"If you become the owner of one of these projects it is really important that you are free to choose who you have on your team."

Update: Actually the above stament might be more true in smaller environments or startup situations. However I work for a large (50,000+ employees) company, and in my case it is very seldom that you get to pick and choose.

In an Ideal World this may be true. Unfortunatly, in most cases you will be lucky to have input on who will be team members, let alone be able to choose. But you are right about one thing, you MUST have the authority to keep the group in line.

And I also agree that management should be kept up to speed on progress, especially in the software world, where slipping dates has become the norm (and, no I don't like it anymore than anyone else).

"Nothing is sure but death and taxes" I say combine the two and its death to all taxes!