I have to disagree with you about Project Management
Project Management does not start with the kick off of a project. It starts sooner. If PM starts at kick off, where do the requirements come from? PM's have to monitor projects from beginning (conception) to end (post-mortum).
I hope TiggerTwo gets this because she says it more eloquently than I do. There are many studies that have been done about project management across industries and the majority show significant relationship between project success and when project management starts.
My own research is in this area of pre-project partnering before project kickoff. I am not talking about purely academic research either, I am talking about practical research, case studies, and so on. If you do not have the whole thing together from start to finish, then you do not have project management, you don't even have program management.
The early you bring in the correct resources the better your project will be defined, resources allocated at the appropriate stages, and completion acheived.
This is just my view of course based on my own research and experience and the experience of many colleagues.
