One of my colleagues said the exact statement “Scrum Master in action”. The scenario is during the daily scrum, when I am calling my team for Daily Standup. I am Scrum Master of three teams in one of the immense companies in Nepal and we are Agile practitioner since more than last 5 years. We follow scrum and SAFe. I wonder about the mindset that really need to change within our workstations however, mindset change doesn’t come overnight.
I am writing for all who wish to know the details about job of scrum master. Scrum master is NOT the project manager! The Scrum master does not make decision and does not manage the team. The scrum master is not a line manager of team not technical or design authority nor is he or she decision maker for the team. This is a coaching, facilitating and supporting role. The Scrum master coaches the Product Owner and the team, keeps them on track within Agile framework. Helps them to make decision. Scrum master is responsible for promoting and supporting scrum as in scrum guide, this is generally done by helping everyone understand Scrum Theory, practices, rules and values. Scrum master assists both the development team and product owner to get their job done and works to maximize ROI. Scrum master helps those outside the scrum team understand about their meaningful interactions with scrum team to maximize the value created by team.
During reviews, daily standups and retrospectives the Scrum Master will facilitate the meetings, making sure that the Scrum guidelines are followed, and time-boxes are respected. The Scrum Master ensures that the Development Team has the meeting, the Development Team is responsible for conducting the Daily Scrum. Scrum master is not mandatory for Daily Scrum. Scrum masters make sure that if any other than team attended daily scum, they do not disrupt the meeting. During each Sprint Retrospective, the Scrum Team plans ways to increase product quality by improving work processes. Scrum Master encourages the Scrum Team to improve, within the Scrum process framework, its development process and practices to make it more effective and enjoyable for the next Sprint.
Scrum master responsibilities includes be the servant leader, ensure smooth flow of information and should be problem solver of team, Process coach of the team. Scrum master empowers the development team.
Attributes of Scrum Master
Responsible: Scrum master need to exhibit responsibilities even though they are not solely accountable for the team’s output. Scrum master should be considerable to their responsibilities to remove anything that impacts team’s productivity and they will try to do the team the best they can do.
Humble: scrum master works in the background and let the team take all the success. They are able to set aside their ego and shower all attention to the team. Use ‘we’ statement instead ‘I’ or ‘they’ statement.
Collaborative: Scrum master should be collaborative by nature and create the culture of collaboration in the team. Encourage team to have conversation within team and outside the team to solve the problem.
Committed: Scrum master is committed to the team cause. Show 100% commitment to the team.
Influential: SM should be able to influence or convince others to adopt different approaches. Apply various technique to mobilize organization’s resources and in general do whatever it takes to get the team assistance.
Knowledgeable: SM should be expert in method, rather than expert in domain and technical. Knowledgeable enough to coach team and having productive conversations about the project being done by the team.
