The fearless leader of this circus we call #PMchat has long stated his frustration with methodology snobs. One version of Agile is better than the other, don’t even consider Waterfall (even though no one ever said you had to go away for months and develop the entire product before you can share pilots, iterations), and gosh forbid you use the wrong acronym or term. Heads spin and the noses turn up!

The very conversation around methodology vs approach vs process can get ‘spirited’. Heck…PMs/DPMs/SMs can get their gears jammed up just talking about whether or not Project Management is a career, discipline, or skill. You know what…no one really cares!

Okay, we aren’t really here to scold you, rather  open a dialog on where project management is going. PM was essentially birthed from the disconnect between the business and IT…speaking a different language, being measured differently, revenue generators vs. cost center resources and so on. At the core, PMs were implemented to bridge the gap, interpret between the two, and leverage company resources to ‘complete a project’. Unfortuantely, our terms and processes have brought us back to the ‘nerd talk’. We meant that with the utmost respect. Talk PMO processes, user requirements, etc and the business starts rolling their eyes. We are now talking our own language, much like the tech-speak we were brought in to interpret/translate.

We would like for you to consider this post by the great folks at McKinsey to challenge the value and role of project managers in the enterprise today. Consider this statement from McKinsey’s post…

the project manager is a fading archetype and seen mainly at legacy product companies

 

So what are your thoughts? Must Project Managers start shifting to Product Managers? What do we as Project Managers, Scrum Masters, etc need to do in order to drive value for the enterprise?

Join us 26-May @ 12 PM ET (5 PM London/9 AM San Francisco) for a live, internatioanl Tweet Chat on the topic.