Product Management and Agile Software Development

​    In Agile, the Product Management function is primarily responsible for defining and prioritizing the product backlog. So, this individual needs to make fast and local decisions on what to implement.

    The Product Manager role in Agile is very similar with the Business Analyst / Project Manager role in Waterfall.  Let's try now to focus on the differences between them.

​We can do this by enumerating the responsibilities for a traditional PM/BA vs Product Manager in Agile:

• understand customer need: up front and discontinuous vs constant interaction;
• document requirements: fully elaborated vs high-level, constant, informal, F2F communication with the technical teams;
• scheduling: a planned one-time delivery vs continuously delivery
• requirements prioritization: one-time only, in the beginning phase of the project vs continuous prioritization, during Sprints
• requirements validation: not at all vs involved with iteration system demos
• change management: no change vs manage change during the Sprints

    If you want to learn more, please read these articles on Product Management in Agile:

• Product Management
• What Happens to Product Managers When Organizations Go Agile
• The Strategic Role of Product Management when Development goes Agile