Holistic Marketing Management, Volume 3, Issue 3, Year 2013

definition, we notice that a scrum project is an example of the Agile project management methodology which tries to drop the “boss pressure� we have in traditional companies where the planning, the leading, the controlling, the decision making process etc are generally concentrated in one person and where the employees are not entirely involved in some key aspects of the work. However, is a scrum project, everything is flexible, there is no strict ways of carrying out the work, the employees are self-organized and the customers are committed in the project.

Furthermore, the transition to a scrum project is easier to tell than to do. In so far as the organization of the company and particularly the job assignment is very different from what we are likely to see in a traditional project management. In scrum, the responsibilities of the project manager are divided into three main positions such as a Product Owner, a Scrum Master and the Developers (teams). So, the common questions are: is it necessary to have a project manager in Scrum project?

Is it possible to transform the Project Manager into Product Owner or Scrum Master? If so, what is the best position to adopt? Is agile management undermining the Project Manager role? Etc. All these questions need to be deeply analyzed in order to create an environment where the work could be well done respecting the scrum processes.

We have decided to point out this topic in so far as, on the one hand, several companies say that they are doing scrum without understanding what it really means or without respecting the processes. More, on the other hand, we notice an important part of employees claiming that the presence of a project manager in scrum project is obviously unnecessary.

To figure out all the important points so as to deeply tackle this topic, we have read several chapters and articles in order to know the opinion of people above all those who have already done these kinds of work. Because, according to us it will be relevant for the readers to have opinions of some experts and then be able to know what scrum project consists in, who are the actors, to know how the scrum project is dumping the role of the Project Manager and if it will be necessary to have a Project Manager.

Thereby, our work will be divided into four main parts: 1. A general view of the traditional project management; 2. The Scrum project; 3. A comparison between the traditional project manager and the current actors of Scrum Project; 4. Last but not the least, the necessity or not to have a project manager in scrum.

The number 3 and the number 4 will be dealt with using a literature review.