For projects like building a power plant or a train tunnel, tough project managers are needed. But when it comes to developing digital or physical products, the role of a project manager has an increasingly difficult standing. During agile or digital transformations, new roles emerge to take over project management tasks. So, are project managers needed in these areas in the future?

1. Bye, bye Project Manager
Is Agile Disrupting Project Management?
Stephan Adler (MBA, SPC)
Dr. Christoph Wolf (PMP)
PMI Switzerland | February 2, 2023

2. 2
Meet our speakers
Dr. Christoph Wolf (PMP)
Chris studied mathematics and then has taken
many roles in the development of digital
products and services. Among other things, he
worked for eight years as a project manager.
Since 2014, he has been employed by SwissQ
as a Principal consultant and currently he works
as a business analyst for SBB.
His passion is to spread knowledge as a trainer,
as a lecturer in Digital Transformation at the
University of Berne and by helping to organize
the Bärner Requirements Night.
Stephan Adler (MBA, SPC)
Stephan studied physics, computer science and
business and is certified as a program consultant for
SAFe (Scales Agile Framework). He works in all
roles related to software development - from
developer to manager - in agile and waterfall
processes, in small and multinational companies
and projects.
He joined SwissQ in 2013 and is currently employed
as a principal consultant. He has helped various
customers to improve their processes and product,
and works as a trainer for requirements engineering
and agility.

3. Annual Members Meeting PMI® Switzerland Chapter
Bye, bye Project Manager
Is Agile Disrupting Project Management?
02.02.2023

4. SwissQ | Part of Xebia
Consulting in Digital Product Development Academy Conferences/Community
4
Data/AI
Cloud
DevOps
SRE
Security
Software

5. 5
Challenges in Today‘s Business
1
What is Agile?
The Role of the Project Manager in Agile
Project Steering & Controlling in Agile
2
3
4

6. Challenges in Today’s Business

7. The Increasingly Crowded Unicorn Club
7
Source: CB Insights: Venture Capital Report Data Book Q2'2021

8. 0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
Q2 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
The Increasingly Crowded Unicorn Club
8
Source: CB Insights: Venture Capital Report Data Book Q2'2021

9. Technological Disruption
9
Top companies in 2023
1. Apple
2. Saudi Aramco
3. Microsoft
4. Alphabet
5. Amazon
Top companies* in 2003
1. General Electric
2. Exxon
3. Microsoft
4. Pfizer
5. Citi Group
• Internet
• Smartphones
• Digital products
• Cloud
• Exponential technological growth
Digital transformation Next disruption ?
• AI (e.g. ChatGPT)
• Quantum computing
• Virtual reality
• Blockchain
• IoT
• …
* based on market capitalisation

10. Digital Disruption
10
A
B
Traditional Companies Digital Players
Digital Pure Players
… and many more
Digital players concentrating on high margin, low
barrier products.

11. Digital Disruption
11
A
B
Traditional Companies Digital Players
Digital Pure Players
… and many more
Digital players increasingly tap into the profit of
established players.

12. Digital Disruption
12
A
B
Traditional Companies Digital Players
Digital Pure Players
… and many more
… and many more
The ability to compete requires becoming a digital player

13. Who asked for that?
The problem with predictive product development
13
Source for feature numbers: Standish Group (2010): https://www.standishgroup.com/sample_research_files/Modernization.pdf
Top 10 Startup Mistakes: https://techstartups.com/2021/09/27/top-10-startup-mistakes-avoid/
Products are often build based on
interviews and focus groups.
For every $1M spent, 1500
decisions need to be made
Speed up by doing less – stop
when the product is «good
enough»
Take away – decision should be
made based on validated
feedback whenever possible.
Regularly
20%
Infrequently
30%
Hardly
ever
50%
Features used

14. What is Agile?

15. The origin of „Agility“
Manifesto for Agile Software Development
15
Source: Agile Manifesto: http://www.agilemanifesto.org
Key insights – approach to
complex challenges
Optimize for change
Trust people
Decentralise decision making
Learn fast – continously improve
Transparency creates commitment

16. Agile vs. Waterfall
16

17. 17

18. Traditional vs. Agile Planning
Scope, time and resources
Scope
Time Resources
Fixed
Variable
Scope
Time Resources
Traditional Agile
18

19. Development Methodologies
… in digital product development
19
Agile
Hybrid
Waterfall
unclear
() = last year
19

20. Development Frameworks
… in digital product development
20
Hybrid
Agile
Scrum
Waterfall
Kanban
SAFe
Hermes
Scumban
DAD
others
Scrum
SAFe
Kanban
Scrumban
Hermes
Waterfall
DAD
others
DAD: Disciplined Agile Delivery
SAFe: Scaled AgileFramework

21. Scrum Roles
DEVELOPMENT TEAM
How are we going to build it.
PRODUCT OWNER
What are we going to build.
SCRUM MASTER
How could we work together.
21

22. Scrum Framework
22

23. Agile Product Engineering
„Agile methods deliberately spend less time trying to define and agree on scope in the early stage of the
project and spend more time establishing the process for its ongoing discovery and refinement”. [PMBOK
Guide 6th]
Different horizons, levels and artefacts
to scale agile teams
Continuous refinement and prioritization
of backlogs
Continuous update of roadmaps
23
1+ years ~1 year
~3 months
~2 weeks days, hours

24. Scaling Agile
SAFe® is a freely
available knowledge base
of integrated, proven
patterns
for enterprise Lean-Agile
development.
Source: https://www.scaledagileframework.com/
Example: SAFe® (Scaled Agile Framework)
24

25. SAFe® Essential
Team level and Product/Program level
Source: https://www.scaledagileframework.com/
25

26. Agility in Company Departments
IT and Business drive agility
26
Where Agility was introduced
IT
Business
Portfolio Management
Management
Marketing
Human Resources
Production
Finance
introduced
ongoing
planned

27. Project Steering & Controlling in Agile

28. Coordination
Many roles are involved – but no central coordination
28
Product Manager
Release Train Engineer
System Architect
Product Owner
Scrum Master
Dev Team
System Team
(e.g. Test Coordinator,
Release Manager)
Team level
Product/Program
level

29. Sprint Backlog
Team Board
ToDo In work Done
Product Backlog
Sprint Planning
Product backlog > Sprint backlog > Tasks
1. Product Owner:
How the product value is increased in the Sprint
Product Backlog > prioritized backlog items
2. Team:
Estimates backlog items
Select backlog items > Sprint Backlog
Break down items to tasks > Team Board
3. Product Owner + Team:
Sprint goal
29
Sprint Goal
29

30. Estimates in Agile
“Projects with high degrees of uncertainty or those where the scope is
not yet fully defined may not benefit from detailed cost calculations [...]
Instead, lightweight estimation methods can be used to generate a
fast, high-level forecast [...] Detailed estimates are reserved for short-
term planning horizons in a just-in-time fashion.” [PMBOK Guide 6th]
Involved:
Product Manager
Product Owner
Team
30
Extra-Small (XS)
Small (S)
Medium (M)
Large (L)
Extra-Large (XL)
T-Shirt Sizing
Story Points
1, 2, 3,
5, 8, 13,
21, 34, 55
Hours
30

31. Burndown Chart
Monitor Sprints with the remaining effort > progress reporting
31

32. How much functionality can a team deliver?
Velocity
Velocity = Sum of story points of all completed stories in a sprint.
Often varies from sprint to sprint
 Supports sprint planning
 Supports release planning
32
Velocity
Story
Points
Time
Sprint
11
Sprint
12
Sprint
13
Sprint
14
Sprint
15
Sprint
16

33. Risk Management
“High-variability environments, by definition, incur more uncertainty and risk.” [PMBOK Guide 6th]
Product risks
Product Manager
(e.g. prioritize high-risk backlog items high)
Program risks
Team
During planning of the release/program increment !
During implementation
ROAM board: Resolved, owned, accepted, mitigated
33
Waterfall project
Agile project
Project risk progression Time
Risks

34. Built-in Quality
“In order to navigate changes, agile methods call for frequent quality
and review steps built in throughout the project” [PMBOK Guide 6th]
Responsibility for quality is in the team
Supported by Definition of Done (DoD)
Iterative > higher quality
34
Test Responsible (example)
Product
level
User acceptance
test
Product owner or user
representatives with support
of tester
System test Tester in the team
Team
level
Manual feature
tests in Sprint
Tester (or BA) in the team
Automated unit
tests
Developer – Implemented in Sprint
Executed with every build
34

35. Dependency Management
Identification of dependencies
During refinement
During planning of release/
program increment !
During implementation
… by all involved roles (lead: Team)
35

36. Retrospective
“The single most important [agile] practice is the
retrospective because it allows the team to learn about,
improve, and adapt its process. Retrospectives help the
team learn from its previous work on the product and its
process. One of the principles behind the Agile
Manifesto is: “At regular intervals, the team reflects on
how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts
its behavior accordingly.” [PMBOK Guide 6th]
Levels
Sprint Retrospective (Team level)
Retrospective & Problem solving (Product/Program level)
Content
What worked well?
What could be improved?
What can we do to improve?
36

37. The Role of the Project Manager in Agile

38. Project Management Tasks in Agile
Some tasks are covered by the process, some are taken over by other roles
38
Project Manager
Task management
Effort estimates
Dependency management
Quality assurance
Risk management
Team
Product Owner
Product management Project request
Product roadmap Milestones
Backlog management Change management
Business analysis Risk management
Stakeholder management
Acceptance
Reporting
Scrum of Scrums/RTE
Team coordination
Dependency Management
Vendor management
Process improvements
Team management Team coaching
Conduct meetings Moderate events
Process improvements
Scrum Master

39. Bye, bye Project Manager?
Role vs. Skills
The role „Project Manager“ might disappear in Agile,
… but project management skills are definitely needed.
Development opportunities for project managers:
Shift: management  leadership
39
Project Manager
Scrum Master
Release Train Engineer
Product Owner
Product Manager
Product
Process &
Team support
39
Programm Manager
Solution Train Engineer
Big Projects

40. 40
Thank you!
Stephan Adler
Chris Wolf
Photos by Pixabay, Chris Wolf and Stephan Adler
[PMBOK Guide 6th]: A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge – Sixth Edition, PMI, 2017

41. Contact
Zürich
SwissQ Consulting AG
Fraumünsterstrasse 16
CH-8001 Zürich
Tel. +41 43 288 88 40
Contact
Bern
SwissQ Consulting AG
Spitalgasse 37
CH-3011 Bern
Tel. +41 31 972 73 53