Delivery Manager: The Role Between Project Manager and Scrum Master

A delivery manager is responsible for making sure the work of several teams reaches the customer reliably, by steering dependencies, commitments as well as risks across team boundaries. The Scrum Master improves the work of one team, and the project manager steers a single project. The delivery manager turns several teams and projects into a programme that keeps its dates and gives management dependable information.

This article separates the three roles, describes the tasks of a delivery manager and sets out criteria for when an organisation needs one.

What does a delivery manager do?

A delivery manager makes sure that agreed outcomes are delivered at the agreed time and quality, even when several teams are involved. The role works on the system in which the teams operate and takes no individual tasks within a team. The tasks fall into five areas.

The first area is delivery planning. The delivery manager brings the teams' plans together into one picture, tests assumptions and makes capacity visible. The article on capacity planning in agile teams shows how commitments can rest on data.

The second area is dependencies. When team A waits for an interface from team B, responsibility for resolving it belongs to neither team alone. The delivery manager keeps the list of dependencies, brings the parties to one table and follows the resolution through. Methods for this are described in the article on dependencies between teams.

The third area is risks and impediments. Whatever a team cannot solve itself reaches the delivery manager, who takes it to the right level and follows up on the decision. The fourth area is reporting: the delivery manager gives management and sponsors information on progress, deadline as well as risk that is based on data rather than mood. The fifth area is the improvement of the delivery system itself, such as lead times, waiting times as well as the number of parallel initiatives.

How does a delivery manager differ from a Scrum Master?

A delivery manager differs from a Scrum Master in scope: the Scrum Master works for one team and its way of working, the delivery manager for the outcome across several teams. The 2020 Scrum Guide describes the Scrum Master as accountable for Scrum being understood and effectively applied in the team, and as a servant to the team and the organisation. Committing dates to management is not among the Scrum Master's accountabilities.

The difference shows in three questions. Who improves collaboration within the team? The Scrum Master. Who makes sure five teams deliver a coherent result at the end of the quarter? The delivery manager. And who tells the board whether the October date will hold? Also the delivery manager, based on the teams' forecasts.

How does a delivery manager differ from a project manager?

A delivery manager differs from a project manager in time horizon and steering logic: the project manager steers a time-limited undertaking with plan, budget as well as acceptance, the delivery manager a continuous delivery system. The seventh edition of the Project Management Institute's standard from 2021 is organised around principles rather than processes and describes projects as part of a system for delivering value. That brings the two roles closer together, yet practice still distinguishes them.

In many companies a project manager takes over the delivery manager role after agile teams are introduced, without the requirement changing. The move succeeds when the project manager stops assigning tasks and starts steering dependencies and decisions. The UK government's Service Manual lists the delivery manager among the roles of a service team and describes the job as setting up the agile working environment, removing obstacles and helping the team organise its own work. The emphasis there, too, is on the team's working system and its obstacles.

How does a delivery manager differ from a product owner?

The product owner decides what is built and in which order, and the delivery manager makes sure it arrives. The Scrum Guide makes the Product Owner accountable for the value of the product and the ordering of the Product Backlog. The delivery manager does not interfere with these decisions but shows what the order means for dates and dependencies. How the role works in mid-sized companies is described in the article on the product owner in the Mittelstand.

On sequencing in particular, the delivery manager helps with a calculation. He or she shows what a postponement costs, and the product owner decides with that knowledge. The basis is prioritisation by the cost of delay, described in the article on cost of delay.

When does a company need a delivery manager?

A company needs a delivery manager as soon as three or more teams work on the same outcome or when dates to customers or the board are binding. With two teams, coordination between the two product owners is usually enough. From three teams upwards the number of possible dependencies grows faster than the number of teams: three teams have three possible pairings, six teams fifteen. Every dependency without an owner becomes a source of delay.

The role can be filled in several ways. An experienced project manager can take it on after further training, a Scrum Master can grow into it with experience across several teams, and for the build-up an external appointment is suitable that brings patterns and tools and hands over later. Which variant fits depends on the maturity of the organisation.

Which skills does a delivery manager need?

A delivery manager needs five skills: an understanding of flow metrics, conflict facilitation, planning methodology, basic knowledge of the product and the ability to speak plainly to executives. Metrics are the tools of the trade, because lead time, throughput as well as work in progress provide the information on dates. Facilitation is the daily business, because dependencies are mostly conflicts over capacity. Product understanding keeps the role from becoming pure administration.

A frequent mistake is to appoint someone who writes reports without bringing about decisions. A delivery manager without access to decision-makers remains a reporter. The role therefore needs a clear mandate from programme leadership: the right to demand decisions, set deadlines as well as escalate dependencies.

Delivery management with Niehues Consulting

Niehues Consulting is a consultancy for AI management and organisation design from a delivery perspective, based in Düsseldorf. Founder Marin Niehues builds organisations that deliver and works on projects ranging from VC-funded scale-ups to DAX 40 corporations, deployed in over 20 countries on six continents. In the service area of delivery management he takes on the role of delivery manager, project manager or product owner and designs the organisation around delivery.

The approach follows the Niehues Delivery Model. Two of its review questions matter for filling the role: who decides, who delivers, who uses? And: who is responsible for operations from day one? Scope and terms of an engagement are discussed in the free initial consultation, which you can arrange via the contact page.