The recent merger of PMI and Agile Alliance is the kind of headline that makes you double-check to make sure you’re not reading The Onion. But no, it’s real, and honestly? I think it’s a good thing.
This feels like a long-overdue acknowledgment for digital project managers (DPM). For years, we’ve been navigating the space between Agile and traditional project management, blending principles and practices from both to get work done effectively. The rest of the industry is finally catching up to the reality that adaptability and structure aren’t mutually exclusive.
I understand why some in the Agile community feel uneasy. Agile has long prided itself on being the renegade, the rule-breaker, the one challenging the rigid bureaucracy of traditional project management. Now, that same bureaucracy has extended a very official, PMI-certified handshake. It’s a moment of reckoning—but not necessarily one of defeat.
Edward J. Wisniowski summed it up beautifully in his blog post: If you can’t beat them, join them. “We traded swashbuckling for the humbling search for work. Job posts reflected this shift as organizations yearned to combine Agile's adaptability with the accountability of traditional project management.” The Agile movement started as a reaction to rigid, outdated ways of working. But what happens when the system starts adopting your ways? Is it selling out, or is it winning?
A ‘finally, they get it’ moment for DPMs
For those of us who have championed digital project management (DPM) for years, this feels a lot like validation. We’ve always been in that middle ground, blending Agile principles with practical, structured delivery. We’ve had to adapt to shifting industry trends, combining the best of both worlds to get the job done. That’s literally what I wrote about in Project Management for Humans.
Digital project managers never saw Agile and traditional project management as opposites; we saw them as tools in the same toolkit. Now, with this merger, the broader industry is catching up to that reality. It's about time.
The town hall announcement: a shift, not a takeover
The merger was first announced at the PMI and Agile Alliance Town Hall, and reactions have been mixed. Some see it as a loss, a capitulation to traditional project management. But the town hall discussion made it clear that Agile Alliance will maintain its mission and identity within PMI’s umbrella. Agile 2025 is still happening, and initiatives like Women in Agile and Agile in Color will continue.
One of the biggest concerns raised was about culture. Would Agile Alliance be absorbed into PMI’s bureaucracy, losing its unique values? PMI’s leadership emphasized that Agile Alliance’s unique culture isn’t going anywhere. If true, that means this partnership could amplify the best parts of Agile—the community-driven innovation and the emphasis on adaptability.
Building on the evolution: DPM’s role in what’s next
I hope this merger isn’t just about PMI expanding its empire but also bringing in new perspectives—including the DPM community. We’ve been quietly working this way all along, bridging gaps between traditional and Agile approaches, keeping teams moving forward without the dogma of either camp slowing us down. And yet, DPM has never quite gotten the recognition it deserves in the larger project management world.
But maybe now’s the time.
I was recently invited to join the Agile 2025 conference programming team to help build a track on this exact topic: Agile’s decline in some organizations, what practitioners can do to harness their expertise, and how to adapt to changing times. This is the DPM conversation we’ve been having for years. If Agile’s evolution means recognizing that adaptability and delivery aren’t mutually exclusive, then digital project managers have a lot to offer.
Final thought: embrace the change—and help shape it
The merger of PMI and Agile Alliance isn’t the end of Agile. It’s a new chapter. It’s an opportunity for project managers—of all stripes—to come together and define what effective, flexible project leadership looks like in today’s landscape.
So, instead of seeing this as Agile being swallowed whole, maybe we should see it as Agile finally reaching the next stage of its own evolution. And maybe—just maybe—it’s time for the digital project management community to step into the spotlight and help shape what’s next.
Executives at PMI and Agile Alliance, if you’re listening: let’s talk. We’ve been here, doing this work, for a long time. And we’ve got some ideas.
