The transformation from project to product requires meticulous coordination, effective facilitation, and a commitment to the Agile methodology.
Within this framework, one role stands as a lighthouse guiding this transformation - the Scrum Master. This is not just a title, but a pivotal force driving Agile principles and ensuring their seamless incorporation within the team. As we explore the ins and outs of the Scrum Master's role, we will understand why this position is far from optional - it is a cornerstone in the project-to-product transformation.
ADAPT Methodology® is a unique Digital Product Development framework to change traditional project-centric companies toward product-led companies!
Society changed and leaders need support in the way how they lead and design their digital product organizations, that is the reason why the ADAPT Methodology® was created, but now let’s get a deep dive into the realms of What Is A Scrum Master.
The Scrum Master facilitates Agile implementation, resolves impediments, and nurtures a productive environment. In essence, they are the architect of the transformation journey, ensuring it is smooth, efficient, and truly Agile.
What is a ScrumMaster article provides an overview of the role of Scrum Master. I’ve written an extensive piece about Scrum Methodology, and I highly suggest that you visit it first before continuing to read this page. It’s a concise yet extensive primer on the Scrum framework. Understanding this methodology will aid you in understanding what a scrum master is.
If you have some foundations about Scrum and would like to know more beyond the functions, roles, and responsibilities of a Scrum master, feel free to proceed reading below
A scrum master is like a lighthouse in a scrum team which is composed of a product owner, a development team, and the scrum master himself. He makes sure that he guides his teammates based on the tenets of the Scrum Framework.
Just like a lighthouse, before his team crashes into a harbor in stormy weather, he makes sure that he elucidates to everyone how they can properly “dock” their ship using Scrum. Although a scrum master is part of a scrum team, you should know that he also makes sure that as the “scrum lighthouse” of a company, he also enlightens other employees/teams on what can be a beneficial interaction with the scrum team and what can be disadvantageous.
Scrum masters are responsible for three groups; Product Owner, Development Team, and the Organisation. These are mere similes and generalizations, but if you want to have the exact roles, functions, and responsibilities of a scrum master to the letter, the answer can be found in the Scrum Guide itself.
Before we focus on the specifics, let’s delve into three high-level concepts of being a scrum master.
Scrum masters are in a very important position in a company. They both have the “battlefield” insights and a 30,000-foot view of how different teams progress on a day-to-day operation. How?
One way of the ways is through Agile Retrospective. Facilitating Agile Retrospective gives scrum masters the opportunity to spot trends and recurring problems in a team. Though knowing the problem is just one step in catalyzing change, scrum masters at least know what has to be changed in an organization.
And that’s where every change starts with. I even wrote an extensive guide on how to turn Agile Retrospective into an actionable problem-solving tool for executives using the Impediment board. With this initiative, scrum masters are in the position to suggest essential changes in an organization.
From the Scrum Guide itself, scrum masters are identified as Servant Leaders. This is an essential characterization of a scrum master because, without the concept of servant leadership, a scrum master won’t be able to fully function in implementing the Scrum Framework. It also goes back to the idea of being a lighthouse.
A lighthouse is made to serve sailors and lead people to a safe harbor. I wrote a blog post about ten characteristics of a servant leader here. Check it out if you’re not sure how scrum masters can be servant leaders in an organization.
A scrum master must become the “mirror” of the team. Through a scrum master, the team readily checks if what they’re doing doesn’t reflect the Agile and Scrum values. By standing in front of a mirror, a team can easily spot and be reminded of the flaws that are counterintuitive to the Scrum Methodology.
The scrum master reminds the team to improve these flaws by becoming the observer and the extra eye that sees without bias but only towards the principles of Scrum and Agile values. With the reflection of the team in a mirror, members can receive open questions from the scrum master that will lead to the general improvement of the team.
This could be through the use of modules like Sprint backlogs, metrics, and other tools. Now that we’ve knocked down three high-level roles of a scrum master let’s go back to the basics and foundations and find out the key responsibilities of a scrum master when it comes to working with Product Owners, Development teams, and the organization, he works for.
All of these roles and responsibilities are already discussed in this primer and also in the official Scrum Guide.
Aside from these roles and responsibilities to a scrum team, I wrote a definitive list of specific roles that a scrum master must play in the article “Scrum Master Role Everything What all Scrum Masters Need to Know”.
Remember that the main goal of a scrum master in a company is to help stakeholders adapt to the Scrum framework and Agile Methodologies. Alongside this, the scrum master should help the company have a stable and self-organizing team with a clear roadmap and help the company identify organizational impediments.
To recap here are other roles and responsibilities of a Scrum Master that embody this goal:
Bernd Schiffer wrote a comprehensive blog post about these scrum master responsibilities which you can check out through this link. Feel free to check it out. Most of the ideas above are adopted from his blog post.
Now that you have some ideas of the roles and responsibilities of a scrum master, the next logical question would be “How to be good at being a scrum master?”
For those who are just starting their career as a scrum master, I highly suggest that you read this article that I wrote “How to be a Good Scrum Master – Starting Your Scrum Master Journey.” I outlined here how you can systematize your first action items in the first 20 weeks in a company you work for. By doing this in the first 20 weeks of your new job, I can guarantee that you’re off to a good start.
Now, this can be a lot of work, but it’s the best way for a scrum master to start his job on the right path.
A qualified scrum master, in my opinion, possesses the following:
Other requirements by some companies are the following:
In a blog post entitled Scrum Master Interview Questions, I shared my personal experience in getting interviewed for a scrum master position. It was a fantastic 2-hour experience for me since I was able to learn a lot not only in terms of the general practice of scrum and also about the type of people I would be working with.
They took the time to check my blog and books which is rare for many companies. It was a pleasant surprise. Another thing that I truly enjoyed during the interview was the Role Playing that they initiated.
I must say that it was a great way to gauge a candidate’s perspective and how a candidate will potentially react to certain scenarios.
If you’re hiring a scrum master, I highly suggest that you also use role-playing interviews to gauge the experience, soft skills, and other requirements you need from an applicant. Don’t forget to read the blog post to read some questions that you can use in interviewing applicants.
The short and simple answer to this is, it’s like looking for a needle in a haystack. The truth is, among the Agile community, people mostly mock the idea of having a scrum master. They think that it’s redundancy in an organization. They oversimplify the role in a way that betrays the entire principles behind the Scrum framework.
One of the reasons that I see is the fact that there are only a few scrum masters who can fully attain the full potential of the Scrum Framework. Another reason is the lack of role models in the industry that would demonstrate the strength and value of having a scrum master.
Lastly, an organization often fails to attribute the success that it achieves to the effort of a scrum master. I laid out a carefully written case about these sentiments in this article.
I highly suggest that you check it out to fully understand the state of how hard finding a reliable scrum master would be in a world where only a few have fully seen and comprehended its full contribution to an organization.
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