Self-managed teams and Project Management

It's a provocative question - clearly intentional - but the role of project managers will be secure forever, I submit. Firstly, the most effective teams have always had at least components of self-management in them. Even in hierarchical organizations like the military, with a nominally command and control structure, the wise officer builds self-confidence in his/her subordinates, delegating responsibility (with guidelines, for sure), such that they may act capably even in the absence of the senior officer.

But even in a non-hierarchical organization, with matrixed reporting and a commitment to self-managing teams, the principles and practices of project management must be followed to insure effective planning, execution, and outcomes, regardless of who fills which roles. It's unlikely that everyone in an organization will become trained/certified in project management best-practices, so I suggest that the best-performing self-managing teams will choose to include one or more project managers in their midst, and to let the team be guided by these individuals and their skills.

At least PM can be a team member!

I agree with Scott. Project managers are normally not the functional manager of their project team, and even when we are, we're wearing different hats. Project managers are not there to be subject matter experts, inspect time cards or approve vacation requests, we're there to ensure the project objectives are achieved.

While some PM activities might get downloaded to the team as a whole, things like financial management, risk management, stakeholder engagement and orchestrating the work between different well-managed teams would still be done by a PM.