Two years ago, a computer society in eastern Canada asked me to give an evening talk about the importance of project management. I wouldn't have been surprised if I had been asked to talk about "new ideas in project management" or "best practices in project management," but I was curious to know why the society felt it was important to talk about the "importance" of the topic. The response was interesting: "Most of the companies in this town don't think project management has any value at all. Whenever companies see an outsourcing proposal that includes the cost of a project manager, they complain that it's an unnecessary expense. Their view is that the programmers ought to be able to manage themselves!"