In a recent conversation, an unemployed agile coach asked, “What's the point of a project manager, anyway?”
Here's what effective project managers do: They create the environment for the team to succeed.
Here's how effective project managers start:
- If the team does not yet have a project charter with the product goal, they facilitate or lead that discussion.
- They facilitate the discussion of product release criteria. That might mean interim release criteria if the team requires a goal for a given iteration.
- They lead the discussion of working agreements.
With any luck, that's enough for the team to manage its WIP (Work in Progress) and collaboration.
Then, there's the ongoing work as the team proceeds:
- Review the board with an eye to bottlenecks and cycle time. Is something stuck somewhere? Is the cycle time longer than expected?
- Run interference with people who want to add work without reviewing the ranking of all the work.
- Review all the feedback loops to see if they are short enough for the project and product risks.
- Make sure the team demos and retrospects often enough that no one needs to create those dreaded project status reports.
Notice these actions focus on the team's success.
If you are an unemployed agilist, consider how you might be a valuable project or program manager.
Effective project managers don't control people. Instead, as servant leaders, they create and manage the environment for the team to succeed.