Quote Originally Posted by Christopher_Arm
He was a former programmer but if he was one then I can't objectively qualify his work but from the glimpses I 've when he steps over to write code and or put formulas in crystal that don't work I have to raise an eyebrow and wonder.

Are project managers either former programmers who couldn't cut it remaining at programmers with their spaghetti code or people who have MBA 's without a whit of experience in technology.And if so are they nothing more that glorified babysitters with the herding cats philosophical approach to their programmer subordinates.
Good PMs, especially ones who are familiar with the SDLC are hard to come by. It's a broad field. One quote that I've seen consistently applied (correctly) goes "Those who can, do. Those who can't get promoted to management." I have a theory about that, it's to get them out of the way so the rest of us can do our job. I plan to stay in the trenches. Problem seems to be that people think that all PMs are alike... after a project is a project, right? How hard can it be? ... yeah, software is a different animal. Otherwise, my qualifications at having raised 8 dogs over the last few years means I can be a lion tamer. After an animal is an animal, right?

-tg