The Boring Project Manager vs. The Flashy Designer

 

This post from the Economist magazine mentioned by Scott Berkun's blog, underscores the importance of project management to the success of video game delivery:

Mr Mollick found that some 30% of differences in revenue between games could be attributed to the producer and the designer alone; and that the lion’s share of this variation was due to the producer. The boring project manager, in other words, meant more to the success or failure of the project than did the flashy designer... That means having a thoughtful producer on board, able to curb (or indulge) the designer’s wilder impulses and make sure that deadlines are met. Rather than being interchangeable, suggests the research, managers, and their talents, matter a great deal to the success or failure of their projects.

According to this article, the notion of "producer" is borrowed from the Hollywood model and is "akin to project managers in traditional software firms and are often resented by creative directors for the amount of control they exert".  One point I do find issue with in the article, is idea that project managers exert control which stakeholder resent.  Often times, the project manager has very little control yet is responsible for the success and delivery of the project and is why the profession is so hard!  This is especially the case if your a ScrumMaster running an Agile project since you'll have to engage in servant leadership.

But what I completely agree with is the notion that the management of projects by "boring", or I would much rather say, rational, calm, detailed oriented and seasoned project professionals is a large contributer to the succcess of projects.  I agree with Scott Berkun though, that to it is presumptuous to make the claim that the manager is more important then the designer or developer as all team members are important. 

The details of the Economist article can be found here, and while I have not read the academic article by Mollick yet, I'm glad there's research out there that backs up the what we as project managers all know, which is that our profession is not simply overhead but is vital to the success of critical projects.