Is the traditional Project Manager role disappearing in pure Agile teams?

Agile Disciplined Agile

Francisco Herrera

Community Champion

Program Manager, PPM&PMO Specialist.| Coppel, Mexico. Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico

Colleagues, as many organizations transition to Agile frameworks like Scrum, I have noticed a growing debate about our profession. In a standard Agile team, the Product Owner manages the requirements and business value, while the Scrum Master coaches the team and removes impediments.

This leaves a big question: Where does the traditional Project Manager fit in?

Do you think the standard PM role is becoming obsolete in highly Agile environments?

Or does the role simply evolve into a different position, such as Delivery Manager or Agile Coach?

For those working in Agile companies, how does your organization handle traditional PM responsibilities like budget tracking, risk escalation, or external vendor management?

I would love to hear your thoughts and read about your real-world experiences!

Posted: Oct 23, 2026 1:52 PM

Luis Branco CEO| Business Insight, Consultores de Gestão, Ldª Carcavelos, Lisboa, Portugal

Francisco, this is an important question because the disappearance of a job title, the redistribution of its functions, and the disappearance of the need for those functions are three different developments.

Scrum does not prescribe a Project Manager role, but that does not mean every function traditionally associated with project management disappears. Nor does the continued need for those functions establish that a Project Manager must perform them.

The role may remain relevant, evolve, be replaced, or become unnecessary in particular contexts. None of these outcomes should be assumed in advance.

Your examples of budget tracking, risk escalation and vendor management are particularly useful. Depending on the organisation, these responsibilities may sit with Product Owners, team members, functional managers, procurement or other roles. What matters is not simply who receives the responsibility, but whether the necessary authority, information and capabilities accompany its allocation.

This raises two related but distinct questions: what happens to the Project Manager's distinctive professional contribution, and how are the coordination and integration needs of the wider project system addressed?

Neither a formal Project Manager nor a Scrum framework guarantees that those needs are met. Equally, distributed arrangements should not be presumed inadequate.

I would therefore examine how responsibilities and decisions are actually handled, which capabilities are mobilised, how dependencies are managed, and what consequences follow.

That evidence would help us understand whether we are observing professional evolution, redistribution, substitution or the disappearance of particular functions, rather than drawing conclusions from job titles alone.

Posted: Oct 23, 2026 3:27 PM

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Is the traditional Project Manager role disappearing in pure Agile teams?

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