How does a manager add value on a Scrum team?

Another great post today on LinkedIn. The question "what role does the manager play on a Scrum team, given that the team is self managing?"

Love to hear your thoughts on this. In my opinion the Manager still plays a vital role. For example the manager should be used as a sounding board for the team to help them avoid typical pitfalls based on his extensive experience i.e. as act as a team consultant.

Managers should also focus on the longer term strategic related issues to do with the product. In particular, working on and defining the long term Epics, competitive positioning, etc.

Additionally, managers should help the team to remove blockers that the scrum master is struggling with.

Managers should also be acting as coach, assisting goal setting, career path planning, training, knowledge transfer etc

Written by Jack Milunksy - COO at Brightspark, certified ScrumMaster and Co-founder of Agilebuddy (Agile project management software that lets you easily Create, Estimate, Plan and Track your software development projects). For great Agile tips follow Jack at: www.twitter.com/agilebuddy. To get more info on Agilebuddy please visit: www.agilebuddy.com

Comments

[Steve McGee]

I'd say a manager's role is to ensure the team is holding each other accountable, that they are 'following the rules' (scrum or other process they've agreed to), and then to negotiate outside the team to make sure they have what they need to succeed. Like a libertarian government.

I'd contrast this to the leader's role. The people need a purpose to do something, especially things that are not fun in and of themselves. From the PO, teams know the purpose of the sprint and goals of the product. From company leadership, the teams see their future - for example switching from ASP to .NET vs jumping to open source? Are we getting bigger or are we looking for different customer types? Knowing this will influence the many decisions team members make in and out of work.

[Jack Milunsky]

Thanks for contributing. Much appreciated. I definitely agree that one of the important management functions is to ensure the team is holding each other accountable. Although less so on Scrum teams as they generally do a good job of it themselves.

[Mathias H]

How about this as an example.

He should be responsible to manage the team and team dynamics from a personell perspective (acted upon inbetween sprints). Also, assist in resolving conflicts and organizational red tape issues
- Does the team have access to all skills it needs?
- Does the team need more, or less, personell of any type?
- Is there enough natural leadership on the team?
- Is there too much conflict? Why
- Is there a healthy balance between junior, intermediate and senior team members
- Managing incoming and leaving team members between sprints
- Coaching team members, planing for their personal development in skills, personal growth, leadership abilities etc
- Team long term planning

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