Agile Delivery Manager versus Project Manager

Agile Delivery Manager versus Project Manager

The roles of an Agile Delivery Manager and a Project Manager on an Agile team are often confused, but they have distinct focuses, responsibilities, and approaches. While both roles share the goal of ensuring projects are completed successfully, they differ in terms of their alignment with Agile principles and their specific responsibilities.

Role Focus and Scope

Agile Delivery Manager:

• Focus: The Agile Delivery Manager is primarily focused on delivery—making sure that the Agile team is able to work effectively, deliver value, and continuously improve. The role is centered around removing obstacles, ensuring smooth Agile processes, and helping the team deliver the product incrementally.

• Scope: The Agile Delivery Manager works across multiple teams (or just one team, depending on the context) and plays a significant role in facilitating the Agile process within the team, ensuring alignment with Agile principles and practices. This role often serves as a bridge between the team and external stakeholders but without being responsible for the direct management of the team's work.

Project Manager:

• Focus: A Project Manager (PM) in Agile may be focused on more traditional project management tasks, such as managing the timeline, budget, and scope of the project. In Agile environments this role is more adapted to the Agile framework.

• Scope: In Agile, a Project Manager may oversee the overall execution of the project from a high level, ensuring that all activities align with the business goals, managing risk, and maintaining communication with stakeholders. In a traditional Agile team, the Project Manager’s role may be less involved in day-to-day team processes and more focused on high-level coordination and tracking project progress.

Responsibilities

Agile Delivery Manager:

• Facilitating Agile Practices: Ensures that the team follows Agile ceremonies (like Sprint Planning, Daily Standups, Sprint Reviews, and Retrospectives) effectively and efficiently. Facilitates Scrum ceremonies when needed.

• Removing Obstacles: Helps identify and remove blockers or impediments that prevent the team from achieving their sprint goals.

• Team Coaching: Coaches the team on Agile best practices, helps teams become more self-organizing, and focuses on continuous improvement. Helps the team refine their processes and develop stronger collaboration.

• Stakeholder Liaison: While not typically responsible for managing the project timeline or budget, the Agile Delivery Manager ensures clear communication between the team and stakeholders regarding progress, issues, and expectations.

• Ensuring Delivery Focus: Focuses on ensuring that the product increments meet the desired outcomes, enabling continuous delivery of value to the customer.

• Maintaining Agile Culture: Encourages a culture of openness, trust, and transparency within the team, ensuring that Agile values such as collaboration, adaptability, and focus on delivering value are upheld.

Project Manager:

• Project Scope & Planning: Manages the scope, schedule, and budget of the project. While Agile emphasizes adaptive planning, the Project Manager may still be responsible for ensuring that the project's goals are met within the defined constraints.

• Risk Management: Identifies, assesses, and mitigates risks related to the project, which may include resource allocation, stakeholder management, or delays.

• Resource Management: May be responsible for assigning resources to tasks and managing team capacity, especially in organizations where resources are shared across multiple projects.

• Stakeholder Communication: Acts as the primary point of contact for stakeholders, ensuring that expectations are managed and that the team’s progress is communicated clearly to upper management.

• Tracking & Reporting Progress: Provides regular status updates on project progress, often via tools like Gantt charts, burn-down charts, or project management dashboards. Tracks whether the project is on schedule and within budget.

Alignment with Agile Values

Agile Delivery Manager:

• Agile Mindset: The Agile Delivery Manager embraces the Agile mindset and fosters a culture of collaboration, self-organization, and continuous improvement within the team.

• Servant Leadership: A key aspect of the Agile Delivery Manager’s role is to support the team and provide guidance, rather than to direct or manage them in the traditional sense. They empower the team to make decisions and solve problems autonomously.

• Focus on Value: Ensures that the team is constantly delivering value to the customer through short, iterative cycles and focuses on removing barriers to success.

Project Manager:

• Traditional Project Management Focus: The Project Manager may still bring a more traditional project management perspective to the table, which can sometimes conflict with Agile principles if not properly aligned. They may focus on fulfilling the project’s goals on time, on budget, and within scope.

• Hierarchical Leadership: In contrast to the servant-leadership style of the Agile Delivery Manager, the traditional Project Manager may have more of a command-and-control approach, directing the team’s tasks and progress.

Decision-Making and Authority

Agile Delivery Manager:

• Team-Centric Decision Making: The Agile Delivery Manager helps facilitate decisions but does not typically make direct decisions on behalf of the team. They work with the team to make decisions collaboratively and ensure that the team is empowered to take ownership of their work.

• No Direct Line Management: The Agile Delivery Manager usually does not have formal authority over team members in the same way a Project Manager might; instead, they support team members and facilitate their success.

Project Manager:

• Top-Down Decision Making: The Project Manager often has authority over aspects like the timeline, scope, and resources of the project. They are responsible for ensuring the project is delivered on time and on budget, often requiring decisions to be made in a more top-down, directive manner.

• Task Assignment: The Project Manager may assign specific tasks to individuals or groups and track progress, ensuring work is completed according to the project plan.

Focus on Team Dynamics

Agile Delivery Manager:

• Empowering Teams: The primary role of the Agile Delivery Manager is to ensure that the team is empowered, organized, and functioning well. This role is deeply embedded in the team’s daily activities and culture, focusing on creating an environment in which the team can succeed.

• Continuous Improvement: They encourage retrospectives and iterative improvements to the team's processes and workflows.

Project Manager:

• High-Level Oversight: The Project Manager is less involved in the day-to-day team dynamics and more focused on managing the overall flow of the project. While they might ensure that there are no external disruptions to the team’s work, their role is typically not focused on team coaching or facilitating team collaboration.

Agile vs. Traditional Project Management Approach

• The Agile Delivery Manager follows an Agile approach, focusing on delivering small, incremental pieces of work and adapting to changing requirements. They prioritize collaboration, communication, and iterative progress.

• The Project Manager in Agile teams may still have a background in traditional project management (e.g., waterfall), and thus might lean more toward fixed timelines, scope, and resource management, though they’ll likely adopt some Agile practices (like sprint planning and burndown charts) as well.

Summary of Key Differences:

 

Resource or Budget Constraints: Additional Duty

In situations where resources and budgets are not explicitly allocated for a project or initiative, there may be some overlap in the responsibilities of a Project Manager (PM) and an Agile Delivery Manager (AdM). However, the degree to which the two roles merge will depend on the specific context of the initiative and how Agile or traditional project management principles are being applied in the organization.

Here’s a breakdown of how the PM and AdM might step into each other’s territory when resources and budgets are unclear or unavailable:

Budget and Resource Constraints:

• PM Responsibilities: A Project Manager is typically responsible for tracking and managing budget, resources, and timeline for the project. If the project doesn’t have defined resources or budget, the PM may have to take on additional responsibilities, such as identifying resource gaps, working with stakeholders to secure resources, or helping to define the scope and budget in more flexible, iterative ways.

• AdM Responsibilities: In the absence of allocated resources or a budget, the Agile Delivery Manager will likely need to step in to help ensure that the team can continue delivering value despite these constraints. They might focus on removing blockers, finding creative solutions for resource shortages, or working with the team to prioritize work differently. The AdM could also serve as an advocate for the team when the project lacks sufficient resourcing, communicating the need for additional support.

Managing Ambiguity:

• PM Responsibilities: In traditional project management, a PM would typically define a detailed scope, schedule, and resource allocation upfront, and track progress against that plan. If no budget or resources are defined, the PM will likely take a more fluid approach, potentially working in an Agile or hybrid model where scope is defined iteratively, and resources are allocated as needed.

• AdM Responsibilities: Since Agile projects are often characterized by changing requirements and adaptive planning, the Agile Delivery Manager is already accustomed to managing ambiguity. In the absence of clear resources or budgets, the AdM may step into the role of helping the team adapt, reprioritize features or work items based on available capacity, and focus on delivering the highest-value work first.

Stakeholder Management and Communication:

• PM Responsibilities: The Project Manager is often the primary point of contact for stakeholders regarding overall project status, budget concerns, and resource allocation. If there are no resources or a budget in place, the PM would need to take a more active role in negotiating with stakeholders, managing expectations, and working to secure the necessary resources. This could involve more frequent status updates, risk management, and escalation.

• AdM Responsibilities: The Agile Delivery Manager will still need to ensure communication between the team and stakeholders, but the emphasis will be more on progress against the Agile plan, iterations, and delivery timelines (rather than fixed budgets or resource allocation). In a resource-constrained environment, the AdM may need to step in to help identify new ways of working, pivoting, or managing expectations based on the current state of resources.

Team Empowerment and Resource Coordination:

• PM Responsibilities: Without a clear resource allocation, the PM might need to take on the responsibility of coordinating between teams, departments, or even external vendors to gather resources. They would also need to ensure that resources are being used efficiently and that any financial constraints are communicated to stakeholders.

• AdM Responsibilities: The Agile Delivery Manager will likely need to step in and work more closely with the team to optimize the flow of work. This might include prioritizing tasks that align with available capacity, balancing workloads, and helping the team remain focused on the most valuable work. The AdM may also help identify creative ways to meet goals with fewer resources.

Cross-Functional Collaboration:

• PM Responsibilities: The PM will still need to ensure cross-functional collaboration when resources are limited. They might take the lead in organizing collaborative sessions or tracking dependencies across teams to ensure progress. However, since there are no resources, the PM might also be engaging in internal negotiations to free up resources from other teams or adjust deliverables accordingly.

• AdM Responsibilities: The AdM is naturally inclined to facilitate cross-functional collaboration in an Agile environment. Without resources and a budget, the AdM may focus more on ensuring that the team is working closely together, leveraging collective knowledge to solve problems, and removing blockers to ensure the team can keep delivering incrementally, even in a resource-scarce environment.

Adapting to Agile Methodology in a Resource-Limited Context:

• PM Responsibilities: The PM may adapt their project management style to Agile by focusing on delivering incremental value, breaking work into manageable chunks, and iterating on deliverables. The PM will need to embrace a more flexible, adaptive planning process, which may require negotiating with stakeholders on priorities, timelines, and expectations.

• AdM Responsibilities: The AdM would still focus on ensuring that Agile ceremonies (e.g., sprint planning, retrospectives) happen and that the team has the support it needs to continually deliver value. Without a clear budget or resource allocation, the AdM might be more involved in helping the team adjust priorities based on what can actually be delivered with the resources at hand.

Overlap of Roles Without Resources/Budget:

• Shared Responsibilities:

  • Problem-Solving: Both roles would share responsibilities around problem-solving. The PM and AdM would need to identify creative ways to continue moving forward despite the lack of resources or budget, with a focus on adapting work priorities, managing expectations, and maintaining delivery.

  • Stakeholder Alignment: Both roles will likely need to collaborate closely to ensure that stakeholders are aligned on the status of the initiative, whether it's about securing resources, adjusting expectations, or re-scoping the work to fit within the available constraints.

Risk Management:

• PM Responsibilities: The PM will need to manage risk in a more traditional project management sense, identifying risks related to the lack of resources, delays, or unmet budgets and working to mitigate those risks.

• AdM Responsibilities: The AdM, in the absence of resources or a fixed budget, may have to focus on mitigating risks related to the team’s ability to deliver value and the operational risks associated with not having enough capacity to meet expectations.

If an initiative is lacking resources and budget, it is indeed likely that both the Project Manager (PM) and the Agile Delivery Manager (AdM) will need to step into each other’s domains to ensure that delivery continues, even if resources are tight. Here’s how this might unfold:

• The PM may need to take on more of the AdM's role in managing the team’s capacity and facilitating Agile processes.

• The AdM may need to step into PM responsibilities like managing stakeholder communication, tracking progress, and handling the resource constraints.

In practice, both roles might merge, especially in smaller teams or when resources are extremely limited. However, in a well-defined Agile environment, AdM responsibilities will still lean towards team empowerment and process facilitation, while the PM may focus on broader project constraints and external communication.

The key takeaway is that both roles will likely need to be flexible and adaptable when resources and budgets are undefined or uncertain, and collaboration between the two will be essential to drive the initiative forward.