Have you ever seen the dismissal of a project manager?

I have seen some PMs dismissed due to incompetence, but I've also seen a few who were dismissed as scapegoats when the real issue lay with the sponsor or a functional manager.

I have seen some PMs dismissed due to incompetence, but I've also seen a few who were dismissed as scapegoats when the real issue lay with the sponsor or a functional manager.

The success of a project is not entirely dependent on the actions of the PM. On the contrary many times the PM can't do much to achieve the success. The most important factor of success is represented by the people that are doing the work. You can have a super-PM but if the team is unable to deliver then he can't do much.

But not always the PMs are considered scapegoats.

I know a PM that lost millions on a software development project but he was not dismissed because it was not his fault. He did a very good job on the project management side.

I don't know all the details but what I do know is that during the work the technical experts said that they need at least another year to deliver and in the end it took even longer than that. The customer then said, OK another year but we are not going to pay you any more money. So they had to deliver while loosing money otherwise they would have been sent to court and had lost even more money.

What I don't know is who made the original estimates the technical experts or the sales people. Hope you understand what i mean. :D

The success of a project is not entirely dependent on the actions of the PM. On the contrary many times the PM can't do much to achieve the success. The most important factor of success is represented by the people that are doing the work. You can have a super-PM but if the team is unable to deliver then he can't do much.

But not always the PMs are considered scapegoats.

I know a PM that lost millions on a software development project but he was not dismissed because it was not his fault. He did a very good job on the project management side.

I don't know all the details but what I do know is that during the work the technical experts said that they need at least another year to deliver and in the end it took even longer than that. The customer then said, OK another year but we are not going to pay you any more money. So they had to deliver while loosing money otherwise they would have been sent to court and had lost even more money.

What I don't know is who made the original estimates the technical experts or the sales people. Hope you understand what i mean. :D

Dear Alexandre
It must have been an unpleasant situation
What happened to the project?
What about the team?

Fortunately there were no repercussions for the team and the project. The Project Manager was replaced by someone from the company and ran smoothly to the end within the expected criteria.This are always unpleasant situations we must, use this cases as lessons learned.