Agile Scrum Roles: What Is the Role of the Scrum Master?

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Agile Scrum Roles: What Is the Role of the Scrum Master?

What Is the Role of the Scrum Master?

 

The agile Scrum features three roles: team members, Product Owner, and the Scrum Master.

"Master" implies a sense of control or authority. In Agile, it comes with a different set of requirements. A Scrum Master is a leader who helps bind the team together and encourages the team to stay on track.

Ultimately, the Scrum Master is the Agile and Scrum guru to whom any member of the team - or any stakeholder - can turn.

Scrum Masters are a benefit to any team when empowered in an appropriate way. Keep reading to learn what a Scrum Master is, what they do, and how to avoid the pitfalls of the role in Agile.

What Is the Scrum Master?

The Scrum Master is the member of the team responsible for championing the agile principles and values of the team. Whoever fills this role keeps the team coaching and mentoring them back towards the agile practices and processes they committed to as part of agile.

Scrum Masters are common roles even among non-agile teams. In other scenarios, you might hear them called iteration managers or team coaches.

Does the Scrum Master Have Any Authority?

The term "master" invokes visions of authority because it reflects other roles like "taskmaster." However, a Scrum Master isn't a manager nor do they hold any real authority.

The person who fills this role does manage the process and influences the team and the stakeholders. Servant leadership is a key perspective incorporated into the Scrum Master role to enable Scrum Masters to fulfill their purpose.

With servant leadership in mind, the scrum master is the scrum team's servant first, and they serve by following the twelve principles of servant leadership, which include:

  1. Listening
  2. Awareness
  3. Empathy
  4. Healthing
  5. Foresight
  6. Persuasion
  7. Conceptualization
  8. Growth
  9. Stewardship
  10. Calling
  11. Building Community
  12. Joy

Using these principles, the scrum master doesn't wield authority as such but instead teaches, coaches, motivates, and inspires critical stakeholders and empowers all people working within the Scrum Framework.

Why Have a Scrum Master?

If the scrum master isn't a person of authority, then how do they fit into the Agile system? Don't they represent dead weight?

Scrum Masters aren't dead weight but key facilitators to self-organizing teams. The Scrum Master helps the Scrum team apply agile tools, practices, and frameworks in the most efficient way possible. Their experience applying an agile mindset in other settings arms them with recommendations for problem-solving to keep the team on track.

Scrum Masters also address impediments, and distractions, which frees up the team to perform the bulk of the work.

Scrum Master Skill Levels

A Scrum Master doesn't need a specific set of technical skills to step into their role. Acquiring an excellent understanding of the Scrum framework and agile practices is critical for a new Scrum Master.  However, there are several types of Scrum Masters who take on titles depending on their purpose and their experience.  The Scrum Guide doesn't comment on the role of the types of Scrum Master, yet the Scrum Master should be available to serve the team.

Part-Time Scrum Master

A part-time Scrum Master fills the unique role while also being an active member of the team. They balance the responsibilities of both positions equally.  This type of Scrum Master can be challenging.  Part-time Scrum Masters must grapple with the delicate balance of being a servant leader while also participating as a member of the team.

Full-Time Dedicated Scrum Master

A full-time Scrum Master is someone who is a member of the team and serves only as the Scrum Master. The dedicated role means they only work for one group at one time.

Full-Time Scrum Master (for multiple teams)

Depending on the organization, Some full-time Scrum Masters rotate between groups while serving as the full-time Scrum Master for each team.

Rotating Scrum Master

A rotating Scrum Master role is filled by various members of the team. A new member enters the role on regular cadence at the start of a sprint.

Agile Coach

An agile coach works with several teams, providing coaching and mentoring for each team's unique challenges.  There are no dedicated assignments other than coaching and mentoring the team, stakeholders, and the organization.

A Scrum Master's Responsibilities

Whether you're a full-time dedicated Scrum Master or you rotate team members into the role on a sprint-by-sprint basis, the position comes with responsibilities that are up to you to fulfill. These responsibilities include:

  • Removing impediments
  • Creating an effective and empowering environment
  • Supporting team dynamics
  • Evangelizing Scrum and Agile principles and concepts with the team and the Product Owner

Each responsibility comes with dedicated tasks.

Removing Impediments

Impediments are anything that slow, distract, or move a team off course. In eliminating barriers, the Scrum Master acts similarly to a traditional project manager.

For example, the person filling the role might identify unnecessary approval processes that prevent the agility of the team. Their role is to negate or negotiate those approval processes to remove them as an impediments.

A good Scrum Master doesn't remove roadblocks upon encountering them but clears the path ahead of the team. By keeping the way clear from the start, the Scrum maintains the momentum

Creating an Effective and Empowering Environment

The idea of creating an effective and empowering work environment for the Scrum Team sounds vague.  Each team is unique in its makeup and is influenced by the surrounding corporate culture.  The journey of each team is its own, and doesn't prescribe to a set of concrete steps or tactics.

The Scrum Master nurtures the working environment by promoting practices that support the type of team environment that is desired.  Activities that contribute to the team environment include:

  • Encourage learning
  • Evangelize and coach agility
  • Offer timely feedback
  • As required, teach and educate on methodologies
  • Share practices, tools, and techniques

Each of these contributes to a more focused and empowering environment and helps the team produce better outcomes through empowerment from the use of Agile and Scrum.

Supporting Team Dynamics

The Scrum Master doesn't direct the team from the outside.  Scrum Masters are a member of the Scrum Team and are engaged with the team and its unique dynamics.

To help maintain a genuinely agile Scrum, the Scrum Master coaches team members individual as well as mediating conflicts between team members. The Scrum Master isn't in charge of the team's organization, but they do help foster and develop it as time marches on.

Managing the Relationship Between the Team and Product Owner

One of the Scrum Master's most significant responsibilities is working with the third official member of the Scrum: the Product Owner.

Working with the Product Owner is a significant responsibility in its own right, and thus, deserves its own section.

Better Together: Working with the Product Owner

The Scrum Master advocates for the team, but the Product Owner is the voice of the customer. To run an effective Scrum, the two need to not only work together but operate harmoniously. Any discord results in tension and setbacks for the team.

Forever in the servant leadership role, the Scrum Master assists the Product Owner by providing coaching and mentoring in Scrum and Agile techniques and practices as the Product Owner fulfills their duties. With a broad knowledge of team dynamics and the attributes of a servant leader, the Scrum Master is effective in encouraging the collaboration between the Product Owner and the Development Team.

Also, Scrum Masters support the Product Owner's work on the Product Backlog.

Depending on the situation, the Scrum Master's role in the development and maintenance of the product backlog might be more hands-on than they'd expect. They often assist the Product Owner in finding a way  for the Product Owner to effectively manage the Product Backlog as well as contributing to the arrangement and optimization methods.

How to Avoid the Pitfalls of Using a Scrum Master

A Scrum Master is a fantastic approach for helping ensure teams on track and adding value to the product. However, the role requires a significant amount of compartmentalization.

Yes, a Scrum Master is a leader. But they aren't responsible for the team's results nor do they need to invest themselves so heavily those results. They're responsible for helping the team uphold Agile principles and creating cohesion.

What are the most common mistakes a person in this role might make? Here are two.

Avoid Getting Too Involved

A Scrum Master is part of the Scrum team, but in most cases, they may not have a role beyond being a Scrum Master.  A key attribute of a Scrum Team is self-organization.  As the Agile evangelist, a Scrum Master should serve the team by engaging an Agile coach.  They must remain focused on the process rather than on the result.

Getting too involved removes the objectivity the role that is required.  As a coach, the Scrum Master should refrain from directing the team unless the team becomes a danger to itself or the organization. It becomes fatal when the Scrum Master makes suggestions they believe are the best options for the team.

One of the other common pitfalls of getting too involved leads to Scrum Masters attempting to understanding the content of the project.

A full understanding of the project isn't just unnecessary, but it wastes the team's time.

A Scrum Master is there to serve the process and the team members by extension. Trying to do more than that hinders the process and the team.

Serving the Product Owner

The Product Owner and Scrum Master serve each other, but it is critical that the Scrum Master avoid absorbing the role of Product Owner.

A Scrum Master shouldn't be worried about the product - that's the Product Owner's role. More importantly, they shouldn't have the stakeholder, customer, or product knowledge to contribute substantially in this way.

If a Scrum Master comes to close to taking over the Product Owner role, then they are too involved and need to take a step back.

Find Your Next Agile Scrum Master

The role of the Scrum Master is a crucial one for the success of the Scrum. Their focus on the process enables the team members to work more efficiently and effectively and deliver a better product.

Is your team attempting Scrum but feel like you're missing a piece of the puzzle? Contact us for training courses for Scrum Masters, Product Owners, and teams.

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