Guessing is not a strategy: How to build decision velocity with AI and real-time data
June 10, 2026 | Live Webinar
The Agile PM: Helping or Hampering?
Mike Griffiths is an experienced project manager, author and consultant who works for PMI as a subject matter expert. Before joining PMI, Mike consulted and managed innovation and technology projects throughout Europe, North and South America for 30+ years. He was co-lead for the PMBOK Guide—Seventh Edition, lead for the Agile Practice Guide, and contributor to the PMI-ACP and PMP exam content outlines. Outside of PMI, Mike maintains the websites www.LeadingAnswers.com about leading teams and www.PMillustrated.com, which teaches project management for visual learners.
I had to stop myself today: I was about to step in and help the team work out an issue, but I recognized they were sorting it out just fine and it would be better to stay out of it. Project managers working on agile projects know that they need to step back and let the team organize the work, resolve issues and make decisions.
This can be hard to do as the temptation is to “help” by organizing and directing people to achieve the project goals. However, this is not help at all--when the team has authority to make local decisions, a step improvement in ownership and productivity occurs. The jury is in on this idea--teams should be empowered to make decisions, people volunteer for work and take responsibility for delivery. By allowing this, we tap into individual’s capability to manage complexity and create a more rewarding environment for working.
However, project managers need to do more. They should be removing impediments, providing resources, growing the team, communicating the project vision to stakeholders--and a host of other valuable tasks, one of which is stepping in to work more directly with the team if a major problem is encountered or impending. For example, if the velocity of feature delivery is tracking too slowly over a number of iterations to meet the minimum required feature set by the project end date, then something has to …
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I think somebody should come up with a way to breed a very large shrimp. That way, you could ride him, then, after you camped at night, you could eat him. How about it, science? - Jack Handey |