Ibrahaim MagoolaIT Project Manager| United TherapeuticsSilver Spring, Md, United States
I recently took a scrum Class. While I appreciated many of the Scrum framework concepts, I have to admit that the class left me confused most especially when it came to how Scrum did/doesn’t have a PM role. Apparently, the whole scrum team is representative of a project manager but how exactly is this supposed to be implemented? What becaomes of a project manager in scrum and how would you advise a project manager currently tasked with implementing Scrum to a new organization looking at scrum as the way of future developments. Saving Changes...
The use of Scrum is not limited to projects. You can use Scrum for product development and maintenance. These activities, unlike projects, don't deliver a fixed scope using a fixed budget and as such they don't use project management.
Product development and maintenance, in my opinion, fall in the category of operations or BAU rather than projects. Since Scrum can be used in non-project activities there is no point on defining the role of the PM as you may use Scrum without project management.
However if you use Scrum in a project then you need a project manager too or someone from the Scrum Team to play this role. This is true especially if you deliver a fixed price project to an external organization.
I was once contracted by an organization that had both a product and maintenance software department as well as services software department. Both were using Scrum but the Product and maintenance department did not have project managers as it was not working with projects while the services one had PMs since they were delivering projects to external organizations. Saving Changes...
Buenas tarde, me pasa lo mismo en la gran mayoría de los autores que leo, o las clases que tomo, pero la conexión que se me hace difícil deducir es en Scrum o XP específicamente la conexión con la estructura organizacional, ya que el PMI o Ágiles son solo metodologías de gestión de proyectos, el PMI esta integración la tiene bien definida, pero en Ágiles hacen mucha aguas con esta, ya que para esta metodología lo que prima es el "empoderamiento" del equipo de trabajo, sobre ellos recaen las mayorías de las tomas de decisiones cuando un Sprint ya comenzó, pero sea el sector que sea cuando estamos gestionando un proyecto y surge un imprevisto legal, el equipo de desarrollo no lo va a poder solucionar, o surge un imprevisto pura y netamente financiero, tampoco, entre otros, quizás me digan, la explicación es un poco de libro, pero esta confusión realmente suceden a nivel implementación en las organizaciones, sobre todo en las PyMEs, creo que el principal conflicto es, que muchos creen que un marco de trabajo Ágiles lo pueden aplicar a nivel estructural de una organización. Muchas gracias estimados. Saving Changes...
Hyacinth Maduakolam OsuagwuFmr. Manager Offshore Exploration Projects| Nigerian Agip Exploration Ltd- a Subsidiary of Eni SpaCo-Cork, Ireland
Jul 15, 2020 10:53 PM
Replying to David Portas
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Hi Ibrahaim,
In Scrum the Product Owner sets scope, priorities and is ultimately accountable for the project while the team as a whole are responsible for planning and delivery. This makes sense especially for technology projects and other complex pieces of work where it's often the case that no one person alone has sufficient expertise or capacity to plan and manage everything. More on Sprint Planning: https://www.scrum.org/resources/what-is-sprint-planning
In environments where Scrum is used you will often find former PMs taking the role of an agile coach, facilitator of agile adoption and troubleshooter to project teams. PMs often also have a role in programme/portfolio management where multiple Scrum teams are involved.
Scrum being an agile approach, focuses on product delivery. Each product has a product owner. The starting point being the product back-log. Again with a scrum team, you have a scrum Master who is more or less a servant leader-mentoring and coaching the team. This is because the teams do not like to be managed but want to be mentored. As a result, the role of the Project manager is not prominent in scrum because the team is self-organized, collaborative, iterative, explorative and have rich communication because of their scope which is product delivery. However, integrating agile with the traditional project management approach would ensure that the full spectrum-of project management principles, themes and processes are taken care of. Where there are several scrum teams, the scrum masters could interact through a process known as scrum of scrums. The project manager is still needed to manage the different phases of the project work and could appoint a focal point- say a scrum master to report frequently on the progress of work. Regards, Hyacinth Maduakolam Osuagwu Saving Changes...
Wayne MackRetired| RetiredSouth Riding, Va, United States
Scrum is not confined to doing work as projects, so for non-project organized work, requiring a Project Manager role in Scrum would be wasteful. If a project model is used for some work, then someone must perform the project management work. Except for large projects, though, it it probably not efficient to have dedicated individuals for each role. Saving Changes...
