Should A Manager Be A Scrum Master?

In a recent post, I discussed whether the Scrum Master and Product Owner roles could be successfully combined. As you probably recall, the answer to that question was a resounding “no”. In fact, the Scrum framework intentionally keeps these two roles separate in order to encourage a healthy tension between the needs of the development team and the ultimate needs of the organization.

However, when posing this same question in the context of the Scrum Master and the Development Manager, the answer becomes less clear. This is primarily because while the Scrum framework clearly describes the roles of Development Team, the Scrum Master, and the Product Owner, Scrum has no concept of the role of the Development Manager. This means that the Scrum framework offers no guidance to how this role should relate to the Scrum Master role.

Considering The Ideal Traits Of A Scrum Master

To better understand how these two roles might relate to one another, let’s take a moment to consider their responsibilities.

In addition to all of the responsibilities that are defined for Scrum Masters, one of the most important qualities of a Scrum Master is that they are viewed as a Servant Leader to their team. Servant leadership is a deep topic, but some of the qualities of a true servant leader are that they share power with their team, they put the needs of others first, and they put a strong emphasis on helping those with whom they work with grow both professionally and personally. In fact, one of the most telling traits of a servant leader is that rather than believing that their team is there to serve them, they instead flip the pyramid and believe that they exist to serve their team.

Comparing These Traits To A Development Manager

Let’s compare the approach of servant leadership to that of a traditional Development Manager. While there are managers who are exemplary servant leaders, the traditional definition of a manager is one who has functional authority over their team. One aspect of this is that these managers often have hiring and termination authority over their team, which can significantly alter the dynamic that exists between the Scrum Master and their team.

In addition, many managers are also responsible for the day-to-day tasking of their team. While this may seem to be a simpler and more reliable approach for many organizations, it flies directly in the face of the principle of self-organization that a Scrum Master should be attempting to instill in their team.

Dreaming The Impossible Dream

With so many core differences between the Scrum Master role and the Development Manager role you might think that combining the two successfully is impossible. But this isn’t actually the case. While it can be incredibly rare, the right individual can find success in both roles. To do this, that individual must be keenly aware of the responsibilities of each role and where they might conflict with one another. For example, such as how the expectation that a manager provide day-to-day tasking to their team conflicts with the very qualities of self-organization that they should be trying to grow in that team.

In addition, where these conflicts exist this individual must also make it clear to their team when they are wearing the hat of a manager, when they are wearing the hat of a Scrum Master, and when they are trading one hat for another. This explicitness in the role that they are currently serving can help provide the context that their team needs to best interpret the Scrum Master/Manager’s advice.

Making The Most Of A Bad Situation

While combining the Scrum Master and Manager roles can be challenging, it may not be without its perks.

Scrum Masters often encounter tough organizational impediments that can be challenging to resolve on their own. Such impediments might include responsibilities outside of the sprint that are distracting members of the Scrum team or an inability to secure key hardware or computing resources that are necessary for the completion of a key story.  But by leaning on their role authority as a manager in the organization, Scrum Master/Managers can often facilitate the removal of these impediments much easier than that of a non-manager Scrum Master.

In fact, a successful Scrum Master/Manager can even use their authority to grant greater latitude to their team which better empowers their team to take on more responsibility, moving them closer towards self-organization.

So while combining the Development Manager and Scrum Master roles is far from an ideal situation. An individual with a keen sense of the responsibilities of each role can still find success in this difficult situation. In fact, the right individual might even be able to use the unique combination of these roles to their advantage.