Agile = Scrum = No Project Managers! Really?

Engagingly presented by Darren Wilmhurst, Director & Head of Consulting at RADTAC, the evening took us through the ‘why' and the ‘rationale' for Agile, then the Scrum Framework and that project managers don’t exist in this framework.  

However (fortunately for the audience) they do exist in the wider context when Agile is scaled and are needed to co-ordinate multiple Scrum Teams. In addition, project management skills are definitely transferable in to the product manager and scrum master roles providing the right ‘servant leadership’ mindset is applied.

We reflected that Agile is an intuitive way of working that has its foundations based on empirical data, and that any move towards an Agile way of running projects should be managed in an Agile way, i.e. taking bite size chunks that get embedded before moving on to the next stage.  Darren emphasised the importance to really understand why do you want to go to an Agile way of working, what are the drivers for the business; do you really understand that besides the tools and processes and practices (the visible part of the Agile spectrum) you need to have the principles, values and mindset (the invisible bits) to really get Agile.

Going through the 12 Agile principles the talk emphasised how powerful a tool it can be and for me it was more about taking back some of these that could be embedded into the programmes I am currently managing without necessarily going Agile. In my view, the principal principles  are to build projects around motivated individuals, giving them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done and to work out how to make business value delivered the key metric. Finally taking time to regularly reflect and find better and better ways of working.

Darren's presentation can be viewed below or on the Resource page of the APM website.