Scrum Master vs Project Manager

The Rise of Modern Project Management

Modern project management has its roots in the mid- to late-1950s and is typically tied to the U.S. Navy’s Polaris Missile project and their ‘program evaluation review technique’ (PERT). Another major contributor was the E.I. du Pont de Nemours Company and their ‘project planning and scheduling’ (PPS) methodology which later become the critical path methodology (CPM). Needless to say, since then, project management has become ‘a thing’ (just ask the Project Management Institute or PMI).

Project Managers, then, were the practitioners applying these methodologies to various corporate and government efforts to create or produce tangible, physical things (like missiles and chemical manufacturing plants). Over time, these project managers became more wedded to the rubric of product management than they did to specific industries. However, two core characteristics of product management, central to the discipline itself, were that projects were a temporary effort that yielded specific, defined (and tangible?) results.

The Rise of Agile and Product Management

Enter the age of personal computers and the Internet and the ground beneath everyone’s feet shifted, metaphorically, whether we were paying attention or not. Before the rise of readily available, always-on broadband Internet access, commercially available software for personal computers was treated as discrete physical products (that were put on disks and boxed and shipped to store shelves). During this time at least a couple of profound things happened (slowly over time). The first was the planting and growth of the seeds of the nascent agile software development movement. The second was the rise of ‘product thinking’ (aka product management in the software industry), because version 2 of a software product was still the same product, it had just grown (or morphed or changed or whatever), giving software products an incredibly long shelf life (right, Microsoft Windows?).

After the advent of readily available, always-on broadband Internet access, there really was no longer a need for software to be treated like a discreet physical product. It could be produced then loaded into the Internet, sold over the Internet, and downloaded by customers from the Internet without them ever having to go anywhere near a brick-and-mortar store. This, not surprisingly led to the birth of the digital platform or ecosystem and the initial move away from physical brick-and-mortar storefronts.

Thanks for the History Lesson, but so what?

You’re right, that’s quite the history lesson, but it’s necessary to contrast the roles and functions of project managers and scrum masters. Project Managers belong to an earlier era. Their methodologies were initially applied to software development because there were no other viable alternatives. After a few decades, alternatives were born and began to spread. Enter the agile software development movement, scrum, and the role of Scrum Master. Also, enter the anti-project manager/management movement.

Now, fast-forward to today where we have software project managers and scrum masters sometimes living side-by-side and sometimes at complete odds with each other. Traditional project managers may feel besieged, while their agile, product-minded counterparts may seem to be on the offensive. Companies, who make up the landscape where all of this is taking place, are now listing public job postings for Scrum Masters, Agile Project Managers, and anything and everything in between.

While some project management professionals may believe that they can easily retool or rebrand themselves from Project Manager to Scrum Master, the truth is that both disciplines seem to take almost diametrically opposed approaches to software development. To those unfamiliar with agile software development, the differences between the two approaches may not be readily apparent, leading some to assume that being a Project Manager and being a Scrum Master is largely the same thing. However, any agilist or scrum aficionado would be quick, and perhaps eager, to point out differences between the two.

Meet the Scrum Master

Scrum Masters, while intrinsic to Scrum, have spread wholesale into other agile frameworks and methodologies. Even where the title of ‘Scrum Master’ isn’t used, an analogous role with a different name still exists (I’m looking at you Kanban Service Delivery Manager!). The Scrum Master role, while not entirely unique, is different enough from roles from previous eras to warrant its own description.

Scrum Masters are largely facilitators and performance coaches within the framework of Scrum, in particular, and agile software development in general. Scrum Masters work with their teams and the organizations that sponsor those teams to ensure that everyone understands both the values and principles of Scrum and the practice of Scrum as laid out in the official Scrum Guide. Scrum Master facilitate Scrum Events (meetings) by making sure that they happen, that everyone understands the purpose of the meeting, and that everyone understands and plays their part to the best of their ability. Scrum Masters are expected to be both subject matter experts in Scrum, and well-schooled and well-experienced in its implementation and practice.

And herein lies the kicker. Scrum Masters are more concerned with team performance and fostering the growth of a team from a group of individuals into a high performing team than they are with ‘project success’. Certainly, no Scrum Master worth his or her salt would ignore the success of their team’s assigned work, after all, Scrum Masters are also charged with the removal of impediments blocking the team from completing their work. It’s just that ‘project success’ is a secondary concern to fostering the formation of a viable, self-learning, high performing team that arguably may not need a Scrum Master at that point. Too, many of the responsibilities of the traditional project manager have been spread across the three different roles defined in Scrum.

Revisiting the Project Manager

Now, contrast all of that Scrum Master jazz with what many call the ‘traditional project manager’. Project Management, as a discipline, is tied to temporary, very often sequential, efforts with defined results. Where project managers are still in play, they are managing budgets, creating and scheduling project phases and tasks, creating (and re-creating) project plans and trying, usually vaingloriously, to keep everything on the rails and in alignment with the conditions and expectations laid out in the project’s charter. Project Managers are responsible for project outcomes in relation to the project’s charter. Very little of that, if any of it, is even mentioned in the Agile Manifesto or the official Scrum Guide.

Coming from that kind of background and work experience, Scrum Masters might well look like nothing more than 21st-century workplace hippies flashing peace signs and asking, “Can’t we all just get along?” Retooling oneself from a Project Manager to a Scrum Master is less like a chameleon changing its colors and more like a tiger trying to change its stripes. That said, it absolutely can be done – it just takes work and conscious effort. 

Bringing It All Together

Scrum Masters are not traditional Project Managers. Traditional Project Managers are not Scrum Masters. The context for one does not lend itself to the other. The approach of one is nowhere near the same as the approach of the other. The responsibilities of one are not the same as the responsibilities of the other. Simply relabeling Project Manager roles as Scrum Master roles does harm to both disciplines and defeats the goals of both disciplines.

If your organization is attempting to ‘go agile’, or adopt scrum, or embark on an agile transformation, then please, look for an experienced agilist or Scrum Master. Look for someone who has been on multiple high performing teams. Look for someone who has made lifelong friendships from being on a high performing team. Look for someone who can demonstrate multiple years of agile or scrum experience. Look for someone who has done it, failed, done it again, succeeded, and who still loves to do it, and wants to help others do it too. Look for that grizzled agile or scrum veteran who still has a smile on his or her face, a deep understanding of agile and scrum, and who is still willing to help you as you begin your own agile journey.