The Scrum Manager

One of the lesser-discussed roles in the Scrum universe is that of the Scrum Manager.  This can be a Software Development Manager, (who supervises Software Engineers and Quality Assurance personnel), a Software Engineering Manager or a Quality Assurance Manager.

The reason this role is not discussed often is because Managers are Chickens -- people who are involved in the process of delivering software, but who are not making the personal commitment to a Sprint's completion.  Scrum literature doesn't tend to focus on the Chickens.

While many Managers believe that they should be considered members of the Scrum Team and treated as Pigs, their job role disqualifies them: their presence on the Team would invalidate the Principle of Self-Organization.

That's one of the reasons I started this blog -- to talk about the role of Managers in Scrum.

So where do Managers fit into the Scrum framework?  Explicitly, we don't, because Scrum is intentionally "incomplete" or under-defined, both to emphasize the parts of the framework that are defined and to remind us that Scrum is still an Agile process and requires customization on how the remainder of the structure gets built.

So the formal definition of Scrum appears to leave Managers out of the picture.  That doesn't mean we have no role in Scrum, it only means that Scrum doesn't define it.

I won't call it a series, but for the next several weeks, the bulk of the posts I'll be making will be related to how I see my role as Software Development Manager within the Scrum framework.  Think of this as an introductory post.

I'll be fleshing this out with specific practices over the next few weeks, but for now, here is the core of what I believe makes a good Scrum Manager: a leader who creates and maintains an environment that emphasizes trust, personal development and transparency while protecting the team from influences that would disrupt the Sprint -- including himself.