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Notes -
There's a difference between being the manager of a mission-critical project that directly reports to a C-level exec and the manager of a project that is one of many projects your company runs to categorize capital expenses better.
The former has a lot of power, because it's basically a "Head of X" position that you can transform into a real "Head of X" position when the project is over. He or she can yank the best people from existing teams to work on the project full time and doesn't have to worry about their compensation or covering their absence.
The latter doesn't even get his own personal fief like any line manager does. He or she has to go to existing teams and beg for estimates, resources, commitments and results. Any piddling team lead or section head can brush him or her off, "I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that by Friday. We've been fixing a production incident and you know Barry knows the system better than anyone, that why he's been assigned to your project, but this incident means he's busy until next Tuesday. Oh, and the vendor we've sourced the driver from has raised its prices, so we'll need you to approve additional $15k. No, how can I negotiate with them? I'm not procurement. And you might want to take it up with Larry if you want Barry to work on your project instead of fixing production issues, Dave. I'm just following the priorities I've been given."
So poor Dave goes to Larry, who explains he's the fifth PM he's seen today. No, there are no resources. Look, here's the meeting minutes from March when the resources were assigned to projects. It's written right here under "Risks": overbooking likely if system stability doesn't improve. And guess what, Dave? We're overbooked. Yes, I can tell Harry to ask Barry to work overtime. Can you pay for it from your budget? Oh, it was the first line item that was slashed? Guess what, HR has slashed our overtime budget, too."
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