Introduction
Things can get a bit confusing to those new to Agile and Scrum regarding terminology. Agile and Scrum were often used interchangeably when first introduced. Still, there are some important differences between the two that even experts of each methodology don’t always get right!
We’re going to discuss what makes each unique and briefly discuss those situations when Scrum and Agile are used in conjunction to fulfil a common goal. To learn more about using Scrum, consider taking a Scrum training course.
What is the Agile Scrum methodology?
We should first be clear on what the Agile Scrum methodology is not. The Scrum framework is agile, but Agile is not Scrum, or rather, Scrum is not the only methodology for implementing agile principles.
The Agile Scrum methodology is simply one of many agile approaches to product development. Other methods include Extreme Programming (XP), Crystal, DSDM (now called AgilePM), and others.
A good analogy would be the difference between a recipe and a diet. A vegetarian diet is a set of practices based on principles and values. A recipe for chickpea soup is a framework you can use to implement your vegetarian diet.
Scrum is simply one ‘recipe’ among many that can be used to facilitate an Agile ‘diet.’
What is Agile?
Agile refers to a group of methodologies focused on iterative development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organising cross-functional teams.
Agile methods generally promote an approach of frequent inspection and adaptation, a leadership philosophy that encourages teamwork, a set of best practices that allow for rapid delivery of a product, and a business approach that aligns Scrum Development with customer needs and company goals.
Agile development refers to any development process that is aligned with the concepts of the Agile Manifesto.
Agile and Scrum
There’s still a lot of debate on whether Scrum can be used in more traditional Agile frameworks. There are two camps of thought on the subject. The first believe that Scrum cannot work with Agile in the traditional sense because there’s too much overlap between roles prescribed by Scrum and other Agile methodologies
For example, there’s no point in maintaining a project manager role because in some contexts, it fulfills the same duties as the Scrum Master. Or that there’s no point in maintaining an agile product manager when you have a Scrum Product Owner on the job.
Another school of thought argues that anything is possible in Agile because there is no singular definition of what Agile is. You cannot say “this is Agile, but this not” because there only exist varying degrees of agility. So having both a Scrum Master and agile project management is certainly possible. They might not function as you would expect, but this doesn’t detract from the value they can add to a project.
Let’s look at the problem from a few different perspectives.
Agile Scrum roles and responsibilities
Scrum purist might argue that there are only three roles in Scrum: the Scrum Master, the Product Owner, and the Development Team.
Scrum Master
The Scrum Master owns the process and protects the team from external micromanagement so it can learn to self-organise and figure out for itself what works best. Scrum Masters remove obstacles to development, facilitate communication, promote discussions within the team and negotiate with those external to the team. Becoming a Scrum Master is a popular and rewarding career choice.
Product Owner
The Product Owner represents the customer and makes decisions about the final product. They own the product backlog and are responsible for communicating the scope, and vision to the team, and prioritising backlog items.
Development Team
The Development Team owns the estimates, makes task commitments, and reports daily progress to each other in a daily meeting. They are self-organising, meaning that over time, they should learn to structure their work without the need for intervention from higher-ups.
Where is the agile project manager in Scrum?
In Scrum, the project manager often fulfills the role of the Scrum Master. This is not always applicable and there are many situations in which a dedicated, trained, and experienced Scrum Master is required.
For example, a project manager who has been serving as a subject matter expert might be better positioned as the Product Owner.
A project manager responsible for coordinating larger teams (50+ people) may remain in that role but swap their focus to more general project tasks such as procurement and negotiation, while their Scrum teams (in this example, 6-10 Scrum teams) would each have their own Scrum Master. In this example the project manager would coordinate the activities of the Scrum Masters rather than the developers.
Where does the Scrum Master fit in agile project management?
Some might incorrectly label the Scrum Master as a de-facto project manager in agile project management. Unlike a project manager, however, the Scrum Master is not directly responsible for the success or failure of a project.
The Scrum Master’s authority extends only to the process and uses it to get a team to perform to its highest level. The Scrum Master does not have many of the responsibilities traditionally given to project managers – scope, cost, personnel, risk management – for this reason, many organisations continue to employ a project manager to oversee more mundane details of a project.
Who then, handles conventional project manager duties in a project primarily governed by Scrum?
Agile project management often puts the project manager in a difficult position. Agile acknowledges this and allows the project manager to delegate responsibility.
Many of these duties, such as task assignment and day-to-day project decisions, revert to the team and Scrum Master, while decisions regarding scope and schedule go to the Product Owner.
Quality management becomes a responsibility shared among the team, a Product Owner and Scrum Master.
While the typical agile or Scrum project has between 5 and 20 people, Scrum can be used on projects with 200 to 500, or even 1,000 people.
Projects of that size must introduce more points of coordination than small-scale implementation. Even on a very large agile project however, teams still decide how to allocate tasks themselves. In the example above, the project manager role becomes more of a project coordinator in this example.
