Toward Agentic Software Project Management: A Vision and Roadmap

TL;DR

This paper envisions integrating agentic AI into software project management, proposing a multi-agent system to enhance collaboration, ethics, and skill evolution in SPM 3.0.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of an agentic Project Manager as a multi-agent system with varying autonomy levels, outlining a research agenda for future exploration.

Findings

Proposes four working modes for agentic PMs with different autonomy levels.

Addresses ethical, accountability, and trust issues in agentic SPM.

Shares insights on evolving human project manager roles and skills.

Abstract

With the advent of agentic AI, Software Engineering is transforming to a new era dubbed Software Engineering 3.0. Software project management (SPM) must also evolve with such transformations to boost successful project completion, while keeping humans at the heart of it. Building on our preliminary ideas of "agentic SPM", and supporting literature, we present our vision of an "Agentic Project Manager (PM)" as a multi-agent system for SPM 3.0. They will work like a "junior project manager", or an "intern project manager" collaboratively with software teams. We introduce four working modes, with varying autonomy levels to choose from, based on the SPM task. This addresses concerns with ethics, accountability, and trust related to agentic PMs. We also share insights on human PM role evolution and new skill requirements as a "strategic leader" and a "coach" for humans and agents. While creating the foundation for agentic SPM research, we present a research agenda for the wider research community.