Product Director: We Need to Pick the Best Manager for the Prensabi

question 161

Short Answer

Product Director: We need to pick the best manager for the Prensabi software project. The project involves the latest technology and is very complicated. For example, this project uses a technology called Stage, which is a motion-capture technique that does not require actors to wear specialized gear to record their movements. Since this is a technical project that requires strong technical skills, we should pick the manager with the strongest technical skills.
Executive: The manager needs some familiarity with the technology, but he or she won't actually be writing the software code. The bigger challenge here is to analyze the goals of the project and make sure that it is being developed according to a strong overall vision. That's why we should insist that the manager have outstanding conceptual skills.
The Product Director and the Executive most likely disagree about which of the following questions?
Does the manager need to have any technical skills?
In choosing the best manager for the Prensabi project, are conceptual skills more important than human skills?
Would it be a mistake to choose the manager with the strongest technical skills if that manager has weak conceptual skills?
Is it ever a good idea to require strong conceptual skills when choosing a manager for a project?
Is it likely that the requirements of the Prensabi project will change after the project is launched?

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