Scrum for Project Managers

The goal of this module is to have participants reflect on how, as project managers, they can recognize the challenges that arise without clearly defined scrum roles and determine where their support is most valuable without overstepping the boundaries of the scrum framework. In this lesson, they will engage in a scrum simulation with minimal instructions to highlight the difficulties that arise when scrum roles and responsibilities are not clearly defined. By struggling through the activity, learners will experience the ambiguity, inefficiencies, and misalignment that occur when there is no role clarity. The subsequent debrief will connect these struggles to the value of clearly delineated scrum roles in supporting team effectiveness, and the final reflection will connect how they, as project managers, can best support the team.

Learning objective: 

• Identify common dysfunctions and barriers that occur in scrum teams lacking clearly defined roles.

This module explores the core accountabilities and role structures within a scrum team, showing how project and product management activities are distributed across the group rather than centralized in one individual. It highlights how project managers can continue to add value in a scrum environment by supporting collaboration, alignment, and delivery without duplicating team accountabilities.

Learning objective: 

• Evaluate how adaptations of scrum roles affect team effectiveness and identify where project managers fit in and where they add value to the team.

Project initiation explores the critical activities that set agile projects up for success and clarifies the project manager’s role in supporting them. Learners begin with chartering, preparing essential groundwork without slowing momentum, while project managers ensure alignment, resourcing, and readiness. Kickoff focuses on defining roles and responsibilities so everyone knows who owns what—with project managers reinforcing boundaries and advocating for accountability without replacing scrum roles. The module also highlights how scrum creates transparency for stakeholders and how project managers amplify this by surfacing risks, aligning expectations, and maintaining visibility. Finally, learners examine how teams build bridges with stakeholders to foster trust and shared visibility—a space where project managers add value as connectors between the team and the business.

Learning objective: 

• Evaluate flexible approaches to agile initiation vs. traditional project starts.

This module explores how agile teams plan across different time horizons while managing uncertainty. Learners will examine practices such as backlog refinement, relative size estimation, velocity, and adaptive forecasting to understand how work is planned and adjusted in scrum.

Learning objective: 

• Demonstrate techniques that guide forecasting challenges and uncertainties. 

In this module, participants will pause to reflect on what they’ve learned and connect those insights back to their role as project managers on a scrum team. The goal is to give them space to consider not just the mechanics, but how their unique position can influence team success. 

Learning objective: 

• Develop a personal action plan for enhancing team performance as a project manager within a scrum environment.

This module introduces the concept of servant leadership, drawing on Robert Greenleaf’s seven aspects. Students will reflect on how these principles shift leadership from a command-and-control approach toward one that enables team growth, collaboration, and empowerment. Through discussion, they will connect servant leadership practices to their own responsibilities as project managers in agile environments.

Learning objective: 

• Analyze the principles of servant leadership and connect them to the project manager’s role in supporting agile teams.