Between a rock and a hard place: Management and implementation teams’ expectations of project managers in an agile information systems delivery environment

Abstract

Background: To address the low success rate in information system (IS) projects, organisations in South Africa are adopting agile implementation methodologies. Agile delivery environments advocate an iterative approach where autonomous, self-organising teams share project management (PM) activities. This encroaches on the traditional project manager role. Are project managers still relevant in agile delivery environments and how should they adapt?Objectives: This case study investigated how project managers could adapt to agile IS implementation environments to remain relevant. Specifically, the views of their key stakeholders (the management and implementation teams) were elicited to provide insights into what is expected from agile project managers.Method: A qualitative, inductive content analysis approach using purposive sampling was used to identify 13 participants (comprising management and implementation team members) within a large South African insurance company. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with all participants.Results: The management and implementation teams agreed that PM remains highly relevant in an agile environment for ensuring project governance including delivery, risk management, reporting and budgeting. There was, however, disagreement between the management and implementation teams on project management interaction with the implementation team. Management preferred a command and control type project manager, while the implementation team favoured a more inclusive, facilitative PM style.Conclusion: To remain viable in an agile IS project implementation environment within large corporates, project managers need to be aware of what various stakeholders expect of them. They need to retain some of the classic PM functions while adapting to the interpersonal and collaborative requirements of the agile way.

Facilitators and inhibitors of Agile methods adoption: Practitioners view

“…Project champions also boost customer satisfaction and help in shortening software delivery time to customers. The senior management expects the project champion akin project manager to take responsibility for project delivery and adopts a controlling approach if necessary, while teams expect a light touch “servant leader” type approach 60 . In a recent study, Shastri et al., 36 noted in one advertisement “The PM should be the grease that drives the team machine as it sets new benchmarks in quality and delivery while staying true to Agile principles.” Skilling the development teams to be Agile is easy, the difficulty is getting the software organizations at large to adopt agility across value streams, as senior management lack the skills and understanding to embrace agility 61 .…”

“…The use of Agile provides better control over the work Bambauer-Sachse and Helbling, 58 Terblanche and Nkukwana, 60 Jørgensen 73 Agile methods help to cope with changing user requirements in a better way Inayat et al, 7 Roy et al, 41 Perera and Fernando, 47 Jørgensen, 73 Krancher, 82 Highsmith and Cockburn, 84 Daneva et al, 85 Mishra and Mishra 92 Agile adoption allows to achieve better quality Chow and Cao, 23 Shastri et al, 36 Kasauli et al, 42 Agarwal and Rathod, 46 Bishop et al, 63 Putta et al, 65 Mishra and Mishra 92 Agile is used because it helps in effort estimation (cost, schedule)…”