Thank you, Ruslan, for sparking an honest and necessary conversation. You’ve put words to a growing tension that many of us in delivery leadership feel — especially those who’ve lived through the quiet dismantling of project management in Agile-only environments.
Agile brought real value in shifting how teams work — but in too many implementations, we replaced structure with ceremony and leadership with facilitation. We didn’t evolve the Project Manager role — we eliminated it, and in doing so, removed the strategic spine that holds complex efforts together.
I saw this firsthand at the Defense Health Agency. Our initial project was small — just five people — and I was the project manager, accountable for delivery. I took time to learn the agency, build trust, and lead transparently. We delivered, got rewarded, and grew. By year two, we were overseeing an expanded team, managing cost, schedule, performance, risk — even getting an ATO and overhauling broken SOC/NOC operations.
The client was happy. We were aligned.
Then came the shift: a new Gov PM brought in someone from the startup world to “go Agile.” What followed was chaos. I was boxed into a comms-only role with no authority. The client was confused. The team fractured. We started missing the mark. The very structure that had helped us succeed had been dismantled.
Within months, I left. The rest of the team soon followed. All because we killed the PM.
Agile didn’t fail us. Misinterpreting Agile did. Strategic delivery leadership didn’t become obsolete — it was quietly uninvited. We still need someone who sees the whole board, balances stakeholder priorities, manages risk, and takes responsibility for delivery outcomes.
Let’s keep this conversation going. It’s time to stop pretending we don’t need project managers. We do — especially when the stakes are high and the mission matters.
Roberta Ortega is a seasoned IT program executive and PMP-certified professional with more than two decades of experience across Federal, State, DOD and commercial environments, with a particular focus on healthcare IT and enterprise modernization.
