How critical is the project manager to the success of the project?

Well defined scope Active risk management Experienced and adequate project team Well defined processes See related link.

Yes. They are one of the most important members of a project.

The difference is the assistant project manager has to confer with the project manager on major decisions.

I would classify projects into three categories: Administered projects - Those where all the administrative steps were followed, all the paper work done and checked off, problems were reacted to in a...

in order to define the phases of project from initial process, Planning process, execution process, control and supervision process and close out process