The Delivery Manager Role

Marty Cagan argues that the project management role, in its many forms, is often poorly performed and sometimes seen as a liability, and that its damaged brand may need a fresh start. He attributes the problems to clashing Waterfall and Agile values, confusion between Agile coaching and impediment-chasing, and project managers who lack technical understanding. He proposes renaming the role "Delivery Manager" with a narrow purpose: getting work delivered and removing impediments, not discovery or process coaching. He also suggests this role can absorb production-support duties, freeing product managers to focus on discovery and a validated backlog. The idea matters because many organizations either lack this role or misuse it, which hurts throughput.

01Key takeaways

• Project management roles often fail because teams see them as overhead rather than value, so the role's purpose needs to be clear.
• Rename and narrow the role to delivery, focusing on getting work shipped and removing impediments rather than discovery or process coaching.
• Avoid confusing the Agile coach role with the impediment-chasing role; they are different responsibilities.
• A technically capable delivery person can resolve impediments faster than explaining them to a non-technical manager.
• Offloading impediment chasing and production support frees product managers to do discovery and maintain a validated backlog.
• Consider the experiment if throughput is suffering because product managers are consumed by operational work.

02Key sections

The Problem with Project Management

Cagan notes that project managers are the role where he sees the most grief, and that his prior writing has had little effect. Some companies have eliminated the role, which works in small organizations but creates problems at scale.

Three Root Causes

He identifies Waterfall-era certifications, confusion between Agile coach and impediment chaser, and non-technical project managers as the main sources of dysfunction.

Rebranding as Delivery Manager

The title Delivery Manager makes the purpose clear: getting stuff delivered. The role is explicitly not about discovery or process coaching.

Production Support Responsibilities

In larger organizations, the Delivery Manager can also handle production support triage, which otherwise can consume much of a product manager's day.

When to Try It

Cagan suggests trying a Delivery Manager when product managers are too busy with impediments or production issues to do discovery and maintain a strong backlog.

03From the post

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04Frameworks mentioned

Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.