Where is the Project Manager in Scrum?

“What happened to the role, Project Manager? Don’t we still need one?” I get asked this question over and over. Short answer: The project manager’s duties have been reapportioned in Scrum. Read on to see where they landed, and why.

Duties of Project Manager

I asked ChatGPT what a classical project manager is responsible for. Here is what came back:

• Project Planning
• Resource Management
• Risk Management
• Stakeholder Management
• Quality Management
• Time Management
• Cost Management
• Issue and Problem Resolution
• Reporting and Documentation
• Team Leadership and Motivation
• Change Management
• Project Closure

Not too bad, except the order was kind of random. I would have put Time, Scope, and Cost at the top of this list. This is what clients and executives care about.

Scrum rethinks project organization.

Scrum even rethinks the words ‘accountability’ and ‘responsibility.’

Accountability is not about blame, but about what you contribute to the whole. A project manager is accountable for delivering results on-time, on-scope, and on scope. Responsible is what you do. The project manager does all the other things on that list.

The Scrum Team as a whole is responsible for all product-related activities. This includes stakeholder collaboration; deciding who does what, when, and how; defining the sprint goal; presenting results of their work to key stakeholders; reviewing what was accomplished; and increasing their own quality and effectiveness.

No Project Manager in Scrum

There is no project manager role in Scrum, and a Scrum Team does not report to a project manager. A project has a beginning and an end-date, and usually a defined scope.

A product has a life cycle, and the key question is figuring out what features to deliver to make it a success and keep it viable over the years. When you create a product, you are continuously deciding what to put in.

A project manager doesn’t usually have the authority to make those decisions. It doesn’t make sense. (Vendors usually don’t either.)

Product teams need that authority, so that is why Scrum has a Product Owner.

Check at the attached infographic. As a bonus I have appended four slides “Scrum Team in a Nutshell.”

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#scrum #roles #accountability #csm #productowner