Scrum Gone Wrong: When the Product Owner Becomes the Boss and Chaos Follows

 

A Scrum Master Walks Into a Bar… and Finds Their Boss Is the Product Owner

"Hey, did you hear? Our Scrum Master now reports to the Product Owner!"

Silence. A dropped coffee cup. A developer nearly chokes on their sandwich.

If this were a sitcom, you’d hear a laugh track. But in reality? Not so funny. The Scrum framework, the very thing that gives teams autonomy, collaboration, and agility, just got tangled up in a classic managerial web. And the results? Let’s just say, if Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland were in the room, they’d be slowly backing away.

When the PO Becomes the Boss—Chaos Ensues

Imagine Marcus Aurelius trying to be both the emperor and the philosopher at the same time. Oh wait, he did! But here’s the thing—Scrum isn’t the Roman Empire, and a Product Owner isn’t meant to wield the sword of power over the Scrum Master. Their job? Maximize product value, work with stakeholders, and let the team thrive. But when the PO steps into a managerial role and the Scrum Master becomes a reportee, we get a beautiful mess that resembles a Shakespearean tragedy.

The Power Play and the Death of Psychological Safety

The Scrum Master, originally the guardian of Agile principles, now has to “align” with the Product Owner’s vision—not just as a peer, but as a subordinate. Psychological safety? Gone. The team starts second-guessing their retrospectives. Do we really talk about what’s wrong? What if it upsets the PO-turned-boss? Slowly but surely, open feedback disappears, and retrospectives become a show of “everything is fine” with the same enthusiasm as a teenager forced to say grace at dinner.

Ken Schwaber warned us: "The Scrum Master is a servant leader, not a project manager or a minion of the PO." But here we are—watching the Scrum Master navigate their role like a tightrope walker in a windstorm.

Innovation Takes a Backseat—Hello, Task Management!

Ever worked on a team where the PO dictates not just the ‘what’ but also the ‘how’? Welcome to Feature Factory Inc., where developers become ticket closers instead of problem solvers. Instead of autonomy, the team now receives marching orders. Instead of collaboration, it’s a game of approvals and sign-offs. The Dev Team, which once engaged in discussions about the best technical solutions, now waits for permission like schoolkids asking to use the restroom.

Mike Cohn once said, "Scrum is like your mother-in-law—it points out all your faults." But what if the mother-in-law also holds your paycheck? You stop listening. You nod along. You let the cracks widen.

The Art of Agile Theater—Looks Like Scrum, Smells Like Waterfall

On paper, the team still follows Scrum. They have standups, but instead of collaboration, it’s a status update to the PO-manager. The backlog gets groomed, but instead of prioritizing for value, it’s prioritized for optics. Stakeholders love it. “Look! We’re agile!” But those inside the team know the truth—it’s Scrum in name, command-and-control in spirit.

One day, a developer sighs, "Remember when we actually had a say in sprint planning?" Another replies, "Remember when we actually delivered value instead of just closing tickets?"

Somewhere, Jeff Sutherland sheds a single tear.

The Fix—How Do We Untangle This?

First, someone needs to bring a mirror to leadership and ask, "What do we want—real agility or the illusion of it?" Because you can’t have self-managing teams if you introduce hierarchy within Scrum roles.

A Scrum Master should report to leadership that values Agile, not to a PO who’s juggling priorities, stakeholders, and now, performance reviews. The PO should focus on product success, not people management.

If you’re in this situation, start the conversation. "Hey, remember how Scrum was designed to remove traditional power structures? Let’s revisit why we’re here in the first place." If leadership resists, remind them of Steve Jobs’ wisdom: "It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do. We hire smart people so they can tell us what to do."

Two Books That’ll Save Your Team’s Soul

1. "Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time" – Jeff Sutherland (for the why behind Scrum)
2. "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team" – Patrick Lencioni (for how bad leadership kills teams)

So, next time someone suggests that the PO should manage the Scrum Master, just smile and say, "Sure, and while we’re at it, let’s make the referee play for one of the teams." Because if we don’t stand up for Scrum, we might as well be playing Waterfall in disguise.