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scrum master role

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School of Agile

Difference Between Project Manager and Scrum Master

Hey guys, Anatoly from Define Agile here.

The question that I got asked yesterday was: “Most often job postings are written as a Scrum Master/Project Manager. What is the main difference between Scrum Master and a Project Manager? How can you apply those two skillsets to fulfill the needs of the organization?”

That’s a great question. I see those postings up and then people say, “I need to be a Scrum Master and a Project Manager.” I’m here to tell you these are two very different roles. It’s the same as to say “I want to have QA/Developer,” you might think it’s the same but it’s definitely not.

Scrum Master is here to help and support  with the process. Scrum Master supports the Development Team while Project Manager is here to manage the project, making sure the project is on time, on budget, making sure the stakeholders are informed about how the process of creating projects or completing project. Scrum Master has nothing to do with that.

Usually when a person tries to fulfill both roles, I don’t find it successful. I find that Scrum Master and Project Managers are  on a different sides. They have different accountability. A Project Manager is accountable to external stakeholders or to upper management, while Scrum Master is accountable to Development Team. If one person has too many people he or she is accountable to, there’s a conflict of interest. So, I don’t recommend having a Project Manager and a Scrum Master being the same person.

As an option, which I talked about in “What is the Difference between Product Owner and Scrum Master,” I recommend having a developer to be a Scrum Master if you can’t find a dedicated Scrum Master. Because the developer is a part of the Development Team, developers have an interest of having their Development Teams happy.They are interested in having good process, because it benefits themselves.

 

Hope that helps!

If you want me to help your teams with Agile, please click on FREE Consultation, and lets see how I can help your business!

 

School of Agile

3 Myths about a Scrum Master Role

Hey guys, Anatoly here from Define Agile again. Today we are talking about three myths about the Scrum Master.

Myth #1: Scrum Master is a manager.

This is a very common myth. When Scrum Masters are hired, some people think that they should do whatever a manager should do. This is totally wrong. Scrum Master is a part of the Development Team. In an organizational hierarchy, Scrum Master sits at the same level as the Development Team. Scrum Master role is not to manage anyone but to provide support to the Development Team and remove any blockers. So, Scrum Master is by no means a manager but just a part of the team that’s responsible for team health, promoting Scrum, making sure the processes are clear and well defined.

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Myth #2: Scrum Master is here, that’s why the Scrum Master knows all the answers.

A lot of people hire Scrum Masters because they think that they know the answer to everything and that in the first moment they are hired they will start solving all these complicated process problems. Well, this is where very far from the truth.

Scrum Master, as I said, is here to facilitate the discussion and make sure the team themselves realize the right solutions. While Scrum Master will be supporting the team in any way he/she can to make sure that there’s a right environment for the team to come up with good solutions, often when Scrum Masters come to new organizations, they have no idea what is happening. Also most of the cases are very different, so saying that Scrum Master can know everything and come and solve all your problems right away is not true.

Myth #3: Anyone can be a Scrum Master.

It always fascinates me when people say, “Oh, I don’t need a Scrum Master because anyone can be a Scrum Master. What’s so hard in that?”

It’s the same as saying if you have legs you can be a good soccer player, or if you can type on a keyboard you can be a good software developer. We all know that this is not true. Making sure that processes are good, understanding how it will work takes lots of experience.

I know you will say that getting a Scrum Master Certificate is not that hard, but do we really say that all these people who have a certificate are good Scrum Masters? I don’t think so. I think that having deep experience  is very beneficial because it gives you insight on how stuff is run and makes your decisions more educated. So, “anyone can be a Scrum Master” is not true.

These are three commons myths about Scrum Master that we debunked just now.

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