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Will the importance of project manager be reduced by following th agile approach

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Bala S Duvvuri Project Manager| Shell Bangalore, Karnataka, India
I came across a training that says following the agile approach will decentralize the control and everybody will be involved in the planning.
Does it mean the importance of project manager is reduced by following the agile approach?

Thanks
Bala
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Darren Kosa Planning & Controls Contractor Hampshire, United Kingdom
Hi Bala,

It depends what you mean be reduced. In traditional terms, then yes, self-organising teams are less reliant on a ‘figurehead’ to drive progress forward.

But… the buck will always stop with one person. As long as PMs understand how they can fit in to this sort of environment then they can easily adapt.

Regards,

Darren Kosa
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Sergio Luis Conte Helping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based Organizations Buenos Aires, Argentina
The first thing to understand is: agile is not a method or methodology, agile is not software or IT related only, agile is not a project life cycle, agile is not the manifesto for agile software development. So, when you apply agile practices the project manager is still there. I will publish an article about what is agile inside the april PMnetwork by you can search for Mr Rick Dove´s work mainly the named "Response Ability". On the other hand, related to software, I have the opportunity to participate in the PMBOK´s agile extension that you can search too.
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John Herman . Us, Aa, United States
I agree with Sergio that AGILE is not a methodology. Like LEAN, it is a basic tenet of the company perspective on process, strategy, and quality management.
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Stéphane Parent Self Employed / Semi-retired| Leader Maker Prince Edward Island, Canada
The reality is that even when not following a particular agile approach, everybody is involved in planning. It might be driven by the project manager but she won't be able to pull all the management plans together without a lot of help from stakeholders.
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1 reply by Adrian Carlogea
Mar 02, 2016 4:24 AM
Adrian Carlogea
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I would argue with the fact that the stakeholders are actually involved in the planning process. What they actually do is provide most of the vital information for it without however caring too much about how the plan is being constructed.

Customers provide their needs while the team members provide the technical solution and the effort estimates for the work to be completed but is the job of the project manager to integrate this information and use additional information to build the plan.

My knowledge about agile is rather limited but from what I've understood the idea is to have self organized teams which at least in theory means less responsibility for the project managers. I am not sure about other Agile implementations but I remember one article saying that in Scrum the project manager can continue to exist but he will be charged with mainly administrative tasks.
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Bala S Duvvuri Project Manager| Shell Bangalore, Karnataka, India
or i will put my question in another way.
what differences do you find in terms of responsibilities of a project management in traditional project management vs agile.
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Adrian Carlogea Australia
Mar 01, 2016 9:08 PM
Replying to Stéphane Parent
...
The reality is that even when not following a particular agile approach, everybody is involved in planning. It might be driven by the project manager but she won't be able to pull all the management plans together without a lot of help from stakeholders.
I would argue with the fact that the stakeholders are actually involved in the planning process. What they actually do is provide most of the vital information for it without however caring too much about how the plan is being constructed.

Customers provide their needs while the team members provide the technical solution and the effort estimates for the work to be completed but is the job of the project manager to integrate this information and use additional information to build the plan.

My knowledge about agile is rather limited but from what I've understood the idea is to have self organized teams which at least in theory means less responsibility for the project managers. I am not sure about other Agile implementations but I remember one article saying that in Scrum the project manager can continue to exist but he will be charged with mainly administrative tasks.
avatar
Sergio Luis Conte Helping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based Organizations Buenos Aires, Argentina
And let me add something to valuable comments above: the world of agile methods does not end in SCRUM. I was part of the team of authors of version 1 and 2 of DSDM (whichi is the method that best fits with things like PRINCE2 and others) and when you see the team composition in DSDM you will find the project manager role. And the person who created all related to teams in DSDM was Arie Van Bennekum, one of the manifesto for agile software development creators. And do not forget: former agile software development methods like SCRUM and DSDM become today into agile solution delivery methods, that is, to create any type of solutions with software included or not included.

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