Comments on: AgileNorth 08

By: Kevin E. Schlabach

Kevin E. Schlabach — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 00:41:09 +0000

To clarify the “kind of organization” a little further.

If you are in one where self-organizing scrum teams are responsible for a portion of the product and there are quite a few cross-team dependencies, I would guess that some form of formal project management role is valuable in addition to the scrum of scrums concept.

If each team is self-sufficient and working on separate code bases and products… then it’s possible that a mature agile team won’t benefit much from a project manager.

That would my thought going into such a conversation, but I’m sure I would come out with a different viewpoint.

By: Kevin Rutherford

Kevin Rutherford — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 08:48:55 +0000

@KevinS: “depending on the organization” — exactly.

By: Kevin Rutherford

Kevin Rutherford — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 08:48:08 +0000

@PMHut: That’s kinda why I’m asking the question. On the one hand, neither XP or Scrum has a defined role for a Project Manager, both preferring to set up “self-organizing” teams. Conversely, such teams operate in a context, and that context needs to be managed.

So I want to give the session participants the opportunity to explore and discuss what kinds of management approach work, and under what circumstances. Please come along and share your experience.

By: PM Hut

PM Hut — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 21:21:22 +0000

Is the topic actually valid “Do project managers have a role in agile software development?”

How can you run any project, even if it’s agile, without a Project Manager?

By: Kevin E. Schlabach

Kevin E. Schlabach — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 19:24:34 +0000

Yes, project managers have a role in agile, depending on the organization.

Wish I was in the UK then… have fun!