The 7 Responsibilities of a Scrum Master

In the scrum development framework (part of the Agile project management methodology) the scrum master is the servant leader for the scrum team.

They are not the boss nor the project manager.  Rather, they promote scrum practices and facilitate scrum meetings.  They are the resident scrum expert within the team and attempt to maximize the productivity of the team.

Roles of the scrum master include:

1. Remove impediments
2. Develop the product backlog
3. Promote scrum
4. Exercise servant leadership
5. Empower and Motivate the project team
6. Measure velocity
7. Facilitate the Scrum events

Remove Impediments

The scrum master’s primary role is to maximize the productivity of the project team who develops the product and produces the value.  They do this by shielding them from external distractions, resolving issues, and dealing with stakeholders that want to shape the project to their own preferences.

For example,

• Another project manager wishes to transfer a member of the project team to their project part-time.  The scrum master deals with this issue until a solution is reached, shielding the project team from the discussions and allowing them to focus.
• The CFO of the company wishes to add features to the product that were not initially planned.  The scrum master communicates with them and the other stakeholders to establish the priority of these features (product roadmap) without involving the project team.

Develop the Product Backlog

To maintain the maximum productivity of the project team, the scrum master maintains the product backlog for prioritization into future sprints.  For example,

• A conflict between product features is found, which results in significant extra development work.  The project team moves on to the next sprint backlog item while the scrum master works out the issues and develops applicable product backlog items to be prioritized into future sprints.
• The user interface requires a change to adapt to a change in functionality.  The scrum master creates a user story for prioritization into future sprints.

Promote scrum

The scrum master promotes scrum theory, practices, rules and values.  They are experts in the scrum framework and understand how it promotes productivity and high product quality.  These values are constantly shared with the project team and product owner.  For example,

• A team member wishes to produce a written plan to submit to a stakeholder for approval.  The scrum master recognizes that although written project plans can add value, it is the goal of scrum to minimize project plans.
• The project team decides they don’t need a sprint review or retrospective meeting in this sprint.  The scrum master reminds them of the value of the meetings, of continuous process improvement and developing an agile mindset.

Exercise servant leadership

The concept of servant leadership is contained within every major leadership model.  The servant leader obtains buy-in to project decisions by allowing the project team to consider the issues around it.  They provide the team with the tools and knowledge to determine what the best solution is without dictating it from above.

• The project team wants to change the features of the product to improve its quality as well as the time spent in developing it.  The scrum master facilitates the discussion of the pros and cons but allows the team to make the decision.
• Another project manager wants to utilize the expertise of one of the members of the project team.  The scrum master facilitates the discussion but allows the team member to make the final decision.

Empower and Motivate the Project Team

Empowering is to give power or authority to someone, and motivation is to increase the desire or willingness for someone to do something.  Both of these provide the project team with tools to produce the highest quality product in the least amount of time and budget.

For example,

• The scrum master chooses a product feature that they know the project development team can handle, and instructs them to design it as well as develop it.  This motivates them to learn and try new things while producing the product in faster time.
• The scrum master suggests during a sprint planning meeting that the junior member of the team attempt to develop a complex component of the product.

Measure velocity

The scrum master maintains the burndown chart which measures the actual progress in the development of user story points into product functionality.  They communicate the velocity of production of user story points to the project team members and product owner, and facilitate the estimate of future progress.

For example,

• During the sprint planning meeting, the scrum master provides the burndown chart and actual velocity for use in estimating future sprints.
• During the sprint, the scrum master updates the sprint backlog to track the story points being produced.

Facilitate the Scrum Events

The scrum master facilitates the following four scrum events:

1. Sprint planning meeting
   This meeting serves to determine what user stories the upcoming sprint will contain.  That is, stories from the product backlog are moved into the sprint backlog.  The whole project team (scrum master, product owner, and development team) jointly attend this meeting and make the decisions of what to include in the next sprint.
2. Daily scrum events
   Every morning the project team gets together and updates the team regarding project progress.  Each team member answers three questions:
   1. What did you do yesterday?
   2. What will you do today?
   3. Are there any impediments in your way?
3. Sprint Review
   At the end of each sprint, the Sprint Review meeting serves to demonstrate working product to the product owner.  Not powerpoint slides or prototypes, but fully functional, shippable product.  Other stakeholders are invited to attend and ask questions.
4. Sprint Retrospective
   Immediately following the Sprint Review meeting, the Sprint Retrospective meeting contains only the project team and serves to improve the team’s processes and practices.  To promote the maximum amount of agility, the team must inspect their processes and make adjustments to become more efficient for the next sprint.

Being a scrum master is an exciting yet challenging job.  Scrum masters play a central role in the agile project and have a mammoth influence on project success.  I think you’ll agree there is really no other job like it.