Project Manager in the Agile World

@Wade, you have made a very interesting comment (as usual by the way). That´s the problem for some PM´s that become dinosaurs. PM´s have to understand that the focus is the solution, not the project. But that´s a debate from long time ago. For those PM´s that all their work life have been working with focus on solution work in Agile based environments is not a problem. Let me give an example. In my actual work place we have firve different "ways" to execute a project where one of them is Scrum and other is our own Agile based method. The same person is assigned to more than one project using more than one way mostly of the times with totally different approches. And not problem with that.

I looked at recent job trends in project management in Australia, and they listed Agile, Change Management and Digital Transformation all as key trends. My current and previous role included all 3 across both roles, so they must be on to something.

If DA is related to Discipline Agile then there is a critical item to clarify. First of all, it is a shame for me to answer because I know that Scott Ambler is a member of this community. But I will answer mainly because just in case Scott read this and he consider to participate is a new opportunity to learn for me. I will answer not only from the "academic" component. I will answer from the "pragmatic" component because I used DAD including it because I was onn charge of evaluating methods/frameworks/approaches to use inside the organizations I was working for. DAD is on the top of all roles, That´s the power of DAD. DAD has roles defined into it? Sure. But it is not the critical point.

Folks - having been a DA instructor for a few years, since Scott is busy getting ready to deliver the inaugural PMI/DA training at the Las Vegas Seminars World next week, I'll respond.

DA acknowledges that if work is organized as projects (not products), then the role of a PM is needed. However, as per my earlier response in the thread, the role evolves such that certain PM activities are performed by other roles which frees up the PM to focus more on things like stakeholder engagement.

Remember that DA is a pragmatic, enterprise agile toolkit. Scrum was designed for products (not projects), hence the need for a PM was not identified.

You can read Scott & Mark's book "Choose your WoW" or visit the DA website to get more insights about transformed roles such as the PM.

And to Sante's question, agile requires greater discipline than waterfall/traditional approaches. Characteristics such as early/regular delivery, earlier de-risking, increased quality and emphasizing transparency all require more discipline...

Kiron

Irrespective of how we mark a project - Agile or Waterfall, any Project will have a scope and budget. Nothing can be an endless activity of development and reviews, without reaching set goals. Therefore even in an Agile environment, the Project Manager will still be able to stay relevant through activities that impact scope and budget. Some examples can be timely adjustment of resources, taking strategic calls in terms of whether a specific scope increase (post sprint review) can be accomodated, proper documentation of lessons learnt, procurement related activities (especially while working with 3rd party vendors).

I am not an expert in this and I can't answer but I can share my experience with Scrum which I heard is not synonymous with Agile. Still Scrum is the first word that comes to your mouth when Agile is mentioned.

I have seen two cases in which Scrum was used:

1) In software product development. In this case there were no project managers at all as they were not needed. Software product development is an ongoing activity that does not deliver a fixed scope for a fix budget. The fact that PMs are not needed at all for this kind of activity has nothing to do with Agile, even if Agile hadn't been used you still wouldn't have needed PMs.

2) Software development project in which a fixed scope is delivered for a fixed budget. In this case I have seen PMs coexisting with Scrum Masters and Product Owners. PMs pretty much do what they are doing in "Non"-Agile. They are probably a little less involved in the actual development activity but even in waterfall projects PMs are not too much involved in the working details anyway. So not a big change.

Also I have seen that many customers prefer to have the delivery in a single-go so Scrum does not help too much as nobody is interested of the "working" software that is developed after each sprint. So many "Agile" PMs are working in waterfall in reality.

So trends are inclined towards agile, change management, digital transformation - which is again change management in my opinion.
Thank you for your inputs Sante !

Thank you Sergio for your response. Agree PMs need to evolve with the new ways of working. Rather than focusing on the role, I feel we should focus on how we can add value, solution ( here I don't mean technical solution ) or being change agents or may be - be that common thread that ties all projects together to that common vision.

Sorry, what does mean "DA"?

I believe the two worlds of Agile and traditional project management will becomg increasingly hybrid.