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.)

When I saw that the PMI NY Chapter was going to have someone give a talk on Agile Project Management, I was skeptical, but I thought it would be worth checking out. Unfortunately, the event was sold out before I could get a ticket. Obviously this is an important topic to the community.

Fortunately for me, Mike Anderson was willing to have a conversation with me about his presentation. That conversation had a huge impact on me and completely changed the way I felt about the topic of Agile Project Manager. Thanks to Mike, that opinion I mentioned above … not held so strongly anymore.

In this interview, Mike Anderson makes a logical, thoughtful case for what an Agile Project Manager is, why we need this role on our teams, and what stage of Agile Transformation you need to reach before you give this role a try. And this is not just theory—Mike is heading up the Agile Transformation effort at a company where they have successfully made the switch from Scrum Master to Agile Project Manager.

During the podcast Mike and I refer to the slide deck from his presentation at PMI NYC. You can find it here: https://www.slideshare.net/secret/JN1P00L1i9iwfE

This could be the next step in the evolution of Project Management.

Contacting Mike Anderson

If you'd like to reach out to Mike with follow up questions, you can reach him via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-anderson-03b62210/