The Myth of the Agile Project Manager

The term Agile Project Manager is misleading and inaccurate. Traditional project managers are unnecessary and even counterproductive in Agile teams.

Between Santa Claus, Big Foot and the Agile Project Manager, which exists? Few people argue for the existence of Big Foot or Santa Claus, though most believe that Agile Project Managers exist.

I would contend that none of them exist, especially the Agile project manager. (BTW we used a photo of Chewbacca the wookie for Big Foot since all the pictures we had of Big Foot were blurry.)

Why do I think that there is no such thing as an Agile Project Manager? I think that putting one person in place to do those “project manager” activities is counterproductive.

Plus, many of the activities that a project manager would do are unnecessary in an Agile environment. Here are some specific examples:

1. Intermediary

A project manager in Agile or Scrum would be an unnecessary intermediary between the team doing the work and the customer. In many cases, a key part of the project manager role is focused on asking for status from the team and then reporting that status to the customers.