“We do not need Managers!”, was the first idea of most agile people in the beginning. I found this statement always suspect. I knew that this idea is wrong and therefore I introduced the role “Manager” in my interpretation and my doing of Scrum.

But what does management do? It is very simple: They direct the organization to their goals. They think about the strategy of their organization. A functional manager needs to understand his area and he needs to help his people to see what they need to learn, what are the best practices in the industry, what guidelines do we need to follow and and and.

Especially in Scrum Organizations a professional management is absolutely necessary. ScrumMaster needs the to be able to do their job effective. You need manager who assign the right resources, you need manager that supervises the whole process of the Scrum implementations and you need them for the decision making on organizational level.

Good managers are relationship builders to the outside of the organization and they create the vision for the company. Managers can be also very close to teams, so e. g. they can be Product Owners, but then the ScrumMaster must make sure, that Managers do not use their power to force teams.

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