--- title: Functional Managers --- ## Functional Managers A functional manager is a person that has management authority over a group of people. That authority comes from the formal position of that person in the organization (eg. director of the department, quality department manager, development team manager). Role of functional managers is different than Project Managers or ScrumMasters and is not project based. In more agile organizations different models exist. The functional manager often is responsible for developing people in their groups, securing budgets and time for people. However, there are also some Agile company models where functions usually assigned to functional managers are distributed to other roles within the organization (eg. Spotify model with Tribes, Guilds, Chapters, Squads). Out in the traditional world of work companies organize people into a hierarchy. People with similar work roles are grouped into functional areas and led by a Functional Manager. The functional manager is generally responsible for the guidance and well-being of the employees who report directly to her. Agile project teams will often work with functional managers who control the resources the team needs to get work done. An example would be working with a functional manager in procurement to assign a person to work with the team to procure software licenses.