Understanding the role of Scrum Master
[Note from ADAPTOVATE: While the term “scrum master” is widely used in Agile methodology, and for the purposes of this article we will use it, ADAPTOVATE in business have chosen to use an alternative “squad coach”]
What is the role of Scrum Master? We sat down with our consultants at Adaptovate and asked them to explain the role of the Scrum Master in Agile methodology. While all their answers had their own personal spin – It came down to 5 crucial things.
Skip to the end for the free poster, and link to video.
The KEY FIVE WAYS to describe the role of the Scrum Master
- They are the protector
- They are a servant leader for the team
- They remove roadblocks
- They are the coach
- They are a facilitator
Caitlin Studdert from our Australian team
The scrum master is a critical role within Agile. They’re almost like the temperature gauge of the team. They’re the person that really can set the team up for success in every way possible whether it’s arranging things for the team to partake in or whether it’s just clarifying for the team consistently.
Simon Jacobsen from our Australian team
Scrum master is a role in one of the methodologies. The scrum master asks everybody and makes sure that they’re raising up issues like ‘are we trying to take on too much work, are there problems that need to be solved?’ .
The scrum master is just focused on making sure that the recognition of the how of what everybody else is doing within the team is being considered.
So basically you’re looking to have somebody who’s like the glue, that just kind of make things easy for a team in a complex environment.
Katy Hughes from our Australian team
The scrum master is essentially a person who is there to enable the team to deliver whatever they need to do. It enables the team to actually go ahead and do stuff!.
They’re not there to manage the team. They’re there to serve the team and allow them to go about their business removing any obstacles so they’re really able to deliver the best outcomes possible.
Mina Gurgis from our Australian team
If I was to sum this up in one word it is the protector. They’re shielding the team, protecting them from outside interruptions .
Mark Barber from our Australian team
The scrum master is a servant leader for the team. So it’s not a manager roles or a leadership role perse. They are creating the right environment for the team to be as effective as possible so removing impediments You know, facilitating the Process, coaching and challenging from the sidelines.
Laura Scott from our Australian team
Scrum master actually drives the framework for agile and takes down any roadblocks that they are able to within the process.
Andy Koh from our Singapore team
The scrum master should be able to both facilitate and coach people at the same time. Coaching they should be able to help people get into the agile mindset and change their behaviours because of that. And in that sense they’re like a coach where they try to guide people in a certain way of behaving . So with facilitation they should be able to know Agile well enough to know and to understand why the reasons we follow certain practices and ceremonies and be able to convey that reason to the people that they are helping.
Tan Tiong Yeow from our Singapore team
The role of scrum master really helps to facilitate the entire agile process guiding the squad members towards a more agile ways of working. Any questions that the squad member potentially might have scrum master is there to kind of help resolve and answer that question.
Shilen Modi from our Australian team
Scrum master is who just makes agile happen full-stop!
We have a bunch of free resources including:
- Scrum Master Poster – for the full list – you can download the free poster here
- Scrum Master Video – The above article is based on our Agile Basics video “Scrum Master”
- If you’d like to read more about the role of Scrum master in Ceremonies we have a couple of great articles: We are doing all the Agile CEREMONIES; However, our output has not changed, what is going wrong? and My teams wants to stop daily stand ups, what advice should I give them?)
