The question at caption always comes up. Some answer yes, and the text-book answer is indeed yes. In fact, according to the printed page you can manage anything using Project Management principles without having detailed knowledge of the subject area.
However, during our decades of being in the trenches we have found several instances where this has not held true, especially in the Information Technology Arena. We have experienced that those without a fairly in-depth knowledge of the aspect of the technology that they are trying to manage often perform poorly. In addition, they can frustrate the skilled subordinates below them with totally unreasonable project scopes resulting in high organisation turnover. How many of us true IT professionals have looked at the (Project) Managers above us and asked “What has this person been smoking?”.
What is more, is that in most instances these individuals, due to pride or otherwise, refuse to listen to the advice given to them by those who really know. In their eyes their qualifications outweigh the practical advice they receive and they proceed to waste hundreds of valuable man hours and millions of dollars in failed projects.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying don’t become a PMP or anything of the sort. In fact, I have also seen the disaster that can occur if a techie with no managerial skills handles a project. A good balance is best. However, as developers we must be very careful that we do not project manage our clients to death.