Leadership vs. Control in Scrum Teams
Explores how Scrum Masters and Product Owners balance leadership, authority, and team autonomy to ensure accountability, effective self-management, …
TL;DR; Scrum teams need a balance of three key roles: Influencers who lead and shape the environment, Entrepreneurs who define and communicate the product vision, and Makers who build the product. Each role has its own growth path and is essential for delivering high-value products. Development managers should ensure all three tracks are present and balanced in their teams to maximize success.
In the empirical world, we have 3 key skill areas of accountability that are needed to effectively deliver products of the highest possible value! We need Influencers that can provide leadership and create environments within which groups of people can organise the work. I consider this the Leadership Track where you have Scrum Masters, Coaches, and CEO. We need Entrepreneurs who can have a vision and project knowledge and understanding of that vision to the people that need to make that vision happen. This is the Value Track and may be made up of Product Owners, Analysts, and Subject Matter Experts. Last we have the Makers who are the ones who do the work that brings the product to life. They are on the Technical Track and focus on turning the vision into a reality. They have many skills and may have coders, testers, and other experts…
To have a successful company we need all three tracks to exist in the correct balance!
Ultimately what do you care about? Do you care about the people, the product, or the work? You have lots of choices here, and you can always cross between these tracks, however, there should be progression and growth in each of them. You should not have to change track to grow.
The job of folks on the Leadership Track is to create an environment within which we can create products of the highest possible value within the bounds of our organisational constraints.
Those on the Leadership Track have often had experience in both the Value Track and the Technical Track and are familiar with the difficulties of both. They focus on enacting change in the organisation that makes others lives easier and focus on inspiring them to greatness.
Job Titles that might exist in the Leadership Track: Scrum Master , Manager, Agile Coach, Human Resources, CEO, Vice President, Practice Lead
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The job of folks in the Value Track is to maximise the value delivered in the product.
Those on the Value Track should have experience in the Business Domain, and be experts in the product. Ideally, they have an entrepreneurial spirit and are adept at experimentation and understanding that decision needs to be made based on data.
Job Titles that might exist in the Value Track: Business Analysis, Product Owner , User Experience Designer, Subject Matter Expert
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The job of folks in the Technical Track is to create a usable product every iteration.
Those on the Technical Track should have experience in the Technical Domain and some knowledge of the Business Domain. Ideally, they have a broad set of technical skills that allows them to work in any part of the product and some deep expertise that they have or are seeking, mastery over.
Job Titles that might exist in the Value Track: Coders, UX Designers, Testers, Security Specialists
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Each classification [Concepts, Categories, & Tags] was assigned using AI-powered semantic analysis and scored across relevance, depth, and alignment. Final decisions? Still human. Always traceable. Hover to see how it applies.
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