Comments on: 5 Reasons You Don’t Want to be the Project Manager

by: Shaun

Fri, 06 Oct 2006 12:25:48 +0000

PM’s are an essential part of any successful project, I am a coder myself and would hate to be a PM it is just a bit of a horrendous job. When it is done well the PM keeps the project on time and course handles arguments with the customers / management better than a coder generally can do. I think they main issue with a PM is the title and the sort of people it sometimes attracts (thinking of you here gjones) - if the title was projecft coordinator instead of manager then it would attract the right sort of person to the role and cut out the occasional “god complex” personalities that some people get.

by: Retrospector

Sun, 04 Jun 2006 20:31:56 +0000

Indeed this post was not meant to demean developers over PMs or vice-versa. Perhaps I should start a series on the importance of roles in a large project environment weighing in on the value of each one.

This particular post was simply intended to be a humorous list on why you wouldn’t want to be in the role of a PM. I’m sure others that have been in this role can truly relate if they’ve been a developer before as well.

by: TC

Sun, 04 Jun 2006 14:16:58 +0000

Comments 1. and 2. are two extremes of the same scale. KyleT is the coder from hell, and gJones is the management equivalent! KyleT: software development managers have to make budget & schedule commitments up the chain, to their own managers. And in order to do that, they have to require compliance down the chain, from their own staff. If you don’t understand that, I can only assume that you’ve never been personally responsible for bringing in a large project on time & on budget. gJones: Wow, all that “monkey” talk I agree with Kia. That’s really offensive terminology in my opinion. Why not just call them all “dropout deadbeat shitheads”, and be done with it? You need an attitude update, IMHO! Just my 2c …

by: Kai MacTane

Thu, 01 Jun 2006 18:30:28 +0000

GJones– How’s the personnel turnover rate in your department looking? I’d guess any coder worth his/her salt won’t stick around long when they realize what your attitude toward them is. They’ll go places where they’ll be treated like humans instead of monkeys.

I hope that Eastern European outsourcing is working well for you. I’ve heard a fair few horror stories.

by: gjones PMP

Thu, 01 Jun 2006 17:44:56 +0000

Well, since we are finger pointing…Kyle’s evident ignorance of how and why software is actually produced illustrates why we keep code monkeys in the basement. They just don’t get it. They think the project purpose is for them to self indulgently code until they achieve some level of satisfaction.

You don’t dare put them in front of clients, your own managers cant bear the sight of them, and they consistently bite the hand that feeds them – yours.

Grow up monkeys – you get to code because I generate sufficient client confidence that what our company produces will meet their objectives, not because your code is somehow “special and unique”.

Heck, these days, outsourcing to Eastern Europe for a quarter of the cost gets me the same production, without the aggravation. Sure, being coders, they’re silly monkeys as well, but at 25cents on the dollar the additional cost needed to resolve the seeming inability of coders everywhere to follow specs and schedules, or to communicate rationally, can be absorbed without increasing my heart rate.

by: Kyle T

Thu, 01 Jun 2006 13:55:37 +0000

I think PM is the most over-rated position in any company. Departments start producting MS Project files instead of software if they aren’t careful. What’s needed are clearly defined goals and a technical lead who can call BS on his staff if they are wasting time. Demos show proof of work and peer review keeps vaporware from appearing. The tech lead needs a solid resource manager to keep company politics away from the team and defend the tech lead’s back.

The PMP certification is just a way for non technical folks to justify leeching off of fat Fortune 500 IT budgets.