Dave Litten
Project Management Instructor
A Dave Litten PM Blog
I aim to offer practical, actionable advice that can be applied to your projects, regardless of your experience level as a project manager. Drawing on my personal experiences, I will provide insights on how to tackle the challenges and intricacies inherent in managing a diverse range of projects.
I’m looking forward to connecting with other project management professionals, sharing knowledge, and learning from all of you as well. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or if there are any topics you would like me to address.
The Project Manager in an Agile or Scrum Team
Before we look at the project manager specifically, I want to look at managers in general.
The scrum team self-organizes but that does not mean there’s no place for managers. Indeed, managers still play an important part in an agile organization.
When running a small simple scrum project, there may be little need or indeed any value added by using external managers.
However, all the endeavors within an organization – whether self-organized or not, needs to be aligned with the strategies, goals and objectives of the organization.
Scrum projects need to be funded and resourced and there needs to be something in place other than blind faith that the project will both provide business value and delight the customer (whether internal or external).
And by managers, I mean operational area managers, functional area managers, and resource managers.
Outside of the team directly, managers in a scrum environment are responsible for setting strategic direction and for ensuring that organizational resources are being marshaled in an economically sensible way to achieve strategic goals.
An agile survey was performed back in 2011 to identify the greatest concerns when adopting agile.
These are perceptions of course, but one recurring theme was a fear that the management role will become less relevant – totally untrue as it happens:
The Scrum Team Roles
Before I start to talk about the Project Manager, it is important you understand the main responsibilities of the Scrum Team. There are three roles, The Product Owner, The Scrum Master, and The Development (Specialist) Team:
Leaving aside the Development Team, here are the Product Owner and Scrum Master responsibilities:
For me, the part that screams out for a Project Manager is Interference Shield, Impediment Remover and Change Agent.
You can see here that the Product Owner is center stage with a broad span of responsibilities (and necessary knowledge skills and expertise areas).
For me, the part that screams out for a Project Manager is Manage Economics, Participate in Planning and Collaborate with Team and Stakeholders.
Keep those responsibilities in mind as I introduce you to the various ‘managers’ that need to be worked with both internal and external to the organization. Ask yourself “wouldn’t it be better if those roles were supplemented with a project manager?”
I think I know what your answer will be, but you be the judge …
The Project Manager Skill Set
Speak to a Scrum purist, and they will tell you there is no need for a Project Manager, since the Scrum Master and Product Owner roles (not to mention the self-empowered Scrum Development Team) have all skills and structure necessary.
They have a point.
For a small, well-bounded Scrum project they are probably correct. But projects that use Scrum are usually to develop products or services – and to do so in a commercial environment. Who funds them – and who needs to support them are just a few of the questions needing an answer…?
The potential to ship a ‘great product or service’ is one thing – ensuring it has been managed on a secure commercial footing AND it can be supported in its operational life, is another.
If it were your company, would you be content just to let the scrum team beaver away in a room of their own while giving them all they need to be successful?
What other element of your business operates in such a way? None. Right?
Governance comes to mind here – ensuring precious resources are used effectively as a start.
Since projects do not take place in a vacuum, functional managers need to be worked with at a minimum and their services covered within the team at a maximum.
Who is to do that? I think you will agree that The Project Manager role provides these governance and service provisions.
So, in part 2, let’s preview the main values that functional management bring to an agile or scrum project.
