With the principles of Scrum flourishing all over the world and so many individuals being exposed to Agile and Scrum, a lot of people are curious to know…… What is a Scrum Master? Going back to the basics, I will define and illustrate the role of a Certified Scrum Master and share some of their responsibilities.
To begin, the Scum Guide states that a Scrum Master “is responsible for promoting and supporting Scrum as defined in the Scrum Guide. Scrum Masters do this by helping everyone understand Scrum theory, practices, rules, and values.” The key characteristic of being a Scrum Master is servant leadership. Followed by – promoting a sense of community, shared decision making power, being a service to others and bringing a holistic approach to work.
A Scrum Master’s duties will vary when dealing with different groups of people. For example: Product Owner, Development Team, Organization and those outside of the Scrum Team. But overall, the Scrum Master will ensure that all parties understand the most effective way to interact with the Scrum Team to maximize their success in the current sprint. The Scrum Master protects the team by shielding them from any interference and removing obstacles.
A Scrum Master should be a service to the team and enable their productivity and keep them motivated to hit their commitments. They also help to improve the development team by facilitating creativity and empowerment. A Scrum Master will resist the urge to resolve any conflicts among the team in the sense of how to develop a certain part of the product. In short, they should encourage the team to come up with solutions on how to develop the product. They work as leaders and facilitators to support as they have no authority.
Additional duties of a Scrum Master include communicating and gathering information from the Product Owner. Building trust and maintaining it by being transparent with the product owners throughout the sprint. As a Scrum Master you teach the product owner how to improve ROI and meet their goals though Scrum. The Scrum Master and product owner should meet to ensure the backlog is prepared for the next sprint and whenever they need clarity.
In conclusion, a Scrum Master is the support system for the Scrum Team. They assure that Scrum is working effectively in their organizations and adapt and inspect whenever it isn’t. They resist all urge to control and instead give tools and encouragement to empower the team to work on its own. They establish trusting relationships with the product owners and assist them in using Scrum efficiently. And most importantly, they realize that they have no authority and are not superior to the team, they are part of it!
Certified Scrum Master Training
If you are ready to become a Certified Scrum Master, make sure to visit the links below! We offer Scrum trainings in the United States, Europe & Asia.