In discussing the current state of projects in a large enterprise with an ex-colleague, he shared a shocking revelation with me.

He sounded incredulous: Did you know that there are TWO project managers for every project? One a business and the other an IT project manager!?!

This obviously shows that my friend has had a somewhat sheltered existence, somewhat removed from the realities of today's large projects. The shelter was provided by a vendor of project management tools no less, where he worked as a tool evangelist. So another example it seems, of preaching the good word but not being fully aware of what is happening in the trenches!

I could not resist and replied in an equally surprised tone: That’s amazing! You ONLY have two project managers? 

The fact is there are so many different management roles in a project today it is hard to get excited about those with a project manager title. What about a Program Manager ....  and all those Development Managers? Isn’t there a Release Manager around somewhere too? Perhaps there are a couple of Change Managers on the project? What about a Business Implementation Manager? .... the list can go on. You have to wonder - what do all these folk do?

The fact is that the more people there are on a project, the more interactions there are (the old n! problem) and the more meetings and the more reporting .... etc. etc. Maybe one should not complain. All that employment is good for the economy.