Skip to main content

Does role of "Agile Project Manager" exists in scrum?

Last post 09:42 am July 9, 2020 by Nils Hyoma
3 replies

03:36 pm July 2, 2020

The roles of Scrum are defined in the Scrum Guide, and there are only three of them - Scrum Master, Product Owner, and Development Team member. There is no role in Scrum called "Project Manager" or "Agile Project Manager".

That said, there are certain skills associated with a project management role or bring a project manager - proposing projects, managing scope, managing budget, scheduling (milestones and deadlines), stakeholder analysis, risk management, and others - that may be useful in an organization using Scrum. Rather than being encompassed in a single role, these are shared to varying degrees among the members of a Scrum Team and to the organization that the Scrum Team exists in. There may be some value in organizations having experts in project management who have these skills and can support a Scrum Team and the organization in various ways.


06:41 pm July 5, 2020

Most Scrum Masters I've worked with are former project managers. The problem with this is that these new Scrum Masters are focused on facilitating meetings and on tracking work in a management-mandated tool, and running reports in this tool. They run Daily Standups (annoyingly called DSU) and not Daily Scrums. They don't understand mentoring, they leave the training to "Agile Coaches" and don't have the right skills to be a coach.


09:42 am July 9, 2020

Most Scrum Masters I've worked with are former project managers. The problem with this is that these new Scrum Masters are focused on facilitating meetings and on tracking work in a management-mandated tool, and running reports in this tool. They run Daily Standups (annoyingly called DSU) and not Daily Scrums. They don't understand mentoring, they leave the training to "Agile Coaches" and don't have the right skills to be a coach.

It depends on the mindset of each individual person... But maybe some of the former project managers should consider to work as PO and not as SM.


By posting on our forums you are agreeing to our Terms of Use.

Please note that the first and last name from your Scrum.org member profile will be displayed next to any topic or comment you post on the forums. For privacy concerns, we cannot allow you to post email addresses. All user-submitted content on our Forums may be subject to deletion if it is found to be in violation of our Terms of Use. Scrum.org does not endorse user-submitted content or the content of links to any third-party websites.

Terms of Use

Scrum.org may, at its discretion, remove any post that it deems unsuitable for these forums. Unsuitable post content includes, but is not limited to, Scrum.org Professional-level assessment questions and answers, profanity, insults, racism or sexually explicit content. Using our forum as a platform for the marketing and solicitation of products or services is also prohibited. Forum members who post content deemed unsuitable by Scrum.org may have their access revoked at any time, without warning. Scrum.org may, but is not obliged to, monitor submissions.