What is Project Management?

There would be plenty of academic definitions available for this, but I will try to define it as I see it.
Most of us think that Project Managers do not have any real "work" to do and they are just there to make the life difficult for those who actually work.

I believe that a Project has many contradicting "forces" acting on it. Here are some examples:

• Everything must be finished on time and there is never enough time.
• The requirements always keep changing and the end date for the project does not change.
• The project team members must have experience in the technology and domain, but unless people work in projects they will not have the experience.
• Every project wants good people, but experienced and good people will always try to find a better job.
• The "processes" are supposed to help the project, but they take so much time to follow.
• The manager does not himself do the "work", but is completely responsible and accountable for it.
• The IT industry is growing that means the quality of people is decreasing, whereas companies are expected to keep increasing their quality.
• The companies are increasing salary to retain people, but people are leaving companies for better salaries. This is decreasing the cost advantage of Indian IT firms.

The job of a Project Manager is to balance all these catch-22 situations and make sure that the project achieves its objective.

It does not matter if the manager has no clue about the technology or domain. If his team achieves the objective, he is successful.

On the other and, the manager could be an expert in technology and domain, but if the team does not meet the objective even if the manager is fantastic, he is still a failure !