The Scrum Master is a facilitator for an Agile development team using the Scrum framework. They are responsible for promoting and supporting Scrum as defined in the Scrum Guide. Scrum Masters do this by helping everyone understand Scrum theory, practices, rules, and values.
Key responsibilities
- Coaching the Team: Helping the team understand and enact Scrum practices, focusing on self-organization and cross-functionality.
- Facilitating Scrum Events: Ensuring that Scrum events (Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review, Sprint Retrospective) take place, are positive, productive, and kept within the timebox.
- Removing Impediments: Helping the team identify and remove obstacles that hinder their progress.
- Serving the Product Owner: Assisting the Product Owner with effective Product Backlog management and ensuring clear communication between the PO and the Development Team.
- Serving the Organization: Leading and coaching the organization in its Scrum adoption, planning Scrum implementations, and helping employees and stakeholders understand empirical product development.
- Protecting the Team: Shielding the team from external interruptions and distractions.
Scrum master is not...
- A project manager (they don't manage tasks or people).
- A team lead (the team is self-organizing).
- Just a meeting facilitator.
Qualities of an effective scrum master
- Servant Leader
- Facilitator
- Coach
- Good Communicator
- Problem Solver
- Knowledgeable about Agile and Scrum
The Scrum Master acts as a servant leader, focused on enabling the team to be as effective as possible within the Scrum framework.
