Process Police

Marty Cagan argues that some project managers and Scrum Masters act as "process police," treating adherence to the official process as the goal rather than the outcomes it is meant to produce. Such enforcement slows teams down and turns the role from an impediment remover into an obstacle. He draws on Jeff Patton to show that judging a process by compliance misses the point, and that one-size-fits-all processes ignore the very different investment levels and risks of small fixes versus large initiatives. The piece matters because it reframes process health around collaboration quality and results, and warns against Scrum Masters who wall off product owners from their teams.

01Key takeaways

• Judge a process by its results and the health of collaboration, not by how strictly people follow it.
• Adapt process to the size, risk, and investment of each effort instead of applying one template to everything.
• A project manager should facilitate clear roles and collaboration rather than enforce rules.
• Keep the product owner in close, ongoing communication with the team; shielding them creates distrust.
• Notice when the process itself is the impediment and be willing to adjust it.

02Key sections

The Value of a Strong Project Manager

Cagan notes that a great project manager boosts team velocity and that Scrum's Scrum Master role is designed to remove impediments. He contrasts this ideal with a common failure mode.

The Process Police Problem

Teams with this problem move slowly because the project manager sees their job as enforcing the official process, making the process an end in itself rather than a means.

Compliance Is Not the Point

Patton observes that forcing people to follow a process is a sure way to fail at it, and that by-the-book agile often lacks adaptation for product organizations.

One Size Does Not Fit All

Product teams build everything from small fixes to company-wide initiatives, and these differ in investment, risk, and success techniques, so treating them identically makes little sense.

Process Health and Collaboration

Process health means quality of team collaboration, impediment removal, and coaching; Scrum Masters go wrong when they isolate the product owner from the team and erode trust.

03From the post

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Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.