I recently gave a 2-hr presentation to our local PMI chapter, which I titled “My Life As A PM Is Over: The Company Just Went Agile!” I figured that a provocative title would get people to come out, and I was right: it was one of the best-attended monthly meetings for that group (I was told).

From what I can tell, there is a whole lot of work left to do in figuring out how to best integrate Project Managers into the various Agile methodologies. Those who think that it’s a simple problem – “just make them all ScrumMasters/Coaches!” – are underestimating or simply not grasping the depth of the challenge. Not every PM is well-suited for that sort of role (nor are they necessarily interested in it), and many organizations have responsibilities that PMs carry out in a Waterfall environment that can’t easily be either abandoned or handled by a SM/Coach when they “go Agile.” It’s a complex problem the parameters of which tend to vary, from place to place.

The group of 30 or so PMs that I spoke to were very interested in hearing about Agile, but some were also skeptical, cynical and maybe even a bit fearful of it. I think the best thing the Agile community can do on this front is to talk about the PM role in Agile more, and resist any temptation to treat it as unimportant.