Who is a Scrum Master?
A common question, who is a scrum master. It is always advisable to refer the scrum guide and understand about scrum master. A scrum master is one who –
- Establishes scrum as defined in the Scrum Guide
- Accountable for the Scrum Team’s effectiveness
- Serves the Scrum Team and the larger organization
- Coaching the team members in self-management and cross-functionality
- Helping the Scrum Team focus on creating high-value Increments that meet the Definition of Done
- Causing the removal of impediments to the Scrum Team’s progress
- Ensuring that all Scrum events take place and are positive, productive, and kept within the timebox.
Source – Scrum Guide 2020
Tip – If you are new to scrum and reading this, we encourage you to read the Scrum Guide thoroughly. This will give you a good understanding of Scrum.
As a servant leader, a scrum master serves the scrum team, product owner and the organization. Let’s understand a bit in detail the roles and responsibilities of a scrum master towards these teams –
For the Scrum Team:
● Coaching the team members in self-management and cross-functionality;
● Helping the Scrum Team focus on creating high-value Increments that meet the Definition of Done;
● Causing the removal of impediments to the Scrum Team’s progress
● Ensuring that all Scrum events take place and are positive, productive, and kept within the timebox.
For the Product Team:
● Helping find techniques for effective Product Goal definition and Product Backlog management;
● Helping the Scrum Team understand the need for clear and concise Product Backlog items;
● Helping establish empirical product planning for a complex environment;
● Facilitating stakeholder collaboration as requested or needed.
For the Organization:
● Leading, training, and coaching the organization in its Scrum adoption;
● Planning and advising Scrum implementations within the organization;
● Helping employees and stakeholders understand and enact an empirical approach for complex work;
● Removing barriers between stakeholders and Scrum Teams
Summary
A Scrum Master plays a key role as this person ensures the right implementation of scrum framework, coaches the team, remove impediments for improving team’s effectiveness.