With the advent of Agile and its adoption in many organisations, is the quintessential project manager really dead? Many argue that with Agile roles, such as Product Owners, Scrum Masters and the advent of Self Managing teams, there is probably no room for the Project Manager anymore. And that, if any still exist, they will eventually fade away into oblivion.
But let’s think through this once again. Is the Project Manager really dead?
Complex projects with multiple work streams and integrated delivery need people who will co-ordinate and weave their way through various dependencies. They will remove barriers, resolve issues, influence stakeholders and ensure governance is effective.
So, can we say that all these activities required for successful delivery are addressed by the Agile specific roles?
The answer is yes. Agile values, roles and responsibilities drive successful business deliveries at whatever the scale, in all parts of the organisation. In reality, the job title may have evolved but the competencies remain. This new avatar (read: incarnation) may have a new name such as Scrum of Scrum Master, and Chief Product owner and between them, they still follow the principles of Project Management.
Coming back to the ‘Project Manager’. We know the role still remains in projects being implemented using the legacy waterfall mode or programmes that follow a hybrid model. Sometimes these are referred to as Wagile! So which side should you choose ?
Here at Projective, our priority is to drive business value. Our values are aligned to Agile or other methodologies of project delivery, provided they generate business value.
What’s your opinion ?
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