Scrum Enlightenment: Project Manager Vs Scrum Master

Management: Let's adopt scrum in all our project teams. Replace all our Project Managers with Scrum Masters.

Project Managers: But think about us. We have acquired a lot of skills and expertise in managing projects, what do we do now?

Management: Get certified as a Scrum Master and continue to manage projects as Scrum Masters.

Project Managers: !!!!!!!!

This is like comparing a car to a lorry because they both go from point A to point B. And then asking a lorry to be a car if they want to continue to be in operation.

Formal project management is about objective driven leadership while being a scrum master is servant leadership, both fulfil different objectives. For large projects (which will require multiple scrum teams if they are done using scrum framework) will still require a project manager (name could be different) to manage the aspects of bringing all the pieces of the project together, whereas a scrum master plays a vital role in scrum teams by ensuring their functioning as a "scrum team". One cannot replace the other, as they both have different purposes. While there is still going to be a need for Project Managers, they will have to adapt to new ways of working with evolving methodologies to ensure that they stay up to date and relevant. A few points to understand how Scrum Masters are different from Project Managers and how they can complement each other:

1. In scrum, the team takes entire responsibility as they are self managed and scrum master "serves" them to eliminate all the hurdles and helps them to stick to priorities. On the other hand, a Project Manager manages experts in their own fields (and could be an expert of one) and then ensures that all the pieces of the project come together in the end.
2. Project Managers are responsible for Scope, Budget, Timeline, Quality and almost all the aspects of the projects. While in case of scrum, all these responsibilities are distributed amongst the developers, product owner and the scrum master. Needless to mention, the scope is managed in a very different manner.
3. Scrum emphasises on product mindset while project management is about "start to end". Which means, scrum focuses on value generation while project management focuses on scope delivery. both are important in their own ways and cross ways very often than we know and think.
4. Developers of a scrum team could be carrying out their own projects for a sprint, while, a scrum team could be developing a piece of a larger project.

None of them is lesser than the other and mixing them causes a disaster.

Your comments will motivate me to write more. If you like this content, please do like and comment. What would you like to see next? Thanks!