New PO/manager
Hi,
In my company where I am SM new team was created with new PO who is also manager. I know it should not look like this but company is new with scrum so we do not change everything. In my opinion the problem is PO/manger wants to do everything his own way(not necessary scrum way). He is more manager than PO and I mean manager in very aggresive and directive way. I mean nobody is brave enough to object his tasks/orders expect me. But what do I receive instead? Aggression, passive- aggresion, immaturity and so on.... What do you think guys I should do? Try more? Try harder? Use different techniques? Escalete the problem? I run out of ideas so any tip would be very helpful.
Best regards,
Mario.
A few things I would keep in mind.
As SM, this is ultimately a problem that falls to you to resolve. I say this because the situation you describe is a hard one, and I think the first thing you should decide is whether or not this is something within your power given the constraints you're under. Don't try to kill yourself achieving the impossible, sometimes the best thing an SM can do is move on to somewhere they can make a difference.
Now, in terms of solving the problem, The first thing I would find a way to address is that you are not doing Scrum, and this person is not a PO. Scrum teams have no hierarchy and are self managing, so in this case the team is not doing Scrum.
I would be open about this to the 'decision makers' who've clearly forced this on the team, and give them a plan for how you intend to help the team 'self organise' to solve it.
You'll need to talk to the team and figure out what they think, what problems they want to solve, and how they believe is best to achieve it. Support them to make those changes.
If you are not able to get any buy in to do these things, then you also aren't being enabled to be a SM, and I would think very carefully about my first point.
Who actually wants Scrum to be implemented in this company? Have you been able to find that out? Who in senior leadership wants Scrum, and will create the appropriate sense of urgency for different organizational behaviors and outcomes?
On of the board's member is scrum enthusiast and want to implement scrum across teams that create software products. Our organisation have some experience with scrum but I am first official SM. Most of the organisation is responsible for project implementation (managers and hierarchy). It works in efficient ways but has some disadvantages(you can imagine dependencies on one person - manager). So every team(product/project) have line manager and here we are... New product team has been created with new manager as PO. Like Michael said it is mine problem to resolve ultimately and I do want to leave this situation just because it is not scrum. My job is to find a solution( but not to kill myself! ).
Have new metrics and methods been created to judge value delivered?
Have these new metrics been communicated to middle management?
i.e.
If the PO/manager is being evaluated based on "outdated/older" criteria, what motivation does he have to adopt scrum?