The trend I keep seeing in IT is to hire people in Project Management roles who are hands on technical gurus or know a lot about a particular product or package. This appalling practice will always ensures project failure. To start a project without PM skills and experience in place is like entering the PGA without having basic golf lessons or a proven handicap.
A project manager who is a doer as well as a manager has a conflict of interest, and is a contradiction in terms. Executive management may “think” they get a bargain by merging the roles; in reality they set themselves up for failure.
I hope one day the IT industry will recognize this and start producing some value.
Related stories: Paper PMP and Paper PMP Redux
Agree you need the PM skills and proven experience in applying them, but don’t you also think it is important for a PM to have knowledge of the business he is managing ?
I have found that some people naturally gravitate towards management from a technical background, then they just need to learn to keep their hands off the work and concentrate on managing it (difficult to do).