Agile Manager

Agile methods are not meant to have managers. This research study focused on understanding how this idea plays out in real-world practice. We investigated the roles of the project manager, scrum master, and product owner on industrial agile projects. Despite what the fundamental agile literature recommends, we found the role of the project manager very much existent and influential in agile teams in practice. Our results present the concept of an agile manager as an umbrella term to capture the roles of the project manager, scrum master, and product owner, as they work closely and side-by-side with self-organising agile teams.

Alt-Pubs:

  • “The Role of the Project Manager in Agile Software Development Projects” Paper makes it to the JSS 2021 Top Papers (1 of 6, Top 0.3% of all submissions) [JSS Announcement Link]
  • “Role of the Project Manager in Agile Software Development Projects” features in the JSS Happy Hour video (49:00 to 53:30 mins): JSS Happy Hour - Q1 2021
  • Covered in the Agile 20 Reflect festival [Link]

Papers:

  • The Role of the Project Manager in Agile Software Development Projects, JSS 2021
  • The Role of the Scrum Master in Agile Projects, Empirical Software Engineering, EMSE 2021
  • Understanding roles of the manager... ISEC 2017,PDF
  • Does the project manager still exist…. APSEC2016,PDF

Investigators

Prof Rashina Hoda, Prof Robert Amor,  Dr Yogeshwar Shastri

Agile Manager diagram