Stephen RobinProject Analyst Trainee| Ministry of Works and TransportArima, Ari, Trinidad and Tobago
In a conversation with a professional in the software industry whose identity will not be disclosed, I talked about my intentions to become a project manager which led to a perspective I never heard of before. The individual believes in the future there will be no more project managers but only Scrum Masters. Scrum Masters not only would overtake project managers in the ICT industry but across the board in all industries and sectors with Agile being the preferred method to do projects.
Therefore it would not be a viable option as a career path. While I do not agree with those views I thought it would make for a good discussion dealing with the future of the project manager and scrum master role. Not to cast harsh judgment or dismiss but to explore different perspectives in the project management world.
What are your thoughts on this?
Is it valid and sound?
What are the takeaways?
In the last couple decades of my PM career, I've seen ebbs and flows, and it hasn't surged the same everywhere at the same time. Scrum was growing in popularity where I lived in 2007. I got certified thinking it would speed up my career growth. In 2009 I moved to a different state; people talked about Scrum, but few companies were using it. A few years later, Six Sigma started getting some buzz where I lived, but it was already a lot more well known in places like New York.
Then Organizational Change Management started popping up, then scaled agile, which had been a rumble in the background, started gaining steam. I had to go out of state, though, for Scrum@Scale training (LeSS still pops up occasionally, but I think SAFe won the culture war. However, there's a vocal contingent of agilists that say SAFe is not agile and are willing to fight about it.). As others have mentioned, we've seen some big companies dump their "agile" efforts, while others have been continuing to use it.
Personally, I think that saying that Scrum will take over everywhere is about as likely as it getting completely abandoned everywhere. If your friend was talking about a specific company, it's entirely possible. It might even happen at several companies in different geographic areas at relatively the same time. History tends to repeat itself. If it's not Scrum, it will be something else, largely driven by people selling something that produced good enough results to make a good story under circumstances that many other companies can't replicate, so they'll say that it doesn't work and find something else to hang their hopes on. Saving Changes...
Thomas WalentaGlobal Project Economy ExpertHackenheim, Germany
Scrum master is a role within the scrum framework, which is an agile approach to tackle projects.. A project manager is an individual who has the knowledge, tools, techniques and people skills that can help me tackle any kind of projects, including agile, predictive and hybrid approaches... So i don't see how this can happen unless all projects becomes agile, which is something very less probable to happens as not all projects can be tackled with agile only mindset... unless the Scrum master role will include other aspects of general project manegement, which bring us again to the project management individual..
So my friend, continu your path of curiosity and join the project management league, and may be by then you can decide on where to steer up you career on a more informed way. Saving Changes...
No — Scrum Masters don’t replace Project Managers; their roles are distinct but complementary.
A Scrum Master focuses on facilitating Agile processes, removing team impediments, and ensuring adherence to Scrum principles.
A Project Manager, on the other hand, oversees scope, budget, schedule, and stakeholder management across multiple teams or projects.
In Agile organizations, both roles can coexist — the Scrum Master drives team agility, while the Project Manager ensures alignment with business goals and strategy.
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