Acceptance of non-technical project managers

If you accept the previous argument, you may still have two big concerns. The first one is that while this may be a better setup, people still find it difficult to accept project managers who are not technical experts. If you’re such a project manager, note that the objection is because they understand the project manager as someone who’s supposed to be the main technical decision maker.

So, you should explain at the beginning that you’re not going to be their decision maker, and that they are the technical experts responsible for those decisions. You also need to explain to them that you’re there to make working easier, more pleasant, and more productive for them. Of course, talking is easy, and you have to prove it to them by your actions. If you do it right, after a few weeks or months, they will trust you.

A company I knew once assigned a very experience project manager to an IT development project. The project team objected to him because he had only worked in construction projects. I explained everything I’ve said above to them, and asked them to give him a try. I returned there a few weeks later and asked how it was with the project manager. They were all happy about it, and one person told me, “I had no idea working in a project could be so easy and comfortable! I don’t know how I’m going to go back to working on typical projects after this.”