Project Manager - are they really required?!

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What if, there is no Project Manager for the project?

At times, people often ponder 'why do we need Project Manager as they neither code nor do QA validation and their effort is of no use to the delivery'. Assume there is a team of 10 in which 6 are developers and 3 QA engineers and 1 Development Lead and all are exceptionally good technically and functionally.  They are all aware how to efficiently code and of course all QA engineers are experts in Automation. So in that case do you think we need Project Manager to handle the project? 

The point is, rather than getting into a debate on whether we need Project Manager,  its worth discussing on whether people in the team can take care of required project management activities.

In general Project Manager is related to Captain for the Project which means he/she has clear vision & direction for the project. One should know the objective of the project, and who are the primary stakeholders and secondary stakeholders; When we should reach where (Milestone details with target dates) and its dependencies and its owners.

Another focus area will be communication. Communicating right things to right people and at right time - which includes Risk Management (Dependencies, Issues, & Risks) tracking with right people at right time apart from the Status reporting.

When we mention status reporting, people at times think status of the project deliverable, though this is one aspect of the status reporting, but  more than that project status should get the visibility on Planned Budget/Effort/Project Scope Vs Spent Amount/Spent Effort/Delivered Scope. 

This in turn fixes the spotlights on the entity called Project Manager to get the visibility of high level and detailed level also to the respective stake holder. People in the top hierarchy should get the  visibility on Budget Spent Vs Ready Scope. The crew might be exceptionally competent in their sphere of work but beyond the call of work is an unfair expectation as it might hamper productivity and thats why and when a Project Manager is pressed into service.

In nutshell, Project Manager helps to get predictability of the project all times with relevant information to the relevant stake holders….