What is the role of management in Scrum?

In Scrum, the traditional role of management shifts from command-and-control to that of a servant-leader and enabler. Management is responsible for fostering an environment where Scrum can succeed. This involves empowering the self-managing Scrum Teams by providing them with the necessary resources, support, and insights. Their primary function is to remove organizational impediments that are beyond the team's capacity to resolve, thereby helping the teams to continuously improve their processes, capabilities, and ability to deliver value.

B. The Development Team is self-managing and is responsible for tracking its own progress and productivity. Management monitoring this directly is an anti-pattern that undermines team autonomy.
C. The Scrum Team is collectively accountable for its performance. Management directly removing individuals bypasses the team's responsibility to resolve internal challenges and erodes trust.
D. Scrum Teams perform best when they are stable and long-lived. Continual monitoring and adjustment of staffing levels by management is disruptive and hinders the team's ability to build cohesion.

1. Schwaber, K., & Sutherland, J. (2020). The Scrum Guide. Scrum.org. On page 5, it states that Scrum Teams are "self-managing, meaning they internally decide who does what, when, and how." This principle of self-management makes direct management oversight (options B, C, D) inappropriate. Management's role is to support this structure.

2. Hoda, R., & Noble, J. (2017). Becoming a self-organizing team. IEEE Software, 34(5), 26-31. This paper discusses the transition to self-organizing teams, noting that managers must shift from being directors to facilitators, "letting go of control" and supporting the team's journey (p. 28). This aligns with providing insights and resources for improvement. https://doi.org/10.1109/MS.2017.3641538

3. Stray, V., & Moe, N. B. (2020). Understanding coordination in global software engineering: A mixed-methods study on the use of meetings and Slack. Journal of Systems and Software, 170, 110717. The study highlights the importance of autonomy and notes that external management control can be detrimental. It reinforces that management's role is to create a supportive context rather than direct the work. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2020.110717