More and more organizations are adopting an agile style of project management, which is a collaborative methodology using short development cycles called “sprints” to incorporate stakeholder and customer feedback along the way. The goal is to embrace flexibility and continuous improvement ultimately resulting in a better end product. However, in an agile environment, the role of the project manager is less defined.
That’s because agile project management puts the focus more on team collaboration and less on hierarchical leadership. For example, consider that some of the most popular frameworks for implementing agile project management include scrum, Kanban, Extreme Programming (XP), and Adaptive Project Framework (APF). The scrum practice advocates distributing the responsibilities of the traditional project manager role among the team members, with an appointed Scrum Master serving as the team’s guide and facilitator. This means the role of a traditional project manager will evolve in an agile environment, depending on the project and organization structure.
An agile project manager might take on any of the following roles:
- A key facilitator: Their goal is to empower their team and clear potential roadblocks, paving the way for project success.
- Change management expert: They will be tasked with rallying the entire organization around agile project management, ushering new processes, and communicating with company stakeholders.
- Strategic coach and trainer: In an agile environment, change happens fast. Project managers will be tasked with helping their teams master the newest tools, workflows and processes