Project Management: the Zombies have Won

If you're a professional software project manager, I have a suggestion. Why don't you become a consultant with Mary Kay or Avon so you can do something more worthwhile with your life?

Oh, boy, that was mean. But if you can stand it, read on.

Project Management in General, and in Software

Project management is a well-developed body of theory and practice. In most fields to which it is applied, it is the only responsible way to run things. Period.

So you'd think it would be a winner in software, which badly needs something to get it manageable. It's really hard to believe that normal project management techniques and practices wouldn't apply to software development pretty much the same way they apply to other things. But they don't.

We now have literally decades of experience showing that project management, when applied to software, simply and categorically does not work. I've covered this subject quite a bit on this blog, and devoted a whole book to exactly how and why it does not work.

It is one of the many sad results of the mad refusal of the whole software industry to pay attention to history that this fact is not one of the first things taught in school.

Project Management in Software

As it is, project management for software is a skill you can acquire. There are piles of books. There are certifications. Many of the people who go into the field are nice, well-meaning people. I like most of the ones I've met. One guy I know even teaches courses in it; from his description, it sounds like his course would be great!

But there's a problem. Not all programmers admire or even respect project managers. There are good reasons for not wanting your project to be infected with the disease of project management. But most programmers aren't particularly intellectual about it. They just want to be left alone! Some of them feel strongly about it. So I would advise project managers to watch their step.

And if you are going to get into project management and make a success out of, do try to take a course like the one my friend teaches, not one like Dogbert's:

If you avoid the Dogbert course, your life expectancy will be considerably longer.