When a project fails , whose bad is it anyway ?

This is referenece to a Planet TW blog:

Anand Vishwanath: When a project fails , whose bad is it anyway ? ...

When a project fails , whose bad is it anyway ?

A couple of drinks with Thoughtworkers , is like asking for hours of debate over some hot issues. This time it was not only developers, but even some manager “types “. The topic of discussion was that if a project fails, who is most likely to be in the firing line, the project manager or the lead architect.

I think Managers

• 
  
  Have the most interaction with the clients (whether useful or not ;-) ).
• Are answerable to the client why functionality was not delivered in an iteration when the technical team was playing technical cards, refactoring, clearing technical debt etcâ€�
• Do the project planning/scheduling etcâ€� which has more visibility to the clients.

The technical team on the other hand

• Has to figure out a way to deal with legacy codebases
• Work with less skilled client developers
• Keep clearing technical debt etcâ€�

All while trying to deliver required number of story points in an iteration.

Also not to mention the salary for yours truly Project Manager is far too high compared to a Technical Lead in the team. Wonder why ?