An accidental project manager is a person who is placed into the role by organizational necessity and chance, rather than by design or through choice of career path. Usually this type of project manager comes up through the ranks. For instance, a strong carpenter becomes the project manager on a whole house building project. They typically understand the technical trade aspects of the types of projects that they are managing, however, they don’t have a lot of project management discipline or the project manager skill set. They typically have had little or no formal training in PM and are somewhat suspicious that maybe “all that formal project management stuff” is maybe overkill. They are often looking for practical, no-nonsense tools and techniques that will help them do “just enough” PM to keep things running smoothly — and no more!
More reading:
- The Accidental Project Manager | The International Community for Project Managers
- Planning for Accidental Project Managers – ProjectManager.com
The Accidental Project Manager: Surviving the Transition from Techie to Manager by Patricia Ensworth- 6 Tips for the Accidental Project Manager – LiquidPlanner
- Project Management | 4 Ways to Succeed as an Accidental Project Manager
- Advice for Accidental Project Managers
