Agreed. And while not every project requires or deserves a dedicated PM - every project needs someone who'l own the PM responsibilities. It can be _very_ hard

Agreed. And while not every project requires or deserves a dedicated PM - every project needs someone who'l own the PM responsibilities. It can be _very_ hard as one of the devs on a very small project with no PM to "smell the risk in the air" while you're deep down the rabbit hole of coding - but if nobody does it things are very likely to eventually grind to a time wasting halt. Great Project Managers are worth their weight in single malt scotch. (or substitute your personal very expensive substance...)