This. My office tried hiring a "project coordinator" who had zero authority over anyone else. She ended up spending most of her time updating something she called the "Wall Of Fun" and quitting after six months.

I do wish we could have an actual project manager at times just because it's impossible to coordinate resources across departments without a manager, and they're too busy to be bothered with new projects unless it's handed to them by the executive committee.

 

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I've managed a few projects and have watched others as well.

If the project manager has attention to detail, support and good communication then things usually go well.

The ones I've seen not work so well have been for a number of reasons:
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PM thought they knew what they were doing but really didn't understand what they'd gotten themselves into.

Company/boss wanted to change the actual project during the project (usually more than once).

Company/boss failed to deliver on either resources or authority for the project manager.


I'm "ok" as a project manager but I have a friend that is amazing. I have picked his brain a lot. Of course now I live out in the sticks and plan to manage zero projects, lol.

 

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If projects didn't need to be managed, there wouldn't be project managers. Trust me when I tell you that PMs aren't exactly that high up on the totem pole that they are part of "executive management" and thus, afforded "guaranteed job" status in this economy.

The bigger the company, the more important project management is. When projects span multiple departments/budget centers, having a project manager is absolutely essential to getting a project completed efficiently.

Of course PMs vary in skill as widely as devs and everyone else does. If you get a good PM, your project goes well, if you don't, well maybe your project may not go so well.

One thing is sure though, in the vast majority of cases, the myopic view of the project team participants is rarely accurate when it comes to a big project in a big company. PMs have pressure from management that most project team members aren't even vaguely aware of and for every bit of annoyance a PM dishes out to the project, you can bet they've gotten twice that from management...

 

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Project Managers have their uses. In the right context.

Things like BIG coding projects where resource is allocated, broken out into modules, checked against reqs several times along the way, relative progress is required, and then cuts or 'stretch goals' are decided near the end of the cycle? That can work. It's worth the overhead.

I've seen it used in other scenarios where the overhead and disruption it creates is just totally counter-productive.

 

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I see them as necessary in bureaucratic environments. However, they can ALWAYs add value if they are good and adaptable. Unfortunately the position generally becomes the place crappy fail wanna be managers go to die.

I've worked with some though that made projects more successful resources more successful and managers more successful.

 

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There's lots of bad PMs out there for sure but good ones are invaluable on large scale projects

 

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good ones are good even on small projects in the right environments because a lot of line managers suck so hard. A good project manager can be like a flashlight for fail.

 

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I voted invaluable based on the concept of 'Project Manager'. The potential value added is enormous.


My experience is usually something very short of enormous value add........I dunno.

You always notice the bad ones, sometimes the good ones fly under the radar. If they are on top of everything and have good communication skills (getting regular updates and co-ordinating without pissing people off) you may not notice how much of your wonderfully smooth running project is actually attributable to them doing a good job.

 

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I have a friend who is a project manager at a large firm. Despite many conversations about his job, I still have no idea WTF he does.

 

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