What does the Scrum Masters do?

Have you ever found yourself uncertain of the Scrum Master’s role or purpose? Are you a Scrum Master who's constantly overwhelmed by work? or a team member who's unsure if the Scrum Master is doing what it’s supposed to do? You're not alone, join me on this reading and I'll take you on a quick overview of the most usual facts you should know.

Transitioning from a traditional product development process, with predictive project management models and cast-in-stone scopes, into incremental delivery with empiric planning and high responsiveness to change is a difficult journey. Through this transformation, several myths, misuses, and agile-polar behaviors have been carried over to Scrum.

For starters, we need to understand that Scrum is not a methodology but a framework, and as such, there’s no specific path or recipe which guarantees or bulletproofs that what we are doing is Scrum, and therefore that we will see the benefits of it. However, there are certain rules which must be met. Among these rules, 3 Scrum Team roles must be present: the Product Owner, the Development Team, and the Scrum Master, the latter I'll be addressing in this post.

The definition and functions of a Scrum Master figure have been altered and misunderstood. It’s often mistaken for a Project Manager who wears sneakers instead of a tie, and this is probably due to many Project Managers transitioning to cover this function, though in many cases, without the proper training and education to do it.

One of the most common myths I’ve found when working with a new team is that people expect the Scrum Master to run the “daily status meeting” - yes, status meeting. Besides the fact that the objective of the daily standup or daily scrum is not to provide a status and especially not to a Manager or any other leader, it is also not something a Scrum Master should be “running” (or anyone in particular). The Scrum Master helps the team with the event facilitation, and it doesn’t mean setting up a meeting request; the Scrum Master will teach teams how to carry on with a daily standup, the event objective, keeping it within the time box and the different techniques which can be used. The Scrum Master will encourage and energize team members to perform it and protect the event from any external interference, but it's a fundamental part of a team’s self-organization, to avoid creating dependencies on anyone to conduct the standup meeting. The Development Team should “organically” participate and achieve the event’s goals effectively, even if the Scrum Master is not present, otherwise, the meaning and utility of this event will be lost.

Another common problem I’ve seen is people from the Development Team asking the Scrum Master to assign tasks to team members directly. I think this is one of the most anti-agile behaviors you’ll find. No one should dictate who will take tasks during a sprint for a Development Team other than the Development Team itself.?

The Scrum Master should be able to help the Product Owner in the process of prioritizing the Product Backlog from a “theoretical” perspective and guide in the use of techniques for effective Product Backlog management. The Development Team will also help here by providing insights on the best approach to achieve the goal; however, the Product Owner is the person accountable for doing it. -Piece of advice for SMs: The Product and Sprint backlogs are not yours, keep your hands off!- Once the PBIs are prioritized, the Product Owner and the Development Team will determine what’s going to be included for the following sprint, nevertheless who’s actually performing each of the required tasks it’s the sole competence of the Development Team. The Scrum Master will coach the team on how to self-organize and achieve cross-functionality and work on removing any impediments.

As surprising as it may look, the Scrum Master is not responsible for meeting deadlines or giving estimates. The Development Team, as responsible for getting the work done, are the one who provides estimates, size work, and compromise deliverables. The Scrum Master's job in this area is to defend the Development Team against any external factor or threat which might want to force different numbers from the ones the team is giving. No Product Owner, Product Management Department, PMO, SOW, or contract, can know better than the people who are building the product, the time needed to do it. The Product Owner and the Development team should negotiate around the scope and timelines, the Scrum Master advises and offers support during this process and makes sure all information is transparent.

Scrum Masters are servant-leaders, they guide, teach, advise and defend the team; they help by removing impediments and coaching the teams on achieving their best performance just as a sports team’s coach does; if you think that’s not good enough, just think on the most recent example, and take Coach Andy Reid from the Kansas City’s Chiefs out from the field, and surely we'd have a different champion.

Image taken from: Los Angeles Times, all rights to them. https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/2020-02-02/kansas-city-biggest-chief-andy-reid-finally-wins-a-lombardi-trophy

Cheers!