The Scrum Master role vs. Project Manager Marco Antonio AlbaLópez Alfaro CSM, CSPO

Agenda  Introduction.  The waterfall way.  Scrum Master coming from outside.  An Agile Project Manager.  An strategic PM Role.

 A PM as an administrator of resources.  A PM becoming a SM.  A PM becoming a Proxy for the Client or Product Owner.

 A PM becoming a PO.  Moving from a PM to and Agile Coach. 2

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Introduction  Agile and Scrum is a new

way of living in our Software Industry.  One important part of the

Agile Manifesto is: “People and their interaction“ than the “process and tools”.

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 We will review

different circumstances in concordance with the people's expertise and commitment.

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The waterfall way  In big organization

 Are we in the situation

usual procedures are Waterfall and are taken care by a Product Manage role with his Development Lead assistance with the main purpose of full control.

that organization is waterfall and the team follow his own Agile process?  Then “The Change” is

not part of the process harming creativity and progress.

 This will damage or

 We may lead to a loss

decrement innovation.

of interest and relax Agile process 4

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Scrum Master coming from outside  First reaction, bring a SM from outside; better solution

is people from the inside that already knows the business. Consider that they need training.  Consider people that are willing to serve the team.

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Agile Project Manager  This is like hopping for agile to work and have a

safety net with a Manager to work things out.  Like a PO with authority other than the product

scope.  We will have demotivated people.  It can be also be consider as a manager of several

PO(s) in Scrum Teams, maybe from different locations and outsourcing.

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PM an Administrator of Resources  Some companies also consider a PM like a manager of a bigger

portfolio of projects, for several release plans and a good coordination between several small Scrum teams.  That may be also a good idea to bring people that worked in the

old ways and willing to embrace the Agile way.  PM that manage resources and includes aspect like Human

Resources, Accounting, etc. In the first part we will see tasks like compiling time reports.  Scrum the team has become self-organize and also a

collaborative team that commits for a goal.  The second part of those PM roles is plan and find requirements

for the products, that is well absorbed by a good Product Owner and those skills are need it in the Agile way. 7

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PM becoming a Scrum Master  This requires special attitude.  Working on schedule may not do but caring about people will.  Set a good vision and be a clear inspiration leader guide the team

to the goal.  Protecting them from interruptions and promote communication

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PM becoming a SM  This requires good leader, meaning a facilitator for a good

synchronization, that helps focusing the work performance in small and complete deliveries of working software.  The SM is not a manager, the relation is more trust and respect.  If you try; hardest fix is to forget about the boss role in the team

mind. But most important is right key skills.

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PM becoming a Proxy for the Client  PO and a SM are key factor for the team but when the client is

not able to assume or feels it to be really busy, so the logical approach will be to have a proxy role inside the team.

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PM becoming a Proxy for the Client  Role is actually a matter of knowledge, a good attitude, good

skills and those qualities a person has.  If taking this Proxy role is important to be very active since a

dead PO or SM will become a serious impact in the team.

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PM becoming a PO  This may be the best suggestion and most likely a path for PMs.  The role of a PO is quite big and strategic important for the

success of the product.

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PM becoming a PO  The PO must also feel as part of the team; the responsible for the

functionality that is being address is the most important and with the highest priority; so it is critical that interaction with each team member while the functionality is created.  PO owns the product and the SM owns the process both work

together with the team making sure clients are happy and we as a Scrum Team are successful.

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PM to and Agile Coach  An Agile Coach has to stay focus on how is the team working and

not on what details they have to do.  It is important to be detached from the outcomes, the coach is

just one more opinion.

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PM to and Agile Coach  The team needs it on space to come out with the best ideas and

product, the coach will be to help them improve the quality and completeness for their work to be done.

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PM to and Agile Coach  Important aspect as a Coach is to let the team fail; it is important

for everyone to learn together from their mistakes and after those; they will become stronger and faster than any other.

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PM to and Agile Coach  An Agile Coach has attitudes and expertise like:

− Servant leader, to serve the team rather than the team serving from, making sure that people's highest priorities needs are being served. − Battle Tank, to be able to handle impediments out of the team ways. − Shepherd, to get the team back in Agile practice and principles on any time need it. − Guardian of quality and performance, so is to see not only what the team produces and how they do, but to be able to offer them observation on how this human's team produces. 17

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PM to and Agile Coach  Before moving to an Agile Coach PM is visible for the whole

organization, entitle to explain all the functionality and are the voice for their team and visibility of all the activities done inside and out the product and project.  An Agile Coach you won't be seen by the organization and you

can only say that you enable and facilitated.  A hard journey without ego, hard to pin and without many

rewards along the way.  In this entire journey as a Scrum Coach you had promote a highly

collaborative agile team to become a high performance team, the biggest gold to accomplish.

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Q&A 19

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