A scrum master might sound like a character in a role-playing game, but it’s a serious job that’s rooted in leadership. The scrum master is responsible for ensuring a true scrum process over the course of a project. They hold together the scrum framework, facilitating the process for the organization, product owner and scrum team.
Scrum, according to Scrum.org, is a framework that allows teams to work on complex projects and deliver high-value products by approaching problems adaptively. It’s a simple, straightforward and easy-to-implement way to handle projects. It can pivot and encourages continuous feedback, which allows a project to more accurately fulfil a customer’s needs.
What Is a Scrum Master?
The scrum master is the person on the team who is responsible for managing the process and only the process. They are not involved in the decision-making but act as a lodestar to guide the team through the scrum process with their experience and expertise.
Not everyone on the team will have the same understanding of scrum, and that’s especially true for teams new to the framework. Without a scrum master promoting and supporting the process, who can help team members understand the theory, practice, rules and values of scrum, the project can flounder and fail.
Holistic Leadership
One way to look at the scrum master is as a servant leader. They’re not part of a hierarchy, barking orders or demanding ROI. Instead, they’re taking a more holistic approach to work, offering service to others while promoting a sense of community and supporting a shared decision-making power.
One thing the scrum master should be careful to stay away from is over-evangelizing, namely constantly pointing out to their team members when they are “doing scrum wrong”. This is counterproductive and does not fit into the description of what the scrum master should be doing. Rather, the scrum master should catch people doing things right; and then, in the spirit of a the best teachers, show them how things can be done better.
Scrum Master Role
The scrum master has several roles in the project. The scrum master serves the product owner by making sure that the goals, scope and product domain are clear to everyone on the scrum team. They offer techniques and tools to manage the product backlog effectively and help the scrum team know that there is a need to keep the product backlog items clear and concise. ProjectManager.com has award-winning project management tools like kanban boards and reporting features to keep scrum teams on track.
What Does a Scrum Master Do?
While a scrum master is a crucial member of the scrum team, they are not involved in planning the release. That’s done by the product owner and the team. A scrum master doesn’t manage; a scrum team is self-organizing. In fact, a scrum master isn’t responsible for the success of the project’s result.
Yet, without a scrum master the whole thing would fall apart. The scrum master is the glue that holds the project together by facilitating, though not participating, in the daily standup meeting (one of the four scrum ceremonies). They help the team maintain their burndown chart and set up retrospectives, sprint reviews and sprint planning sessions.
They also help the product owner by walking them through the more technical user stories and encourage collaboration between the product owner and scrum manager. So, every part of the scrum process is being helped by the guidance of the scrum master. A scrum master is like a mechanic, not driving the car but making sure that it’s in proper working order.
Is the Scrum Master a Dedicated Role?
There is some discussion about how involved the scrum master should be when it comes to the actual development work that is underway. One school of thought is that the scrum master should be exclusively dedicated to their role described above and not get buried in the day to day pressures, deadlines, and constraints that come from actually having to do the work themselves. Others feel as if the role described above may not consume 100% of the time that is available and any leftover time can be devoted to toward development work.
There are pros and cons to each approach. If a scrum master is involved in development activities, they could find themselves in the critical path of a project that is underway. This means that when the going gets tough or deadlines are looming, they will most likely default to getting their own work done. This is understandable based upon the pressure that is put upon their particular deliverable. But, it could also let the team suffer during a time that they especially need someone filling the role of scrum master.
The upside of a scrum master filling both roles is that the company may feel as if they are getting more for their money by not having to invest in two people to fill the roles.
On the other hand, a person that is a 100% dedicated scrum master focuses exclusively on the activities mentioned above. They are the person that constantly has the big picture in mind and is always looking ahead for what could be in the way of the project moving forward, or what opportunities could be taken advantage of to bring the sprint to a more expeditious completion.
The downside of this approach is that there may need to be more resources applied to the project from a technical perspective and may cost the company additional money.
Source: Project Manager
