Some years ago, common knowledge said that sometimes the
project manager's interest turned against the interest of the company he worked
for. Then I accepted this theory.
According to the PMBok, there should not be such conflict
of interest. It is obvious, is not it? The project manager is the part of the
organization. Therefore, if such conflict exists, then it is between the
project manager as a project leader and the same project manager as an
employee. In other words, the conflict exists only inside the project manager,
in his mind. Therefore, there is no such conflict in a healthy organization and
in the mind of a healthy project manager.
I admit it is not a soul warming feeling, when you are the
project manager and it is your project what is cancelled. However, you do not
have to worry if the cancellation was not because of your fault.
I believe in the latter theory and I have been working
according to it for more than five years. It became so natural that I even
forgot about it. Last week, my Scrum Master mentioned that we had different
interests. I did not understand as we were working on the same project, on the
same product. I asked explanation; but I did not receive it. The Scrum Master
mentioned something about agile principles.
I have participated in Certified Scrum Product Owner
training, where the trainer mentioned this conflict, as well.
I do not like such conflict of interest and I do not want
it to be in my team. Conflict in the team... It sounds awful, does not it. I
just cannot image a Product Owner or a Scrum Master, who want any conflict in
their Scrum Team.
I believe that the entire Scrum Team exists and works in
order to create an outstanding product. The members of the team have common
interest, which is to reach the project goal. There should not be conflict of
interest; there should not be unresolved conflicts inside the team. Of course,
I admit that conflicts are useful, because they put problems in the spot light.
However, conflicts must be resolved or avoided. I indeed believe it.
