Project Management

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The role of Project Manager in a Product focused environment

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Christopher Healy SR IT Program Manager| General Motors Berkley, Mi, United States
As more companies become product focused, it will shift the role a project manager plays in an organization. Does anyone have articles or papers on how to align the project manager in a product centric / agile environment?
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Kiron Bondale Retired | Mentor| Retired Welland, Ontario, Canada
Christopher -

If you look at agile frameworks such as Disciplined Agile, they do acknowledge the ongoing need for a PM and the Disciplined Agile Consortium has provided some guidance around project management in such contexts. However, other scaled frameworks such as SAFe absorb the role of the PM within roles such as a PO and Release Train Engineer.

If I look at my current client (a bank), the PM's core accountabilities haven't changed but they are playing much more of a strategic role on a given initiative than they were before - the day-to-day minutiae at the team member level is handled by the team with the support of a Scrum Master.

Kiron
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1 reply by Christopher Healy
Dec 21, 2018 4:12 PM
Christopher Healy
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Thank Kiron,
When we are working with a Product Manager, there seems to be overlap in terms of status communication, decision making/driving as both the Product and Project manager have a sense of ownership and we are trying to determine who should own what/when. It can be different when an initiative (I will stay away from the word project) is for 1 product, versus multiple products.
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Christopher Healy SR IT Program Manager| General Motors Berkley, Mi, United States
Dec 21, 2018 3:51 PM
Replying to Kiron Bondale
...
Christopher -

If you look at agile frameworks such as Disciplined Agile, they do acknowledge the ongoing need for a PM and the Disciplined Agile Consortium has provided some guidance around project management in such contexts. However, other scaled frameworks such as SAFe absorb the role of the PM within roles such as a PO and Release Train Engineer.

If I look at my current client (a bank), the PM's core accountabilities haven't changed but they are playing much more of a strategic role on a given initiative than they were before - the day-to-day minutiae at the team member level is handled by the team with the support of a Scrum Master.

Kiron
Thank Kiron,
When we are working with a Product Manager, there seems to be overlap in terms of status communication, decision making/driving as both the Product and Project manager have a sense of ownership and we are trying to determine who should own what/when. It can be different when an initiative (I will stay away from the word project) is for 1 product, versus multiple products.
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1 reply by Kiron Bondale
Dec 22, 2018 8:54 AM
Kiron Bondale
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Where both roles co-exist, the PM tends to be more tactical and delivery-focused whereas the PO will be playing more of a strategic role.

I'd suggest doing a workshop to look at the most common activities and accountabilities and figure out who does what and what the interaction model should be between the roles.

A lot will also depend on the relationship between the two individuals and their own strengths and weaknesses. I've seen situations where a PO has delegated the work of engaging control partners to the PM allowing the PO to focus on the stakeholders who will provide functional needs & wants.

Kiron
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Sergio Luis Conte Helping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based Organizations Buenos Aires, Argentina
Thee is a big misunderstanding outside there which is one of the reasons for project failure. Companies are always product focusing and the only reason for started a project is for creating a product which is a key component inside a solution. No matter you take the definirion and you read that a project is to create a product/service/result all of them must be considered as product. My recommendation is taken a look to business analyst role.
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Kiron Bondale Retired | Mentor| Retired Welland, Ontario, Canada
Dec 21, 2018 4:12 PM
Replying to Christopher Healy
...
Thank Kiron,
When we are working with a Product Manager, there seems to be overlap in terms of status communication, decision making/driving as both the Product and Project manager have a sense of ownership and we are trying to determine who should own what/when. It can be different when an initiative (I will stay away from the word project) is for 1 product, versus multiple products.
Where both roles co-exist, the PM tends to be more tactical and delivery-focused whereas the PO will be playing more of a strategic role.

I'd suggest doing a workshop to look at the most common activities and accountabilities and figure out who does what and what the interaction model should be between the roles.

A lot will also depend on the relationship between the two individuals and their own strengths and weaknesses. I've seen situations where a PO has delegated the work of engaging control partners to the PM allowing the PO to focus on the stakeholders who will provide functional needs & wants.

Kiron
avatar
Adrian Carlogea Australia
Some years ago I worked for a company that was developing and maintaining a software solution suite. The customers who wanted to use the software had to buy licences for it.

The company was also implementing and customizing the software to customers.

They had two departments for this software: a product development one that was adding new features and was fixing bugs and a projects department that was implementing the software to customers.

The product development department had primarily software developers developing the software and business analysts working as product owners or product managers but no project managers. The projects department had project managers and project software engineers. Business analysts from the product department were also sometimes assigned to projects when their expertise was needed.

This experience made me think that project managers are not required for software product development. At least that company was not using them. You need project managers when you deliver a customized software to a customer either internal or external.

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