stones

The Holy Project Manager

This has made my day. I'm tempted to print it off and stick it on the wall of our office. There are now more project managers in our company than there are folk doing the real work (if you count all the 'delivery managers', 'programme managers' and assorted other vague names - you know I'm not exaggerating).

They wonder why we're under-resourced and struggling on projects - no, it's not because we need more project managers, it's because half the staff are doing nothing except debate whether a report in a draft state is 60% complete or 65% complete.

I wouldn't mind so much if they actually managed the projects - they don't; they set unrealistic goals based on no idea of what the job entails, set the priorities all wrong and then just sit back and become project monitors, requiring us to manage the project and keep them updated. They then assume that we're at fault when we inevitable stray from their clueless plan. Then firefighting mode comes along, the board steps in and we're top priority. We get the resources we've been crying out for but suddenly we're late on a high profile job.

Of course everyone has ambitions to become a project manager because it's obvious that these days it's the way to the top. Talented engineers are hanging up their brains to become spreadsheet tools. I just hope the tide swings and they realise they've got nothing useful to put on their CVs for the past decade. To55ers (most of them).

*waves at any project managers reading this*

 

Re: The Holy Project Manager

Then they'll move on to be management consultants and business coaches/gurus.

Brilliant at telling you what to do. Not so good at the implementation....

 

Should have gone to Chelsea to learn his trade playing alongside John Terry.

 

Re: The Holy Project Manager

Just about sums up my experience in Systems (IT).

Jaguar used to be great at just doing things, then they merged with LandRover whose idea of doing things was to outsource the actual work and convert their own people from being useful contributors into Project Managers acting as go-betweens. Unfortunately, LandRover's ideology won out and gradually Jaguar people stopped doing things and either became Project Managers or simply left. My job was outsourced and was very glad to get out.

 

Re: The Holy Project Manager

Best Project Manager I ever worked with basically performed 3 roles:

1). Tell us which site to go to and when.
2). Kept the people on site away while we worked
3). Found the best local pub for lunch.

 

Re: The Holy Project Manager

What did he do for the other 39h 30min a week?

 

Re: The Holy Project Manager

We were usually on site 1-2 days a week, so #2 was most of that time. The rest of the time he played with Gantt charts and did meetings. Same as most PMs do

 

Pretty obvious you guys have had some bad experiences with project managers. It's a great pity because a good pm can be a big asset to a company. But too many calling themselves pms without the knowledge or experience.