obligatory needs and applying them for more productive and effective approaches. Are they too complex to handle?

The core factor for comprehending such views is to read between the code lines. By that, I mean that you need to understand everything about the project, including all the nitty-gritty bits. Become part of the project and try to understand it as though it is part of your being.

All those aspects and people skills, in their essence, form the core requirements of an IT project manager; with that, you still do require technical knowledge. You may not be hands-on, but you should know what tasks need to be executed and how important each one is and how it fits into the overall scenario of the project—going deeper than that is always going to be a plus for you.

If you possess the qualities of being a true leader, it’s a good idea for you to also learn about the technical methodologies that are in demand within the IT industry.

So, here are some things you may want to learn:

1 – Project Management Methodologies:

• Agile
• Scrum
• Lean
• Kanban

2 – Project Management Processes:

• Initiating
• Planning
• Executing
• Closing

3 – Technical IT Skills:

• Cloud Computing
• Programming
• System Security and Networks
• IT processes

All these listed points are those that will take you some time to get a handle on. For some of them, there are certified courses available. Going through those is sure to be of immense help to you you. For example, PMI, the world’s leading global organization for project management professionals, offers a certification, Project Management Professional (PMP), that helps you expand your knowledge.

The Way Forward

Explaining a technical term from a general point of view can be a little tedious at times. But once you learn about the common aspects at least, your journey in project management becomes easier. This is usually why when you become a project manager, you will likely start with being an associate of some sort.

In such a role, you will have some load to carry alongside a senior project manager from whom you will have a chance to pick up many things on your way. Mind you; we’re not saying this will be a breeze; it will mean a lot of effort for the first couple of years. But with your people skills and the communication you have to offer, you can have a promising future as a project manager.

As a project manager, your role can unleash the full extent of what Cubix has to offer as a leading app development company with a demonstrated history of excellence in the IT industry.