Making the Case for the Role of Agile Project Manager

For a long time now I have held strongly to the opinion that there is no such thing as an Agile Project Manager. There are Project Managers and there are ScrumMasters but the value systems they serve are different and at odds.  I am comfortable playing either role, but I cannot do them both at once. (That is based on personal experience as well as observation.)

Mike Anderson gave a presentation at a PMI event in New York where he made the case for the role of Agile Project Manager as a next evolutionary step. Mike makes a compelling argument and he completely changed my opinion on the topic. I think this is an important conversation that I hope will continue to grow.

You can check out the interview here. (And after you listen, please post comments - I'd love to hear people's thoughts on this topic.)

The Evolving Role of the PMO in an Agile Organization - Catching Up With Jesse Fewell

I got a chance to catch up with Jesse Fewell at the start of 2019. In this Reluctant Agilist podcast Jesse and I talk about how project management continues to evolve as a result of the introduction of Agile and how the PMO continues to refine the role it plays in an organization that is making the transition to Agile. The whole conversation draws from the fact that we both got our start in traditional project management and were two of the initial people focused on helping to build a bridge between PMI and the Scrum Alliance.

As an added note, Jess is now the only person I have ever interviewed who has quote Suicidal Tendencies and then talked about reading the Bible within the space of 5 minutes on a podcast.

You can find the podcast on The Reluctant Agilist blog on ProjectManagement.com

PMO Agility Canvas 3.0 - Redefining Your PMO for Agile

I had the chance to give a presentation last night at the NYC Scrum User Group Meetup. Despite the horrible weather, there was a really great turnout and I got to meet a lot of great folks.

Here are the slides I used during the presentation. It includes the brand new version of the PMO Agility Canvas tool I developed.

PMO Agility Canvas v 3.0 - NYC Scrum User Group - Nov 2018 from Dave Prior

If you'd like to download a Tabloid size of the canvas, you can find it here:
PMO Agility Canvas