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Transition from Project Coordinator to Scrum Master

Last post 01:54 pm January 15, 2021 by Ian Mitchell
4 replies
11:24 am January 14, 2021

Hi,

Currently I'm working as a Project Coordinator in a network security company and recently got an offer for the role of Scrum Master from another IT company. I'm bit confused which career path has more options since my ultimate goal is to work in product management role. Would I able to come back as a Project Manager from being a Scrum Master in future?


11:38 pm January 14, 2021

Most of the Scrum Masters I've worked with in the last few years were Project Managers at one time. However, Product and Project are two different beasts. And personally I've yet to see a good Product Manager who came from a Project Management background. Two very different mindsets. In fact, one client I almost worked for screened out anybody with a PMP for product roles.


05:57 am January 15, 2021

Thanks Mark.

I kind of feel like it is a demotion moving from Project manager towards Scrum Master but going through multiple blogs shows that Scrum Master while working on Products have a better chance to become Product Owners in the future. 


11:42 am January 15, 2021

You can make an argument that most product development in either IT or Network Security resides in a complex environment, therefore Scrum might be a popular framework used in those areas requiring Product Owners. If your career goal is to be in product management, you can think of a Scrum Product Owner as an Agile product manager.

Since you are already a Project Coordinator, some of your skills might transfer to the Product Owner role, such as budgeting and forecasting.

Getting some experience with Scrum might also help you, since Scrum may be in demand when building complex products. The Scrum Master serves the Product Owner in many ways.


01:54 pm January 15, 2021

Would I able to come back as a Project Manager from being a Scrum Master in future?

Consider that you may not want to, having trained, coached and mentored others to co-ordinate and to manage themselves, and having experienced agile outcomes. You may then start to think of a return to earlier practices as being a regressive move.


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