Answering: “What is the role of management in Scrum?”

Management’s role in Scrum is to support Scrum Teams with insights and resources that help them improve. It is not to police effort, track staffing levels or monitor the Developers’ productivity.

Exam Question

What is the role of management in Scrum?
(choose the best answer)
A. To present the Scrum Teams with insights and resources that help them improve.
B. To identify and remove people that are not working hard enough.
C. To continually monitor staffing levels of the Scrum Team.
D. To monitor the productivity of the Developers.

Correct Answer

A. To present the Scrum Teams with insights and resources that help them improve.

Why This Is the Correct Answer

The Scrum Guide does not define a management role, but it describes Scrum Teams as self-managing, meaning “they internally decide who does what, when, and how.” That leaves managers a supporting part. They help by sharing market and business insight, providing tools and people, and removing organizational barriers the team cannot remove alone. The Scrum Master serves the organization by helping managers and stakeholders understand an empirical approach to complex work. Managers who monitor individuals or push for more output undermine self-management and make the team less likely to raise problems openly.

Why the Other Options Are Wrong

B. Identify and remove people who are not working hard enough. This creates fear and kills openness. Performance problems are better surfaced and addressed by a self-managing team.

C. Continually monitor the team’s staffing levels. Constant monitoring of staffing is control, not support. The team itself can raise capacity needs.

D. Monitor the productivity of the Developers. The Developers hold each other accountable as professionals. Productivity monitoring from outside works against self-management.

Exam Tip

When a question asks what managers do in Scrum, choose the option about supporting, enabling or providing resources. Options about monitoring or controlling are distractors.

Key Takeaways

• Scrum does not give managers a role inside the Scrum Team.
• Good management supports teams with insight and resources.
• Monitoring individuals undermines self-management.