To my mind, this is a sign we're organizing things poorly.
If we design our organizations such that one person can make or break each project and we know there are way too few people to fill those roles, then frequent failures like this are the expected outcome.
In particular, I think the role of "project manager" is mostly wrongheaded. The theory is that you can take a person who knows nothing about the details, give them total power and perverse incentives, and then expect things to turn out well. I think it's only popular because it's an artifact of our current managerialist business culture.
I much prefer cross-functional teams where the team as a whole is accountable for results. I also think we technical people need to stop thinking of ourselves as minions and instead act as professionals. If a "project manager" told a professional (like a doctor or a structural engineer) to do something unsafe or wrongheaded, they'd say no. But software developers routinely go on building something terrible after token protest. I'd love to see that change.
If we design our organizations such that one person can make or break each project and we know there are way too few people to fill those roles, then frequent failures like this are the expected outcome.
In particular, I think the role of "project manager" is mostly wrongheaded. The theory is that you can take a person who knows nothing about the details, give them total power and perverse incentives, and then expect things to turn out well. I think it's only popular because it's an artifact of our current managerialist business culture.
I much prefer cross-functional teams where the team as a whole is accountable for results. I also think we technical people need to stop thinking of ourselves as minions and instead act as professionals. If a "project manager" told a professional (like a doctor or a structural engineer) to do something unsafe or wrongheaded, they'd say no. But software developers routinely go on building something terrible after token protest. I'd love to see that change.