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Decoding the Roles: Scrum Master vs Project Manager vs Agile Delivery Lead

In today's business world, agility has become a standard practice, and many industries are adopting Agile methods to stay competitive. In this article we will overview distinct yet interconnected roles in Agile project management: the Scrum Master vs Project Manager vs Agile Lead.

Brief history behind Agile methodology

The first well-explained development methodology, known as Waterfall, was established in 1970. However, businesses later realised that a more flexible approach was needed. As a result, the Agile Manifesto, established in 2001, brought about a significant shift towards the adoption of more agile methodologies, resulting in an ongoing agile transformation across industries. This manifesto formed the basis for further methodologies development like Kanban, Scrum, Lean and SAFe, which provide businesses with the flexibility and responsiveness required to navigate today's competitive landscape.

Companies that use agile methodology fully or partially are 1.5 times more likely to perform better financially than their competitors.

McKinsey

It is interesting that supporters of each Agile methodology were struggling to confirm the advantages of each relatively popular methodology.  Given the highly dynamic nature of market evolution, it became clear that no methodology "silver bullet" exists for product development. Thus, it's essential to select the appropriate methodology for each particular project, and sometimes it may require combining different established approaches.

Similarly, roles like Project Manager, Scrum Master, and Agile Delivery Lead/Coach are becoming more common, but it can be confusing to know which one your organisation needs. Here, we will briefly overview those popular roles and compare their abilities to handle frequently occurring requests.

The evolving role of the Project Manager

During the early stages of software development, all companies and customers had a shared desire to see each project and business idea implemented according to the stated product vision (scope), schedule, and budget. These were the three key elements crucial to the business' success, and it was necessary to have a person who could ensure the project's realisation and maintain the agreed-upon success criteria.

This individual served as the project manager (PM), overseeing the entire project lifecycle from initiation, planning, execution, controlling and until completion. The PM's responsibilities include managing resources, budgets, timelines, risks, and stakeholders. They are like superheroes who understand every process and make the correct decisions necessary for the success of any project delivery.

Over time, it has become evident that markets have grown increasingly volatile. Clients were keen to see results at the early stages and have the possibility to influence the process as much as possible. However, with contracts that strictly defined Scope, Schedule and Budget, it was hard and sometimes frustrating. Fighting around changes and the way of introducing them could lead to the deterioration of relations, especially when we talk about long-lasting endeavours like product development.

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Scrum Master role: responsibilities and challenges

Publishing the Agile Manifesto gave a start for different product development approaches. One of the most popular is Scrum, which introduces the role of Scrum Master (SM). Scrum masters ensure that all team members and stakeholders have a clear understanding of the project's progress, objectives, and challenges. But unlike a Project Manager, Scrum Master is just a team leader and doesn't dictate what, how and when to do to the team. Instead, their main goal is establishing Scrum principles defined in the Scrum Guide.

Key responsibilities of Scrum Master:

Training the organisation or project team on Scrum processes, values, and Agile principles. Adapting flexibility to market changes and delivering product increments within each short timebox of 2-4 weeks.
Teaching teams demonstrate achieved results to customers after each iteration, collect valuable feedbacks and use it to improve the overall process.
Helping the team become self-managing and cross-functional, enabling them to make needed decisions and independently deliver value.
Ensuring that team members effectively collaborate with the business by arranging a regular, transparent, and predictable delivery process based on discussed and agreed priorities.

Challenges associated with the Scrum Master role often relate to their strong narrowing down to Scrum rules and their servant role. What does it mean?

Scrum Masters usually do not have the authority to influence the formation of teams or changes in team composition. They must work with the given team and focus on improving processes and increasing awareness of the work environment. However, their efforts may not always enhance the team's overall health and performance, especially when the team composition is not optimal.
Sometimes, the development environment and circumstances change or are unsuitable for applying a pure Scrum approach. For instance, frequent market changes can occur after a big public product release with heavy user loading and feedback. Also, sometimes, even product managers or product owners are not ready to prepare everything needed for the team to start the next iteration. In such cases, process modification or adaptation and extra knowledge are required.
There are products under active development with quite an aggressive marketing strategy, which requires setting some benchmarks, delivery roadmap or even commitments. Not all Scrum Masters are prepared to introduce some constraint elements to their established Scrum process.
Scaling the development environment and close cooperation among teams inside one big product. This can include not only feature-based cross-functional teams but also highly skilled and deeply specialised component teams that are not typical for the Scrum environment. However, working only on a team level doesn't allow an ordinary Scrum Master to cope with a new challenge.

What is the role of Agile Delivery Lead?

Agile Delivery Lead or Coach (ADL) should cover all gaps related to PM and SM competencies. This is possible only by having a broad classical PM practice and experience in different Agile frameworks, including scaled Agile frameworks. Agile principles and experience must have a dominant position but be supplemented by standard project management skills. The advantages of having an ADL with such skills to solve special requests are shown in the table below.

Business requirements and how they can be addressed by different leading roles

Customer needs	Project Manager	Scrum Master	Agile Delivery Lead / Coach	Comments
Fixed price project	+	-	+	Management of project constraints: Scope, Schedule and Budget. Sometimes, it could be a trial project with a new vendor just to understand reliability.
Scrum set-up, team training, progress tracking, risk management	+/-	+	+	The most popular Agile framework. Here, our goal is not only to work with your team but also to provide assistance in Scrum training of different personnel.
Scaling Agile (program / product level)	-	+/-	+	It is the next step after establishing a robust Agile culture on the team level. Also, it could be an urgent need based on Merger and Acquisition process.
Complex Agile delivery (Scrum + Kanban, Lean, Hybrid, FP, KPIs)	-	-	+	Very flexible but responsible delivery based on frequent market and client requirements changes.
Agile transformation strategy	-	-	+	Here, we mean to conduct Agile coaching and mentorship at different organisational levels. It includes environment screening, building an agile transformation strategy and leading the Change management board.
Objectives and key results (OKRs)	-	-	+	OKRs – a set of challenging, ambitious business goals with measurable results. To gain these important business outcomes, it is necessary to build a common aligned environment and be flexible in choosing the needed implementation approach.
Lean portfolio management (LPM)	-	-	+	In contrast to traditional Project Portfolio Management, LPM allows the selection, prioritisation, and management of multiple projects to achieve a strategic goal based on market changes and client needs.

Key takeaways

The evolution of project management methodologies has been primarily driven by the need for businesses to adapt to a rapidly changing market landscape. The shift from traditional Waterfall methods to Agile frameworks like Scrum and Kanban reflects a deeper understanding of the importance of flexibility, iterative development, and customer collaboration in delivering successful products and services.

However, it is not enough to simply find the optimal approach in a particular situation. One must also consider the clients, market, available resources, and future plans. This means that the choice made today may not be optimal tomorrow and should be corrected based on new information. A person with broad delivery experience, who is flexible and ready to make non-standard decisions can handle new challenges with ease.

In this new paradigm, the roles of Project Manager, Scrum Master, and Agile Delivery Lead each play critical functions. However, the Agile Delivery Lead (Coach) stands out as the right person who is able to cope with current challenges and at the same time, able to think about the future.

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Is Scrum Master higher than Project Manager?

The relationship between a Scrum Master and a Project Manager is not based on hierarchical superiority but rather on different roles and responsibilities within project management.

Do you need both Scrum Master and Project Manager?