Microblog Memes

I think I might be a project manager. it's not my job description, but a good amount of my time is spent coordinating client needs (software), company needs (money), management needs (reassurance) and developer needs (concise and complete design, and decisionmaking).

Normally there are 6 software projects on the go at any one time, all in various stages of production that I need to keep ticking over to prevent a backlog or a gap in work for the Devs.

I'm fortunate that my only supervisor is the owner of the company and he now trusts me enough to say "Do whatever gets the job done" and so I don't get micromanaged or roadblocked on decisionmaking. I choose the Devs, the architecture, the design, the timeline, and the budget. I take a dictatorial attitude to the clients to force their nebulous and sometimes stupid ideas into a clean, detailed, and clearly defined box long before the Devs ever hear of it. I take a very hands-off approach with the Devs, giving them plenty of support, asking for their advice, accepting their limitations and a very quick yes/no/alt when they have questions or recommendations. I don't micromanage them, but I do have a system that helps me identify problems with the delivery pipeline. They also know I'm excruciatingly thorough in my testing so between their own testing and mine, very few bugs make it to production.

As for my manager, he pops his head in maybe twice a week to give me updates on stuff but otherwise leaves me alone, and I take a very firm line with all of the other senior management and clients when it comes to adhering to the project development procedure, which I wrote. I have no fear of telling people no, or telling them that we stick to the procedure or no work commences. Maybe I'll get fired for being a hardass to mgmt one day, but it's been 4 years and I don't think I will.

I keep detailed track of every involved party, every task, event, meeting, test and correspondence between me and any other involved person, but they don't know that.

And if anything goes wrong with the project, it's my fault. I'd never blame the Devs for not for seeing something that I should have foreseen, and I'd never blame the client for not providing information that I should have asked for and verified.