Do you need to be technical to succeed as a Scrum Master?
This article came to my mind when I found out the last tweet of Elon Musk about the technical exigence he would have with IT managers.
Elon Musk recently tweeted: “I strongly believe that all managers in a technical area must be technically excellent.”
While I agree with this statement, I would like to discuss its implication when it comes to Scrum and especially regarding the role of the Scrum Master in an IT environment. Also, I thought it would be a great opportunity to deal with the common misunderstanding regarding the real role of a Scrum Master which is surely not, to be a PMO.
Is the Scrum Master a manager?
Shortly, yes, this is a management role as it deals with people. As a Scrum Master, you do management daily, working with your team to implement the right utilization of Scrum while ensuring that nothing impedes its development. In this way, a Scrum Master as a Servant Leader can be seen as a Manager in certain organizations. This is not the common type of manager who micro-manages people.?The Scrum Master manages through the Scrum processes.
He doesn’t have the ability to :
As Agile is all about horizontal management, the Scrum Master doesn’t manage explicitly people. However, he manages :
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In this way, can we consider that a Scrum Master in IT needs to be technically able to do what the developers are doing?
I believe no. To be a Scrum Master isn’t about controlling or validating the works of the Scrum Team. That is not its stance. Let’s make a comparison with a traditional project manager for there is a?bunch of people still doing the mistake of thinking that a Scrum Master is like a PMO but in Scrum.
If you think that Python is a real snake, then you are likely to be in a real mess.
As a PMO you need to initiate and be a large part of the planning process of the project. Thus, if you don’t know a word about what is going on or if you think that Python is a real snake, then you are likely to be in a real mess. How do you create and determine the quality verification and control process? How do you estimate the work packages? How do you plan the scope and the budget of the project based on those estimates? Well, you can’t and this is why I’m agreeing with Musk at this point. Traditional Manager needs to be at least proficient in their field. They are accountable to manage their team as a whole and are often entitled to determine who will do what. This is a huge responsibility.
A Scrum Master isn’t a PMO, and therefore, does not need to be knowledgeable in IT
Would it help? Yes, especially when you will face personal conflicts, individual misunderstandings, or specific complaints about how a technical structure act as an impediment to pursuing the Sprint Goal. However, if it can help, it is not mandatory and has a really small impact on the real efficiency of the team which is autonomously self-managed. They do estimates, challenge their velocity daily, and choose which PBI (Product Backlog Item) they will work on. The Scrum Master is not here to choose for the team but to facilitate. He had mostly to have interpersonal skills, soft skills, and capacity for adaptation added to a strong understanding of Scrum and agility in its core values.
To be a Servant Leader is not like being a coder
To be a Servant Leader is not like to be a coder and that’s why every developer, even senior can’t always be great Scrum Masters, you have to gain and prove daily with all stakeholders different competencies that are not related to the technical field.