​The Role of The Project Manager in an Agile or Scrum Team​

Scrum Managers

​​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 marshalled 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:

​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.

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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, let’s preview the main values that functional management bring to an agile or scrum project.

Team creation
Managers define boundaries, provide a clear elevating goal, form the teams themselves, change team composition if needed, and empower the teams in the first place.

Project Managers are already skilled at procuring teams, and developing them

Team boundaries
Although a self-organizing team manages its response to the environment within which it is placed, the environment is under the influence of managers.  

Teams themselves do NOT decide what products or projects they will pursue, because managers almost always make these decisions.

Project Managers have negotiation and resource acquisition skills

Team goal
It is managers provide a clear elevating goal to the team giving purpose and direction.
Project Managers have experience of working with senior management to set objectives and goals

Team formation
Teams do not normally form themselves nor do they select who will play a part on the team, it is the managers who compose teams.  

Although potential team members can request to take part in a team it is normally managers who will make the final decision to ensure that team formation properly balances business needs and constraints.

It is functional managers who are collectively responsible for selecting the proper people from each functional area to form a scrum team.  It is managers who will work hard to form teams that are cross-functional diverse and sufficient.  

Project Managers have interviewing and resource selection skills plus expertise in creating resource and skills matrixes. In addition, they can negotiate the best team balance

​​​Team changes
Managers also have the obligation to change the team's composition, if they believe that would improve the overall health and performance of the team and therefore, the organization.

Managers may also have to change the team composition if it seems when doing so better optimizes the organization's ability to deliver across its portfolio of products.

Project Managers have extensive coaching and sensitive handling of human resource situations

Team empowerment

Only teams that are empowered can self-organize, and this requires authorization and trust from managers.
The main way to empower teams is for the manager concerned to delegate responsibilities to them and in doing so allowing them to self-organize and manage themselves more effectively.

Classical management theory tells as that whenever a manager considers delegating to a team, they pick the proper level of authority for empowering the team.

Project Managers must learn this skill, however, they will already have leadership and delegation expertise

The seven levels of delegation - Jurgen Appelo
Appelo defined these seven levels which are:

​​When a manager delegates the tasks, they must trust that the team will carry out their responsibilities as expected.  In the same way, the teams must trust that their managers will not take actions that are in contradiction to the delegated authority.

Managers should help the team trust each other by defining the problem boundary for the environment in which the team operates.  Setting these limits clarifies to the team how far trust must be extended.

Project Managers have extensive delegation and team management skills

Energize and nurture teams and people
Creating a clear elevating goal provides a foundation upon which to energize team members.  Managers should therefore constantly seek ways to motivate people so that they want to do great work.

All individuals want to work in a fun, creative, value-delivering environment, and managers are responsible for nurturing that environment.

Once a scrum team has been formed, managers must nurture them, not by team management, but by energizing people, focus on developing competencies, providing leadership and maintaining integrity within the team.

Project Managers will want to adopt the servant-leader approach, but already have team and individual motivations skills
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Develop team member competence
Just like any other project, within scrum, each team member will still report to a functional or resource manager who is typically not the scrum master nor the product owner.

Such managers will take an active role in coaching and assisting their direct reports in line with meeting their career goals.  They normally do this by promoting opportunities for competency development and providing regular actionable feedback on the individual's performance.

Managers will want to foster an environment where people are constantly learning and adding to their skill sets.  They will want to do this by providing team members with time for training or attending conferences as an example.

Managers must also provide frequent feedback to teams and individuals.  Traditionally, such feedback is provided at annual performance reviews, but these can be counterproductive within a scrum team.

Far better that managers should align the frequency of such feedback to better match the scrum teamwork effort.  For example, providing feedback at every sprint.

Project Managers have extensive experience of people management and getting the best from specialist teams

Team efficiency and effectivity
This means that managers should not pull people off teams during a sprint or unnecessarily assigning people to work on several teams at once.  The economics of long-lived teams are compelling so managers should try to keep the teams together if the economics are justified.

Project Managers understand this, and will quite naturally fight for their team – removing impediments at an instinctual level

Organizational impediments
Managers must work cooperatively with scrum masters to remove impediments, particularly those that are environmental in nature or require intervention from managers.

Project Managers understand this, and will quite naturally fight for their team – removing impediments at an instinctual level

Supplier management and outsourcing
Managers must help the organization embrace a more agile approach to supplier management and outsourcing.

Instead of using the traditional contract-heavy, negotiation-style approach, managers should promote the use of agile principles when engaging partners.

A straightforward approach here of outsourcing, is to lease the scrum team of a third party, in this way managers buy access to a high-performance team that others have already created.

In addition, managers should consider alternatives to writing fixed price contracts with outsourcers.  Such contract types are damaging to the scrum ethos.  

The contractor wants to deliver as little as possible in order to maximize its gross margins, while the organization wants to get as much as possible for the fixed price.

Project Managers have expertise in all aspects of procurement - negotiating, letting and managing contracts

Project management responsibilities on a scrum team
It is incorrect to assume that the scrum master is just the " agile project manager".  

Although the two roles have similarities such as impediment removal, being a servant-leader significantly differentiates this role from the more command and control-focused project manager.

The best way to understand why a project manager ads real value, is to first consider the traditional project management responsibilities:

​​I see these responsibilities as important and need to be addressed - who oversees these activities if there is no Project Manager?

Let's look at those responsibilities again, but this time in the context of a scrum project:

​​​This opens several options, for a start, a person who was a project manager might assume any of the three scrum roles (product owner, scrum master, or development team).  This will depend of course upon a project manager having the right skills and desire.

What the diagram above reveals is that the Product Owner assumes at least as many project management responsibilities as the Scrum Master.

Most project managers will make excellent Scrum Masters providing they can let go of the traditional command and control management approach.

From the chart above you can see that the product owner also assumes at least as many project management responsibilities as the scrum master.  

This shows that a project manager may also transition into the role of Product Owner.  Of course, they need to have the proper domain knowledge and other skills to execute the Product Owner role.

Occasionally, a project manager with the technical background might choose to become a member of the development team.

Organizations that have large and complex development efforts may use the project manager when the logistics and coordination of tasks are so overwhelming that the teams cannot be expected to keep up with them.

Assuming a project manager is needed here they would be expected to have the whole system perspective and to work diligently with other roles and resources within the organization.

There might be some contractors, internal non-scrum teams and other internal organizations associated with delivering the product.  The logistics of dealing with some contractors or suppliers can be quite involved and time consuming.  

Here again the project manager will play a pivotal role.

Be clear, rather than being in charge, the project manager is the person who is concerned with making sure that dependencies across the various organizational areas are understood and communicated so that the teams can most effectively coordinate their own work.

Summary
It should be clear to you that although we first discussed typical management roles, such as operational managers, all those elements need to be managed or at least communicated with by a single individual within the scrum team.

According to pure scrum, the product owner along with the scrum master are supposed to have all the skills, knowledge and expertise to carry these out.

However, another solution as my diagram above suggests, is to sit down and agreed at the start of a scrum project, how the roles and responsibilities may be shared among traditional scrum roles and the project manager.

It is a widely held view that most organizations have difficulty in finding an individual who has all look of these talents! The missing link here is the project manager.  The following Venn diagram illustrates this point perfectly:

​​Although as I have said, the project manager may fulfill one or both, of the Product Owner and Scrum Master roles.

So, you are currently a project manager, and most likely you can see that The Product Owner is likely to come from a business and sales and marketing background – most likely in charge of a product sector.

But what about the Scrum Master?

​For a start, it is not necessary to become trained as a certified Scrum Master (but it is good to have the qualification!).

If you need to gain the knowledge and experience of a Scrum Master, then check out my ​PMP Scrum Masterclass.

The first lessons is free, and if you enroll you will find that the course goes well beyond the Scrum Master qualification and shows you how to practice and apply scrum in a project framework.

Meanwhile, this graphic shows how easy it is to complement your current project management skills and add those of The Scrum Master: