The thing is that people on here think project managers are evil incarnate and just useless middle management.
It requires a very specific skill set to be able to lead a technical project and cut through the bullshit on BOTH SIDES: the client asking for features and the team building the product.
Clients always either ask for stuff they don't really need or have vague requirements that crystallise only 3 days after the deadline. "Of course when we said it needs to do foo, it also MUST do bar, doh!"
And teams tend to overestimate their ability to deliver and underestimate the work needed to get to the finish. (Infinite coast problem).
It requires a very specific skill set to be able to lead a technical project and cut through the bullshit on BOTH SIDES: the client asking for features and the team building the product.
Clients always either ask for stuff they don't really need or have vague requirements that crystallise only 3 days after the deadline. "Of course when we said it needs to do foo, it also MUST do bar, doh!"
And teams tend to overestimate their ability to deliver and underestimate the work needed to get to the finish. (Infinite coast problem).