90% – maybe 93% – of project managers, could probably disappear tomorrow to either no effect or a net gain in efficiency. Manager and sometimes dev lead here.

90% – maybe 93% – of project managers, could probably disappear tomorrow to either no effect or a net gain in efficiency. Manager and sometimes dev lead here. I agree with this, but would qualify that it’s not because teams are “self-organizing” or self managing or whatever claptrap the consultant sells. A good manager - or better said, a good leader - can make a massive positive impact on the efficiency and quality delivered by a team. There is a massive absence of good leadership in the software industry. All manner of process and certifications and other bureaucratic scaffolding have been invented to try and work around the absence of leadership, to little avail. Make no mistake, those practices and processes and certifications can help good managers become better. But they don’t turn bad managers into good managers and don’t compensate for an absence of leadership.