The Main Challenges of Being a Scrum Master and Common Misunderstandings
I have noticed on my path in the Agile world that, although well defined by the Scrum Guide, the role of the Scrum Master is unclear to many people. Especially because one of their key responsibilities is being a facilitator, which leaves room for a lot of flexibility in the job role and can cause confusion about where to draw the line on which tasks to take on.
Another responsibility of a Scrum Master is to aid in transparency, which is one of the three pillars of Scrum. After some research on different definitions of the role a Scrum Master should play and some strategies on how to counteract misunderstandings, I found Barry Overeem’s article, a Professional Scrum Trainer on Scrum.Org. He is respected throughout the scrum community, especially for his workshops at the Scrum Day events in London and Warsaw.
I used Overeem’s article to help me navigate what is and what is not within the scope of the Scrum Master’s responsibilities. That, and my real day to day experience is what I’d like to share with you next.
The 8 most important stances of a Scrum Master
Scrum Master is a…
- Servant-Leader: The focus is not on his or her own needs, but rather on the needs of team members and clients. Scrum Masters are focused on achieving results while adhering to company’s values, principles and business objectives. They are always available to the Scrum team and stakeholders in order to ensure a good balance between what the team is able to deliver and their quality of life to make sure value is constantly maximized.
- Coach: Scrum Masters shape individual’s mindset and behavior for continuous team improvement, and encourage collaboration within Scrum team. They do this by asking the right questions helping team member take ownership of their decisions which promotes autonomy and productivity.
- Facilitator: as the name implies, the Scrum Master tries to make everything easier by leaving scenarios ready and providing the team with clear guidelines on what their responsibilities are with the goal of promoting collaboration. They help people overcome their own difficulties to achieve a goal. In other words, a Scrum Masters leadership is the result of their servitude and not imposed by some sort of hierarchy or rule.
- Teacher: the Scrum Master ensures that Scrum and other relevant frameworks are understood and disseminated. They also look at the reality of the team and suggests changes that will help it improve in some way;
- Mentor: he transfers agile knowledge and experience to the team. It is part of the Scrum Master’s work, based on his experience, to give advice and suggest improvements.
- Process Manager: through the management of impediments, Scrum Masters eliminate waste, collaborating to create a high performance team, that delivers value to stakeholders, without compromising the mental and physical health of the team. They manage the limits of self-organization and managing the culture of the group. The are the ones who seeks and helps to implement processes that positively impact the work of the Development Team.
- Impediment Remover: the Scrum Master directly handles everything that hinders the progress of the team, keeping in mind the self-organized capabilities of the Development Team. Impediments can be anything, for example, if a member of the Development Team cannot go out to lunch, brings them some food. The point is that Scrum Masters need to be in tune with the needs of the team to understand what could be hindering productivity.
- Change Agent: Scrum Masters provide a cultural change that causes new Scrum teams to manifest. They sometimes need to acknowledge that the client has a low level of agile maturity and that it makes sense to summon other Scrum Masters to organize lectures about Agility.
Now let’s clarify more by looking at some common errors in the perception of a Scrum Master’s Role
This is what a Scrum Master is NOT…
- Scribe: Scrum Masters are not responsible for recording everything in each Scrum event, from Sprint planning, to day planning, to discussions at Refinement meetings, reaching the commitments made in the Retrospectives. They are simply there to keep the conversation focused and move things forward.
- Secretary: Scrum Masters do not schedule the Scrum events and maintain the schedule of all teams and the Product Owner, marking the holidays, updating days-off and other appointments. They do however keep an eye and the status of the team members and step where necessary. Like calling attention to scheduling conflicts before they’re a problem or making sure the team thinks about which stakeholders should be involved in meetings.
- Scrum police officer: also known as “Scrum Mechanics”, Scrum Masters should not put the rules of the Scrum Guide in front of empathizing with the current situation and context of the team. They should avoid being the one who, in the midst of an important discussion, simply says that “timebox is over” rather than moving the conversation towards a resolution.
- Team boss: Scrum Masters are not bosses. They don’t hire, fire or salaries. It is not the responsibility of the Scrum Master to judge whether the team’s speed is satisfactory and ask the Development Team to accelerate or have more deliverables. The Scrum Master is there to help the team be more efficient.
- The tool administrator: in case you need an update on Jira, Trello or even a maintenance on GitHub, don’t look to Scrum Master to solve this. They may be the ones who on board new team members into the tools that are being used, but it is the development team’s responsibility to keep these tools up to date and populated with the correct current information.
- The Scrum board owner: the development team makes use of a physical board, which should reflect the progress of development towards the Sprint goal, and guess what, it is not the the Scrum Master’s responsibility to keep it updated.
- Chairman of the daily Scrum: every day the Scrum Team does not report what they did or did not do to the Scrum Master. It’s not necessary for the Scrum Master to write a daily project report to superiors.
- Hero: it’s a bird! It’s plane? No, it’s the Super Scrum Master! Solver of all the blockers before they even exist! Scrum Masters are not superheroes. They cannot solve everything on their own. The team is key when it comes to solving problems. The Scrum Master empowers the team by asking the rights questions so the team can solve the problems themselves.
- Coffee Clerk: it’s okay to make coffee for your team, but if you make it your main purpose of the day, something is very wrong.
Conclusion
In this post, the main functions of a Scrum Master were summarized as well as some of the most common misconceptions. It is important to note, however, that it is not wrong for the Scrum Master to perform unexpected tasks, as long as the team agrees that they are generating value.
Give me your feedback! Aren´t we, responsible a Scrum Masters, for contributing to these misunderstandings? Are we failing to show our core stance? Let me know in the comments if your agree or disagree.
This post was based on the text Scrum Master Misunderstandings.
Article originally published in: https://www.concrete.com.br/2018/04/20/os-principais-desafios-de-um-scrum-master-e-seus-mal-entendidos/
