Can a Project Manager be a good Scrum Master?

Great insights, thank you Brian!

Good point! Justus.

Most PMs in IT have no formal authority over their team members (some of the team members being more senior then them) and also lack technical background. In these conditions there is no chance for command and control.

On the other hand I have seen many Scrum Teams in which the role of the Scrum Master was played by the lead developer and this resulted in real command and control.

I would not be surprised if in practice more Scrum Masters operate in command and control mode than PMs. That's because, at least in my opinion, is more likely for the SM to be a technical expert with technical leadership skills than the PM.

Stelian, I agree most of the PMs with technical background as a developers. I also have the same kind of background.

Those are not real PMs. A PM without authority is not a PM. The project team is by definition hierarchical. Technical skills are mot mandatory for a PM, that's why the PM hire technical leads. Management doesn't mean fixing bugs.
Among other duties The PM is responsible for work allocation, budget, risk management, Org change management and stakeholders management, skills that are rarely found in the development team.

Dev Managers and Lead developers will learn fast that the SM is not a technical role and they need to leave the dev team to take decisions. I agree that SMs that are junior members of the team become servants rather than servant leaders. SM is defined as a managerial role for a reason. you don't become a good SM after a 3 days course, regardless how good coder you are. A good coder should avoid the SM role because it is a waste to the team.

Thank you, Sante!

It depends on the company, industry and even country. In many English speaking countries and especially in IT (but not just IT) it is possible to start your career in project management with no prior work experience. Many companies offer internship in project management so fresh graduates can become PMs in just a couple of years after graduation even if they have never worked before at all in anything.

These junior PMs are entry level employees at the same level as other entry level employees. When they start to work on their first projects (which usually are simple projects) they would work with more senior SMEs that are much senior than them and at a much higher pay. You must not confuse the organizational chart and employee seniority with the project structure, it is the organizational hierarchy that counts in the end.

For instance on the current project on which I am involved a middle manager who directly reports to the project sponsor also works as an ordinary team members on the team because he is a very good SME in his domain. In the project structure he is at the bottom not even a technical lead but in the company he is above team leaders. The PM to which he theoretical reports to on the project is much more junior that he is and nobody directly reports him in the organization. The PM is not a real manager in the organizational chart.

Yes but controlling the team requires technical background. If you are not a developer yourself you can't really control a software development team.

In software development Project Managers and Scrum Master who have never written a line of code in their lives can only be facilitators and nothing more.

The leadership style for many is not something they can choose but something they are forced to use. In my opinion servant leadership is actually a term used for people that theoretically have to lead something but lack the hard skills needed for the job. When you don't understand in detail what your team is doing you can't direct it but just support it.

Good thoughts, Andrew!