This blog is called The Agile Project Manager. That raises the question of what an Agile
project manager actually is. He/she is not a Scrum Master (although he may fill
that role), he/she is not a Product Owner (although Product Owners do have some
responsibilities that in a more traditional environment would fall on the
project manager). It is a role with responsibilities that are necessary in the
execution of a project, but not necessarily covered in a framework like Scrum.
I am talking about:
- Risk Management
- Reporting
- Stakeholder Management (although the Product Owner plays a role in this as well
- Expectation Management (idem)
In addition, the project manager should assist the Scrum Master, Team and Product Owner in the following:
- Help the Scrum Master with removing impediments, especially when the impediments should be handled on a hierarchical level that cannot be influenced directly by the Team
- Setting up and staffing the Team, and in a larger project, setting up and staffing the overall project structure
- Writing the Story Map and setting up the initial backlog
- Compiling the business case
- Release Planning
- Maintain discipline in applying Agile practices, both at the team and organizational level
- Managing scope, schedule, quality and cost. In Scrum these responsibilities are divided between the Product Owner and the Team
The first four items are standard in frameworks like PMBOK and Prince2. In Agile there is no prescribed way of doing these things, but they still need to be done. In a corporate environment there will be project sponsors and Steering Committees who need to be updated on the status and progress of the project. If it is a larger project consisting of multiple Scrum teams, they will most likely want to hear the overall picture from a project manager instead of having to listen to the various Scrum Masters explain their Sprint Burndowns. Of course the Product Owner could do this as well, but he/she will most likely spend most of his/her time on preparing user stories, managing the backlog and supporting the teams in implementation.
The second set of items is more specific to Agile, although some of these things need to be done in a traditional set up as well. In an organization that is new to Agile, with inexperienced Product Owners, Scrum Masters and Team members (inexperienced in Agile that is, not inexperienced in a general sense), the assistance of a project manager with experience both in Agile as in traditional methodologies can be vital.
However, compared to a traditional environment, one would expect the role of the project manager to be smaller, as responsibilities and authority are shifted to the Team and the Product Owner. In my own experience managing Agile projects, this is indeed the case: The more experience and confidence the Product Owner and Team have with Agile, the less involved the project manager needs to be.
