For the most part I agree with you. One thing to remember though, unless given the chance, how will you know if you can succeed? I am with a VERY small group now and we all wear many hats. I am learning and having a lot of fun and it is opening other doors for me. I just wish i could close this DBA door and take it this DBA hat!
I left a large company with a large development team because of exactly what makes you queasy. I worked in a team that had a dedicated group/individual for every task, some granular enough to be performed by a single individual. I was rather tired of the "assembly line development" strategy, so I left for a smaller company where I could indeed wear multiple hats. I of course agree with the developers->marketing reference, but in consulting you HAVE to do almost everything.
I prefer it this way. Nothing was more frustrating to me than limiting my abilities by making me sit through developer tedium each day.
I'm not saying that a person can't own more than one hat, I'm saying not *everyone* is up to the task , yet companies accept an employee to a specific task based only on who's available, and not based on that person's skill set or lack there of...
Note that these observations are always done by people below the people in question, in the organization. Otherwise you'd get rid of them right?<br><br>And although I totally agree with you on this one (and feel veery familiar), it can sometimes be necissary for a PM to make unpopular choices.. just another aspect of it all.. But indeed, lousy people are really annoying, especially when they're your boss:)