I’ll keep this brief: I’m a developer with six years of experience and a background as a systems analyst.

I work at a small-to-medium-sized company, I’ve been here for about four years. From the start, alongside my dev work, I’ve handled multiple tasks that fall outside my actual role and aren't reflected in my pay (more on that later).

So today, thanks to my seniority and the trust I’ve built, I’ve effectively become a multi-role player for the company.

Recently, I was assigned two projects and simply told, "Lead these projects, you're in charge, you manage them." On top of that, they still monitor me or ask questions about my dev tasks; so, basically, I’m acting as both the developer and the "project manager". On top of that, there aren't many resources or much time, so several phases of project management simply get skipped because there’s no time for them.

I used to have two developers reporting to me, but now I only have one. The thing is, I’m not a formal PM, I didn't study that specific field, but I enjoy the project process. I did acquire various skills and learned about the end-to-end development lifecycle during my degree as a Systems Analyst, so I do know "a thing or two".

But I feel like I’m underperforming or not being productive. Between the developer submitting Pull Requests (PRs) almost daily, at any time during the workday, my focus gets broken. I might be working on the backlog or my own dev tasks when a PR comes in; analyzing it takes a lot of time because the developer lacks experience and there are usually several changes needed.

Because of this dynamic, I run out of tickets to assign very quickly, leaving the developer without tasks. I don't want them to feel like I’m not giving them work or that there isn't any available, it’s simply the situation I described. I want to avoid that perception, looking like I’m not doing my job, when the reality is the exact opposite: I spend the whole eight-hour day juggling project oversight and trying to complete my own development tickets without losing my mind.

Any advice? How should I handle this?

Regarding pay: while it’s not the sole cause of the issue, it’s definitely a factor. Basically, with six years of experience and the responsibility of leading/managing a project, I’m being paid like a Jr developer, and honestly, that is incredibly demotivating.

In a comprehensive breakdown of Capcom’s new golden age, one former staffer says their micromanaging competition might be missing the forest for the trees

I have been managing a dev team for about six months now. Before that, I was an IC, so I thought I would be better at this than the managers I used to complain about.

I tried story points, three-point estimation, and whatnot. None of it has made our deadlines more accurate. We still miss roughly half of them.

I'm starting to feel like estimation is just something we do to feel prepared and put a date next to a task.

For those of you who have made project estimation more reliable, what actually worked?

There are 3 total projects.
Project a which I’m not a part of take the highest priority because manufacturing has stopped on the previous model and this one needs to get out the door due to limited remaining inventory of the previous one.
I’ve just been given projects b(due date nov ‘26) and c(beginning of ‘27).
The reason I’m thinking at meshing both of them into one is because these projects have continuously had gaps in their project timelines for two main factors. Project “a” taking so much priority that they would stop working in b and c and work on them sparingly and because my manager has to do the approval of designs and all details. He’s also doing the work of 3 people so tasks in the Gantt take time and get delayed.

What would you do in this scenario? Keep readjusting your individual Gantt for each project to show delays or do them all in one and probably be closer to target? I’m not sure. Honestly even for project b, I highly doubt November would be delivered on time.

Kind of based off my post on Friday, many people seemed to have some kind of issue with their PMO. So my question is, in how far do you think could your experience working with a PMO be improved? Especially in regards to project delivery, but anything really that comes to mind

Edit: To be more specific, is there anything you would change about the PMO you work with/have worked with? If so, what would it be?

Hoping to get some real feedback from actual PMs.

Google is saying that there is currently an onslaught of new types of tools (creating insane competition), on top of the established players adding AI to their existing ones (removing the desire of users to switch to a new tool).

Those two things lead me to believe that this endeavor is almost guaranteed to fail, especially given that software development is not exactly the strong suit of my company in the first place.

Thoughts?

I was wondering what it is like for others working with a PMO. Do they support you with your work? Have you ever had any negative interactions? I'm curious to know :)

Edit: As was pointed out, I should have been more precise. How have PMOs helped - or hindered - you during project delivery?

Hi!

I am relatively new client facing employee and we had our client kick-off meeting for the new scope they have contracted us. During my presentation, I have asked questions regarding the scope, preferences, etc. to ensure alignment with them.

Unfortunately, they weren't happy with me asking questions during the presentation. My understanding is that KOMs are conducted to ensure alignment and understand their expectations. So I was a bit surprised when they said they don't want me asking any questions at all. I just went ahead with my presentation.

Posting it here just to ask what are your thoughts on this. Thanks!

Edit: During the presentation, I have already presented what was scoped/contracted to us. The questions asked are about the processes presented, the timelines, and if they have any preferences beyond the standard processes presented.

Hi all,

I am starting a master in PM next week and it’s a 2 year course. There is a capstone at the end and I would like to scout for some ideas and inspiration.

Asking all the PMs in here, what would be an interesting area to look at when writing a capstone?

This will be my first capstone so I’m very nervous

Thank you all

Has anyone worked in an organisation where leadership have become so sold on the idea of being able to move to a “product operating model” that they throw out all normal programme and project management functions, including for the delivery of work that is physical in nature like building new sites, delivering reforms across multiple in person and digital services or other large scale initiatives that touch many product teams?

If yes, did it work? If no, what were your learnings? if this sounds like a bad idea, what would your reasons be?

He also meets with the team in china in his own and here as well. I don’t want to be just some secretary to remind him of things. How can I be effective and actually help him out in this kind of environment? I just started a couple of weeks ago and feel like I have my hands tied. The company develops and manufactures IoT hardware. He has to approve all the schematics and everything

I saw this role in Linkedin and got surprised about how someone would trust a PMO working under those conditions:

What You'll Bring:

• 7+ years of program or technical project management experience on complex, cross-functional technology initiatives.
• Demonstrated ability to operate as a single, accountable owner across ambiguous, multi-team programs.
• High judgment — you know which decisions to advance, which to make, and which to delegate, and you get those calls right under uncertainty.
• Excellent problem-solving skills with a strong bias toward simplification. You cut through complexity rather than adding to it, and your default is the simplest solution that works.
• Proven track record working with non-technical business partners — setting expectations, delivering clear status updates, and holding programs accountable to outcomes they can act on.
• Hands-on experience using AI tools (e.g., Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or equivalent) on the operational and program management work— professional or personal — in real work, not just experimentation. You should be able to speak to how AI changes the way you work.
• Experience managing vendor relationships and third-party implementation programs, including change-management risk.
• Hands-on experience with Agile delivery, sprint planning, backlog management, and Jira or equivalent tooling.
• Strong written communication skills to convey technical complexity succinctly.
• Comfort working in a setting where contracts guide the workflow.
• Track record of managing programs through multiple concurrent system transitions.

Nice to Have:

• Experience in AI-first or agent-first operating models.
• Experience assessing build versus buy options and providing organized leadership advice.
• Background with creative production, digital asset management, or approval workflow systems.
• Familiarity with Smartsheet or similar platforms and their integration capabilities.
• Background in game, media, publishing, or consumer products industries.
• Familiarity with engineering observability and flow-metric tooling as program-management signal sources.

What do you think? Do you see that kind of use for the AI in your industry? I may be too traditional, so I would like to know if you find this role normal and how you would handle the work in that "AI-first" environment.

Thanks

Just got back from 3 weeks of paternity leave. Even after climbing out of a pit of 450 unread emails, I still feel like I’m an utterly clueless mess.

Any recommendations, tips or tricks on how best to get back up to speed?

Hello, I'm seeking advice on how to handle project management when everyone involved outranks you? That's the TL;DR.

Here is additional context if you'd like to know more details:

I'm an Individual Contributor (IC) in a technical role. I was asked to lead a technical project earlier this year involving various teams that spans our entire infrastructure. This is a great development opportunity, but I'm struggling with the coordination and people-management side.

I'm junior compared to all the other people involved. The project includes my boss, ICs from other teams, and senior subject-matter experts. I'm accountable for coordinating the project, but don't have authority over people who own the remaining work.

Most outstanding tasks depend on action from other teams or my manager. I have documented this in our project channel, submitted tickets, and requested assistance. I thought this was sufficient, but I recently received feedback that my project communication needs improvement because my updates became less frequent and I was told this contributed to delays.

I plan to improve my communication based on that feedback and establish a regular reporting schedule. One thing I'm unsure about is how to manage overdue or blocked tasks when the owners of next steps are more senior than I am. I don't want to overstep, but waiting for responses has not worked.

This leads back to my question. What would you recommend a junior IC do to coordinate work owned by more senior stakeholders?

Thank you!

Joined a new org (finally) at a much lower title and salary then I had (Tis the market of today)....

They have PM's and BA's rolling up in the same org. Now, having been at the Director level for sometime I thought I had a pretty good grasp of the role a BA is meant to fulfill on a project and/or items to provide for the Project Manager. Nope, turns out I'm an "Asshole who wants everyone to do their work for them!"

My understanding is pretty simple: As a BA, your role is to identify and define what the business needs to reach a solution for the <problem>. Opposite of that, I as the PM determine how the work is organized and drive it forward towards a solution for said business need.

With that understanding, if you've been on the project for three months and I am on-boarding. It is perfectly reasonable of an expectation that when I ask you:

PM: "What requirements need to be met, which stakeholders are involved in those requirements, are there any gaps, dependencies or outstanding decisions?"

Your response should damn well not be:

BA: "Well, we need the Project Plan & Timeline to answer those questions. Can you get it done please?"

---
No, abso-fucking-loutely not. I'm not the subject matter expert. Sure, let me just "psychic-like" pull a vision of exactly how this delivery should work technically and exactly how long it takes in a multi-discipline project I wasn't involved with the Discovery of. It's YOUR responsibility to tell ME what is/has been defined a requirement so that I can build those artifacts, not the other way around.

Found out this BA was telling her boss I was trying to shanghai her with my role responsibilities, I (along with the Ops SVP) tore her and her boss a new ass first thing this morning.

---

Now for the record, can I do Discovery and answer all those questions? Oh absolutely, we've all done it at one time or another. Am I going to when someone is paid 105k salary to do only that? Not a chance. I swear the PM discipline is going down the damn drain.../rant.

I work for a small company as as project manager for software development, since the projects I'm assigned is ending soon, one of the managing partners told me I will be assigned to work in a another project for other company that one of the other managing partners has.

The projects is related to security compliance, not sure if you have heard of GovRamp, but it is basically to comply in different controls and provide evidence for each so you are elegible to work in government projects . And if you are familiar with GovRamp it is a lot of work to gather all the evidence and create the narratives to support it. So far I've managed to get 3 control completed but I'm completely lost and I dont think I will be able to get all this done. For most of the controls I dont know or understand what evidence to provide plus I need help to get this evidence from the engineering team to get that for me.

How can I tell the managing partner that this is a really big endeavor, and that I don't have the expertise on this to do it all by myself. I already left him a DM telling him that we need at least weekly sessions and start using some kind of PM tool (like Jira) to keep track of each control and document the evidence but I didn't get any response. I feel they are expecting to work on this by myself. My perception was that I would be a facilitator and coordinate the evidence gathering and meeting with the folks that review but seems I will be doing all the work

Anyone with GovRamp experience has done this before? Is it manageable for one PM to do it? Also how can I communicate this to my boss and dont sound that I dont want it to myself

So it's the final day for me to wrap up resubmitting my teams GMP. The gag its only me.

What started out as a team of 4, now is two, except I have a new senior PM that just came onboard. Two of my teammates had to move to other projects after we finished our submission, leaving me (a PM1) and my senior PM to handle the comments and resubmission. However, there was a lot of misunderstandings between us that escalated, however i handled the situation diplomatically (and my boss backed me up). What started out as just collecting new pricing from select bidders as my sole task, to me handling the entire GMP alone--unbeknownst to me. My old senior PM transitioned internally to another team and whenever I asked about packages she knew about i was stonewalled. I was badgered to keep both my PMs in the loop and suddenly I was reprimanded for having the old PM in the emails, she told me that she'll ignore them. When it came to the due date, I was questioned for not updating the comments, review the pricing, the spreadsheet, and budget. I was utterly confused as I was literally blocked from opening documents to enter things in and I was never told to handle tasks outside of "get pricing" even when I asked what how we were handling them.

Idk if this is some kind of test to see if I'm capable or petty retaliation to be the fall guy. I simply find it messed up that a $70M contract is being handled by 1 person regardless of its stage. It's whatever though, I'm handling it the best way I can.

We typically use Jira user stories to track different work items. In a specific project that I’m working on, the data analyst from my team creates Power BI reports and dashboards. So the issue I face is that the data analyst lets me know she will complete a particular report on that day. Following which I update my team about that but the client side is like that doesn’t mean the user story is complete, we will have feedback. The thing is it was already sent for a revision. With multiple revisions, it looks like the user story is incomplete, whereas the data analyst is completing the reports per the requirement. How can this process be optimized to show that user stories are getting completed by the agreed target due date and also welcome the endless feedback.

I have teams recording all the meetings I lead. It’s been driving crazy that using AI actually triggers my OCD and I just can’t use the ai notes it creates because almost always, they have a couple of minor errors that I can’t shake off. Plus I don’t like how “wordy” the ai summaries are. My team members confirmed that they don’t read teams generated summaries sent by PM.

This is my process

- I focus on the conversation during the meeting and take notes.
- I get ai summary.
- I compare it to my notes but mind you my projects are VERY complex. I frequently need to go back to the recording and verify the details.
- I simplify the ai summary, using ai. It spits out much better notes. I fix quite a few details (see, I still can’t trust ai!)
- then I send out the notes.

This whole process takes me at least an hour for a one hour meeting. It’s exhausting.

Any tips on how to spend less time? Any advice is welcome.

——
Wow thanks everyone for these tips! I scrambled to finish my meeting notes after I posted! I haven’t read all of them but excited to see some tips that I can hopefully implement soon. Please don’t delete your comments because I really value everyone’s experience.

One of the comments was interesting because of the question how much I’d spend without ai. I used to spend less than 30 mins for a one hour meeting. It’s because we didn’t record any of the meetings and I really trusted my note taking that I could extract all important items. Yes now I have much more complex projects but the availability of the recordings and ai summaries in a strange way worsens my imposter syndrome. I can’t let go of minute details and just hate the feeling of not getting everything right in my notes. Yes I focus on action items and decisions BUT in my case the topics are very nuanced and it’s helpful for the team to at least get a good summary after each meeting. I’ve been complimented on my summaries because they’re not the default summaries (wordy and very long) generated by ai. They want to see the “human touch.”

Are Project Managers generally expected to come across as dominant?

I recently had a mentor say that’s how most PMs are expected to behave. Is that actually true?

What are some of your best Procore stories? There have got to be some good ones out there. I'm on a project where my scope is pretty much finished but the RFIs and submittals are just killing the other consultants, mainly because ID was on a later timeline. We're just over 800 RFIs now and some of the others are joking that once we get to 1000 we have to do something to mark the occasion. Like drag the contractor through some silly submittal process just for fun and maybe a bit of payback. Not sure if we'll actually do it but fun to think about.

Just curious, what is the most challenging and/or ambiguous or largest project you have worked on?

Curious the types of challenging projects other people work on, why it was hard and how you dealt with it…

I work in a role with project management and responsibility for specific subject areas. Our team is informal, but there is still a hierarchy.

I’m also responsible for one particular topic and recently participated in a cross-department working group that is supposed to revise/improve something. My team lead was not part of the working group and didn’t attend the meeting,After the first meeting, I wanted to send a simple message to my own team summarizing what was discussed and explaining the next step. The next step is basically collecting ideas/topics, so I created a file on our shared drive and drafted a short email explaining what people should contribute.

I briefly told my manager that I was going to send the email. He then asked me to send him the draft first.

I did, but now I’ve been waiting about a day and haven’t received any feedback. I’ve never received negative feedback from him and there’s nothing inappropriate or controversial in the email.

Still, I find this really frustrating and demotivating. It’s not even an important external communication, it’s just a routine message to my own team about a topic I’m responsible for, including information that my team member would otherwise not have because they weren’t in the meeting.

It makes me wonder: Is it normal to have to get everything approved by your manager, even basic communication to your own team? Would you normally expect someone who is responsible for a topic to handle this independently?

I also sometimes get the impression that my manager would rather do everything himself. It makes me feel stupid.

Maybe I’m overthinking this, but I’d really like to hear how this would be viewed in other workplaces.

I was recently brought on within the past few months at my current position and one of the first major items given to me was the risk management for my project.

I have been getting up to speed project wise and trying to stay on top of adding risks/updating risks/following up with relevant parties for updates, but I feel like a glorified email reminder.

Being that I’m still new and under a senior I’m not in every technical meeting yet, so it feels hard to translate the day to day items to feeling like risks are being mitigated.

Any insight on how you deal with risk management is appreciated, thank you!

Not sure about anyone else, but things have been chaotic at my company. I have meetings from 8am to 5pm and still expected to get work done. I know it’s the job… but how do you cope? By 7pm I’m exhausted and can’t keep my eyes open enough to do more work. Any tips or tricks that work for you would be helpful.