This is a very common model once the size of the product/project grows beyond a single, small agile team and/or complexity grows. Essentially, the PM focuses on the "in-between" and the "without" of the teams while the SM will focus on what is done "within" the agile team or teams.
The SM would facilitate scrum ceremonies and will help the agile team(s) be as agile as they can be when it comes to delivering value, producing quality products & having fun. The PM will usually not attend most ceremonies and will keep apprised on how things are going by consuming the information in information radiators and staying in touch with the SM.
The PM will act as a point of escalation for impediments which can't be resolved within the agile team(s), will manage risks, financials & overall timelines, especially if there is some scope which is not delivered using an agile delivery approach. They will also usually be "on first" for governance activities & stakeholder engagement...
I agree with Kiron. The SM is more inward focused, whereas the PM needs to look externally as well. The issue in these environment can be the project "manager" for teams who don't expect to be managed.
What I suggest in these environments where you have a PM and SM in the same project, is that they both should should sit down and draw boundaries to avoid overlap, but more importantly to avoid the PM playing a command and control role over the team in any capacity. Saving Changes...
Drew CraigSr. Agile & Product Coach| VanguardPhiladelphia, Pa, United States
Interesting perspectives. I had never heard the term 'WAgile' before.
Currently, I'm a PM in a SAFe environment. It works because our team, although dispersed across several teams, has a collective responsibility and I have a responsibility to the organization to not only present status, project cost, profitability, etc., but to also act as a representative for our company and ensure we are properly satisfying the needs of the program. The Scrum Masters for the individual teams have their responsibilities at the team level and my team members have responsibilities to the iteration, increment, and overall delivery of the functionality in the program. In addition, I am on the architecture and design team with other PM's, tech leads, development leads, whereas we have a scrum master and PO to facilitate our efforts for the needs of the runway.
The dynamics are interesting. So far it works. Saving Changes...
SM is entirely responsible scrum ceremonies and delivering shippable product after every sprint. SM may not be looking beyond current and future sprints.
PM is involved in release planning, resources management, risk management, managing the project at different levels, communication with internal and external stakeholders, point of contact for everyone to understand project health, etc. Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
If you have a PM working inside an initiative that is using Scrum framework then you are not using Scrum. That is the first thing to understand. Is not "good" or "bad" its just to understand what you are doing to not fail. PM responsabilities has been splitted between defined roles into Scrum. Just to comment, in my actual work place, the same person is assinged to more than one initiative at the same time where some of them is using Scrum while other is using non-agile based process. The important thing is to understand the accountablity and perform those tasks you have to perform. Saving Changes...
