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Can the ScrumMaster and other team members be managed by the Product Owner?

Our team is switching to Scrum. I would be the ScrumMaster (in addition to being a developer), and another developer would become Product Owner (in addition to our product marketing guy).

All members of the team, including me, would be managed by the would-be Product Owner. By that I mean that the guy would be the one deciding about our yearly evaluation, raises, etc. Would this hierarchical link be prone to introduce issues? How do organizations typically map hierarchical structure onto agile teams?

I suppose it's quite common that the ScrumMaster has a hierarchical link to the other developers in the team. Here it would be the Product Owner. Is this different?

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d. andré dhondt

The ScrumMaster rarely has hierarchical power over the team--and should not. Product Owners often don't either, but there is a more natural link there--everyone on the Scrum team should be doing work to make the PO happy. In this case, though, it sounds like your PO is not a true "chicken"... right?

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jimmy.bosse

I think the answer depends on the team and the individuals involved. On our teams, the developer Team Leads (an organizational title, not a team title) are member of the team working side-by-side with other members of the team. These team leads are responsible for things like semi-annual reviews but that side of their job is kept out of the team room. In the team room their job is to provide leadership and guidance within the confines of development.

I think we do a good job in keeping those concerns separate.

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