new blog post about how there's too much admin work in tech companies these days & why devs should care about project management more
https://blog.rachelbinx.com/2023/against-project-managers/
@binx Oooh! New Binx post!
My (small) company has been struggling with *not* having any PMs. I think the devs generally haven’t stepped forward to help manage projects because it takes away from doing dev things, but having no one has made for some chaotic times. I think there’s been a (re)recognition that someone needs to take point, in some manner. At least to get everyone talking “do we need this feature”?
@mez I would argue that "dev things" should include project management, people should have an active hand in deciding what to build before they go build it. And to be clear, I don't think that pure consensus is the path forward, there should be a point person who ultimately makes decisions. But (in my anecdotal experience) PMs are ill-suited for this because they don't understand the day to day dev work (since many are not technical)
@binx “PMs…don’t understand day to day dev work” oooh yah a big project a few years ago with an “agile coach” PM painfully highlighted this. 😖
@binx Yeah, I like this. I think the struggle I’ve seen is the translation from client to devs. There’s usually a business manager or sales person in the middle there, who *isn’t* a PM of any sort, so the communications to the devs are rough and it’s hard to know what and why is being built. We need both a point person & to close the gap with the client. I agree about dev things including PM, it really clarifies what needs to be done.