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>A PM keeps management apprised of progress. In most places, project managers save managers time by not requiring managers to spend their time figuring out the

• 01100011 6y ago
  IME a PM takes time at the beginning of the project to define tasks, dependencies, and time estimates. After that, you meet with them formally once every 1-4 weeks as a team to update the schedule, along with an informal, individual chat as needed for critical tasks and late dependencies. It took a lot less time than the useless daily standup meetings I now attend. Most of my experience with PMs was at smaller orgs with smaller teams. Now that I work at a large valley company with layers of antagonistic management, I appreciate my former PMs more than ever. It's important to hire good PMs without huge egos or career aspirations. Being a PM is kind of a shit job and it's not about wielding power or authority over people. You also need PMs who understand the uncertainty baked into software estimates, and can cope with unforeseen problems requiring schedule juggling.
  • atq2119 6y ago
    > It's important to hire good PMs without huge egos or career aspirations. This is so important. PMs are there to serve management and engineering, not the other way around. As soon as you have PMs who are trying to boost their own profile, you're screwed.
    • disgruntledphd2 6y ago
      See much of FAANG over the last five or so years for a number of good examples.