Bad Project Managers, Bad Projects

I consider myself passionate about my work. Portfolio, program, and project management genuinely capture my attention and a large part of my time, both in academia and in practice. I have no doubt that projects are vehicles for change, evolution, and progress - provided they’re well directed and managed. That’s where the importance and value of the Project Manager role come from.

Why projects matter

If we evaluate projects as an instrument (one that can be used at a personal, organizational, social, or global level), they carry enormous transformational potential. They should therefore be treated with special interest and care.

Projects require a clear vision (an objective or goal), they require time (the most valuable asset we humans have), and of course resources (inputs, teams, and money). But projects also need action - action to make things happen. Without action, projects are nothing more than dreams that will never come true.

With projects we build nations, transform governments and societies, we build businesses, finish our studies, and live our lives.

The role of the project manager

An instrument with that much potential shouldn’t be managed carelessly. Who else but the best people to share or deliver our dreams? Who else to turn them into reality? Who, then, if not competent people and true leaders?

That’s why we love leadership - because we see in leaders the ability to achieve results, to make things happen. Leaders change the world; they don’t just fit into it. Leaders change the world through projects. From dreams to realities. We all admire good leaders, we study their lives, read their biographies, and quote their words. They surely turned a distant vision into reality.

The overwhelming truth

If projects are a key instrument for building the future of companies and society, what sense does it make to assign Project Managers without the skills or experience to lead them?

I ask myself this question quite often. It’s common to find people who act more like assistants than managers. They diligently take notes at every meeting, fill out forms, complete spreadsheets full of numbers, and update the schedule with great care - but rarely actually manage the project.

Setting aside the debate about career growth, certain projects deserve a real investment in management given their critical nature, risk exposure, or the scale of resources assigned. Assigning people who limit themselves to following the instructions of a “work plan” as if they were automatons is a total contradiction. Poor communication, limited knowledge of leadership or management, and the undeniable fact that many simply follow a plan someone else made, all point to serious problems that hurt a project’s odds of success.

Why do companies keep doing this? What’s the point of saving on a project manager’s compensation if we’re going to hand them strategic, high-investment projects? What savings are we actually expecting?

The reality is overwhelming. 2026 update: according to the 14th edition (2025) of PMI®’s salary survey (“Earning Power: Project Management Salary Survey”), Colombia is among the countries - alongside South Africa - where PMP® certification produces the largest relative salary premium: certified professionals earn at least 65% more than those without it. If certification pays that much more in our context, what sense does it make to keep assigning inexperienced, uncertified project managers to the most critical projects?

Across Latin America, and in my particular case Colombia, I keep seeing the role undervalued - and with it, surely, the success rates of social and development investments. My frustration grows when, in social support and economic development sectors, poorly prepared people are assigned to manage government projects in nearly 100% of cases.

Thousands of opportunities and millions of dollars, pesos, colones, balboas, and soles are wasted on poorly managed, poorly conceived, and poorly directed projects.

What outcome does a society expect when it assigns someone without the experience to see a project through? What kind of accountability does it expect that person to take on, given the compensation agreed upon?

Numbers, and more numbers

The debate is broad, and there are flexible compensation schemes based not just on effort but on project success - or at least on making the right calls. For instance, canceling a project doomed to fail is the result of good management, whether the project ran into technical trouble or simply stopped being viable due to shifting market conditions - like what happened when oil prices collapsed from USD$120 a barrel.

The numbers on large-scale projects say it all. 2026 update: Colombia’s Comptroller General’s Office (Contraloría General de la República) found findings with potential fiscal impact worth $78.874 billion pesos, after auditing 14 strategic projects funded through royalty revenue with a total audited value of $183.146 billion pesos - meaning over 40% of the audited value ended up in unverifiable deliverables, premature deterioration, or activities reported as completed that were never actually observed on site. The story, almost a decade later, hasn’t changed much.

The strategic role of management

If a nation wants to improve its competitiveness, the first thing it needs to do is assign capable, professional leaders (Project Managers).

Professionals shouldn’t just practice the profession - they should dignify and respect it. They need to stay current and understand that project managers aren’t just the people keeping minutes and chasing deadlines and compliance like police officers.

We are leaders called to anticipate and to build teams - real working teams.

Professional associations should work hand in hand with major project executors - like governments - to tackle the very real, ongoing need for talent.

Many of us, besides working on projects, dedicate ourselves to teaching and passing on knowledge. That’s how it should be. Not just identifying the problem, but working toward the solution and toward the well-being of our societies and companies.