As this community gets underway, I would like to note that its birth coincides with the end of project management as we know it. That's a pretty auspicious beginning. Most beginnings are heralded as the onset of wonderful new things, and yet I firmly believe that we are on the cusp of major changes in project management as a profession and major shifts in the way we do business. The acceleration of new niche practices in project management, of specialization and of expansive tool sets means that we have the potential to see project management change into a new (and perhaps unrecognizable) profession.

I grew up in a medical household. My father was (for many years) the lone doctor in a small community, responsible for treating the elderly, delivering babies, conducting high school and college physicals and serving as the county coroner from time to time. He prided himself on his role as the master generalist. It was a compelling place to grow up. Dinner conversation one day would be about a neighbor who had broken a leg, while the next day might be tied up in a discussion about Dad's meeting with the pharmaceutical sales rep. There was no aspect of the profession that seemed to elude my father. As he neared retirement, however, he was growing disillusioned with much of the medical community, as insurance companies began to dictate treatment and as specialists and sub-specialists became the norm for what he used to consider everyday maladies. When I told him my "city doctor" had referred me to a dermatologist who then referred me to a hand surgeon for a small bump on my hand, Dad proclaimed, "This is not the same field I got into 50 years ago!"

We are seeing many of the same types of trends in project management, accelerated by the technology of our time. We have gone from project managers who seem armed to serve in a host of roles in a host of different project types to specialists and sub-specialists, each with his or her niche of capability. Certifications for project managers, program managers, schedulers, planners, contract professionals, earned value specialists, business analysts and a host of others abound. The profession's few guides, the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge and PRINCE2, are now but two in a vast sea of potential project guidance documents. Everything from the IEEE Software Engineering Body of Knowledge to the Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering's Skills and Knowledge of Cost Engineering adds another dimension to the practice.

The challenge, however, is that we are now seeing many of the same concerns that the medical community has seen in recent years. Project managers are further and further removed from the day-to-day performance of the project. Project managers rely on specialists and sub-specialists in hope of getting better, more refined performance. The reality is that some projects require that level of detailed definition. There are also projects that do not have those types of niche needs. In the early days of project management, we didn't have to make the decision as to the level of detail or the level of specialization required. A project manager in a given profession was expected to have the full range of requisite skills. Today, however, the project manager's role may be to coordinate a scheduler, a planner, and an earned value technician as well as the project team of professionals. The challenge is not to be able to just guide performance of the project, but to also know which professionals need to be drawn into the loop and when. Not only that, the project manager must have a clear sense of how to enhance communications amongst these disparate parties and make the customer perceived the effort as a cohesive whole.

This is far removed from the "country doctor" type of project management that prevailed just 20 or so years ago. But I don't believe that this means that all project managers have to suddenly become specialists of one stripe or another. It does mean that we have to make a choice. We have to make the determination if our clients truly need specialists, or whether than will be satisfied with the treatments and ministrations of a generalist. The clients' needs (and the project manager's capabilities) will go the greatest distance in determining the type of management we provide,

In the months and years ahead, you'll have the opportunity to sign up for new certifications (the PMI® Program Management Certification, for one), and to opt for new approaches, as well. As you consider the options, the determining factor should be the same ones that drove my father to general medical practice and drives others to specialization. If you need variety and a long-term relationship, stand by your role as a project generalist. Be sure that you have a clear understanding that all jobs are your job. The more that you can do to ensure that you are a party to virtually all aspects of the project, the better. The generalist project manager will succeed through expanded and expansive relationships.

By contrast, if there are specific, narrow elements of project management practice that really prove to be your forte, modern project management now affords you the opportunity to leverage those interests. However, such actions are not without a cost. The narrow focus of being an "earned value professional," for example, can limit the breadth of contact for the project manager, as well as the scope. Someone accustomed to running projects with full contact with a large body of stakeholders may find themselves limited by the specialists' role.

Faced with this dichotomy of specialist and generalist project managers, we need to know our respective roles. As my father through the years learned to occasionally bow to the medical specialists, we must learn when it is appropriate to yield to those who have a niche understanding. But we must also consider when our customer "patients" need the long-term commitment, understanding and depth of relationship that only a well-studied generalist came perform. The choice is ours, but the choice must be made.