The document discusses the polymorphism of agile project and program manager roles. It notes that historically, program managers have been overloaded in waterfall environments. There are also ambiguities in roles at the team, program, and portfolio levels during agile transformations. The document outlines some common myths about PM roles in agile programs and the organizational ambiguities that can arise during transformations. It then discusses concepts like ownership, execution, and polymorphism in agile. Polymorphism is defined as taking many forms, and the document states that program managers need to take different forms during transformations. It provides examples of how program managers can act as capability builders, remove obstacles, help teams build system thinking, engage in "genchi gen

1. Agile Tour 2015
Chennai
Oct.
31
Jeyaprakash Rajaram
Senior Manager & Agile
Coach - Cognizant
Polymorphism of
Agile Project and
Program Manager
Role
Kartik Ramachandran
Associate Director & Agile
Coach - Cognizant

2. Slide 2
Clear Team Level Roles
Team Vs Program Level Ambiguities in Roles during Transformations
Ambiguities in Program &
Portfolio level…

3. Slide 3
=
Historically are Program Managers Overloaded in Waterfall world?

4. Slide 4
PM Roles in Agile Programs – Industry Myths
• No longer needed
• Don’t add Value
• Scrum team will take care
• Scrum master will take care
• Product Mgr will take care

5. Slide 5
Organizational ambiguities at Multiple Levels While transformation
• End to End Co-ordination - ?
• Decentralized decision making
is going help really?
• Scrum masters are going to
manage the team -?
• ‘Team’ is a bottleneck to track
individual performance -?
• ‘Individual Coaching’ will
backfire ?

6. Slide 6
Ownership and Execution in Agile

7. Slide 7
What is Polymorphism
Polymorphism means taking “More than one Form”, “Taking many Forms”
Program managers needs to take different forms while transformation !!

8. Slide 8
Approaches from
 Managers as capability builders
 In removing obstacles and making improvements @ Program level &
beyond
 Helps the Team in Building the System thinking
 Go See Gemba (Genchi Genbutsu) – Going to the Source
Reference
https://less.works/de/less/management/role_of_manager.html

9. Slide 9
Polymorphism of Agile Program Managers
Agile Program
Manager
Empower the
Local Decision
Making
Release
Management
Optimize the
Resources for
Release
Promotes
System
Thinking
Capacity
Planning
Engineering –
Activities

10. THANK
YOU
For your attention!
jeyaprakash.rajaram@cognizant.com