{"id":30346,"date":"2017-06-29T09:13:46","date_gmt":"2017-06-29T09:13:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/?p=30346"},"modified":"2024-05-13T11:03:01","modified_gmt":"2024-05-13T05:33:01","slug":"do-we-need-project-managers-in-agile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/do-we-need-project-managers-in-agile\/","title":{"rendered":"Do we need Project Managers in Agile?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">There are many confusions in the understanding of agile as a thought process. Things are changing as organizations are transitioning towards agile from traditional project management. The way work is executed differs in the Agile environment. With this transition, there are many questions which bother. One such question is \u201cdo we need Project Managers\u201d in Agile world? One step more than this is what will happen to Project Managers in the market? Will they lose their job? In this article, we shall touch upon on these points.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/pmi-acp\/online-course\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-69791 size-full aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/01\/Agile_Certified_Practitioner.gif\" alt=\"PMI-ACP Online Course\" width=\"728\" height=\"90\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_76 ez-toc-wrap-left counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #ea7e02;color:#ea7e02\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #ea7e02;color:#ea7e02\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/do-we-need-project-managers-in-agile\/#What_do_Project_Managers_do\" >What do Project Managers do?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/do-we-need-project-managers-in-agile\/#Does_agile_need_Project_Manager\" >Does agile need Project Manager?<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/do-we-need-project-managers-in-agile\/#Project_Management_outside_agile_execution\" >Project Management outside agile execution<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/do-we-need-project-managers-in-agile\/#Project_Management_inside_agile_execution\" >Project Management inside agile execution<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/do-we-need-project-managers-in-agile\/#Conclusion\" >Conclusion<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_do_Project_Managers_do\"><\/span><span lang=\"EN-IN\">What do Project Managers do?<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span lang=\"EN-IN\">I know this is a stupid question but to answer the bigger subject, we need to have a look at the fact that what does Project Manager do?<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/1.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-30351 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/1.png\" alt=\"Responsibilities of Project Managers\" width=\"320\" height=\"337\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span lang=\"EN-IN\">There is nothing new in this to understand that a Project Manager does all this and these are all the components of overall project management. Rather an overall scope of Project management has many other facets also like Procurement management, Program management, portfolio management and the list goes on.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span lang=\"EN-IN\">The important point to note is, Project Management will not obsolete from projects as all these activities\/tasks have to be done but the way we do these tasks has changed with the new ways of doing work. On a similar note, Project Manager\u2019s will not get obsolete in any way but the roles &amp; responsibilities has been changed. We shall discuss in detail how it has changed in agile next<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Does_agile_need_Project_Manager\"><\/span><span lang=\"EN-IN\">Does agile need Project Manager?<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span lang=\"EN-IN\">What is agile? Is it a Project\/Process which will have roles?<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b><i><span lang=\"EN-IN\">\u201cAgile is basically an approach which is driven by the values and principles under it.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span lang=\"EN-IN\">\u00a0<\/span>As mentioned above, Agile in itself doesn\u2019t define anything but just give a set of values and principles. Whichever framework use these values and principles is agile.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span lang=\"EN-IN\">No approach defines the roles but yes the frameworks over the approach to defining the roles and it differs from framework to framework, that\u2019s why in agile roles differ for the scrum, XP, Kanban, Lean etc.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span lang=\"EN-IN\">Another very important point which summarizes this section in a beautiful manner is<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b><i><span lang=\"EN-IN\">\u201cAgile talks more at the execution level. Anything outside it needs Project Management\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span lang=\"EN-IN\">Project management is required in everything and agile doesn\u2019t stop it. However, the important point to understand is Project Management, at execution level will be agile based and there won\u2019t be central control kind of Project Manager as in the traditional way of working. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span lang=\"EN-IN\">We all are aware of Planning Onion in agile and that explains in itself where Project Management and Project Managers are required in agile<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span lang=\"EN-IN\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/agile-process.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-30352\" src=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/agile-process.png\" alt=\"Planning Onion in Agile\" width=\"423\" height=\"492\" \/><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Project_Management_outside_agile_execution\"><\/span><span lang=\"EN-IN\">Project Management outside agile execution<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span lang=\"EN-IN\">This planning onion has multiple layers and people who have worked in agile will appreciate and agree with that agile focuses majorly on last three layers i.e. daily, iteration and Release level planning. How about other layers? All projects have to go through all these layers and organizations has to manage all these layers of planning and management. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span lang=\"EN-IN\">Anything over these three is not focused inside agile i.e. it\u2019s basically out of the scope of execution and we as an agile team don\u2019t want the team to worry about the whole world and divert its concentration. Therefore one fact is, all rest of the layers need project Management and for that reasons Project Managers are needed irrespective of agile or non-agile way of working<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/pmi-acp\/free-test\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-69569 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/01\/pmi-acp-681x84-1.jpg\" alt=\"PMI-ACP Free Questions\" width=\"681\" height=\"84\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/pmi-acp-681x84-1.jpg 681w, https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/pmi-acp-681x84-1-300x37.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/pmi-acp-681x84-1-640x79.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 681px) 100vw, 681px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Project_Management_inside_agile_execution\"><\/span><span lang=\"EN-IN\">Project Management inside agile execution<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span lang=\"EN-IN\">Now coming to the second dimension, inside these three layers of planning onion, do we really don\u2019t want Project Managers and can live without it? Who will take care of all the multi-dimensional things a project manager does traditionally at execution level? After all success and failure of projects is decided at the execution level only<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span lang=\"EN-IN\">Here comes the second thought with which we started our discussion i.e. Project Management is still there but it\u2019s distributed among the roles defined by the agile framework.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span lang=\"EN-IN\">Let\u2019s take an example of Scrum as the scrum is the most famous flavor of agile.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span lang=\"EN-IN\">\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/3.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-30353\" src=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/3.png\" alt=\"Scrum\" width=\"576\" height=\"346\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span lang=\"EN-IN\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span lang=\"EN-IN\">If we see, the activities of project manager or Project Management is distributed across three roles of Scrum i.e. Product Owner, Scrum Master &amp; Development team. This is true across frameworks and there are certain agile forms in which we have a properly defined Project Manager also as role e.g. Extreme Programming (XP). <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span lang=\"EN-IN\">In XP, Project managers are like a leader who helps in the teamwork with the organization. This role coach leadership and basically non-programming practices. In a comparison with traditional project managers, functional managers generally cope up with this role very well. In XP, the difference in this role is, generally, Project Manager has technical skills as well whereas most project managers lack the technical expertise to coach XP\u2019s programming practices.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span lang=\"EN-IN\">Above are just two examples to highlight that Project Management is there and will there in agile and need is to see where its laying and how its distributed across roles. <\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li>\n<blockquote><p><span lang=\"EN-IN\">\u00a0<\/span><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/pmp-certification\/\">How to prepare\u00a0for PMP Certification Exam<\/a><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<blockquote><p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/pmp-certification\/\">Self Study Training \u2013 Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification<\/a><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Conclusion\"><\/span><span lang=\"EN-IN\">Conclusion<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span lang=\"EN-IN\">Project Management was there, is there and will be there because projects need management at multiple levels in an organization. Even if we look at the execution level where agile is focused more, the project management, Project managers, and all the activities are there. There is no way to eliminate Project Managers and Project management from projects but yes, for the benefits we get from agile, we change the way we do these activities and look at these activities.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">[divider \/]<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>Are you preparing for\u00a0Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI ACP)\u00ae Certification<\/em><em>? Pass in first attempt with Whizlabs\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/pmi-acp-certification-preparation-with-agile-practices\/acp-free-test\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Free<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/pmi-acp-certification-preparation-with-agile-practices\/acp-practice-tests\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Practice<\/a>\u00a0Tests or can purchase our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/pmi-acp-certification-preparation-with-agile-practices\/acp-online-course\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Online Course<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are many confusions in the understanding of agile as a thought process. Things are changing as organizations are transitioning towards agile from traditional project management. The way work is executed differs in the Agile environment. With this transition, there are many questions which bother. One such question is \u201cdo we need Project Managers\u201d in Agile world? One step more than this is what will happen to Project Managers in the market? Will they lose their job? In this article, we shall touch upon on these points. What do Project Managers do? I know this is a stupid question but [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":47919,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[74,1318],"class_list":["post-30346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agile-and-scrum","tag-agile","tag-project-managers"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Add-heading-1.png",560,315,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Add-heading-1-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Add-heading-1-300x169.png",300,169,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Add-heading-1.png",560,315,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Add-heading-1.png",560,315,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Add-heading-1.png",560,315,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Add-heading-1.png",560,315,false],"profile_24":["https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Add-heading-1.png",24,14,false],"profile_48":["https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Add-heading-1.png",48,27,false],"profile_96":["https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Add-heading-1.png",96,54,false],"profile_150":["https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Add-heading-1.png",150,84,false],"profile_300":["https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Add-heading-1.png",300,169,false],"tptn_thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Add-heading-1-250x250.png",250,250,true],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Add-heading-1.png",560,315,false],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Add-heading-1.png",96,54,false],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Add-heading-1.png",150,84,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Dharmalingam N","author_link":"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/author\/dharmalingam\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"There are many confusions in the understanding of agile as a thought process. Things are changing as organizations are transitioning towards agile from traditional project management. The way work is executed differs in the Agile environment. With this transition, there are many questions which bother. One such question is \u201cdo we need Project Managers\u201d in&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30346"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95676,"href":"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30346\/revisions\/95676"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whizlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}