Scrum Master: A Guide to Their Responsibilities and Qualities
You have a million things on your mind. You’re constantly thinking about the next big idea, how to make your company better, and how to keep up with all of the deadlines. But when you finally sit down for a few minutes, you realize that you can’t even remember what day it is.
Manageable? Yes. Satisfying? Definitely not.
Most people would find this situation overwhelming, but don’t worry, because there’s hope!
Meet: The Scrum Master!
I’m going to teach you everything about this valuable member of your team, but first…
What Is a Scrum?
Scrum is a framework for developing, delivering, and sustaining complex products.
It’s essentially a way to address the challenges of product development by breaking it down into smaller tasks that are distributed among teams with specialized skill sets.
This allows them to deliver high-quality, innovative solutions in an effective manner without overloading any one team or individual.
To go into more detail, Scrum is an iterative and incremental structure for project management that was first developed by Jeff Sutherland in the late 1980s.
The scrum methodology indicates functional software, as well as versatility to change with emerging communication, collaboration, and business realities.
Who Makes Up the Scrum?
A scrum team is made up of developers and testers, a Product Owner and Scrum Master.
The Product Owner prioritizes the list of items that the development team will work on (backlog).
Every sprint starts with committing to what tasks they can complete in a two week period (sprint planning), which typically lasts for 2 weeks.
Throughout this time, they develop features while demonstrating it back to product owners/relevant stakeholders who have had a chance to see the final version!
The Product owner and Scrum Master provide the team with guidance on what to do, as well as making sure that they are completing tasks in a sensible way.
At the end of sprints, there is usually an all hands meeting where people who have been working on it talk about their experience for other members of the team.
What Is a Scrum Master?
The first thing to know is what they do: The scrum master helps make sure everyone on the team works together efficiently, removing any obstacles in their way. They also help remove impediments that might be slowing down your project or making things harder than they need to be.
To put it simply: A scrum master is the person who facilitates the Scrum process. They are responsible for making sure that all of the team members follow Scrum’s rules and guidelines, which includes ensuring that everyone has clear expectations about what they need to do.
The scrum master is the person who ensures that the team is following their sprint plan. They are responsible for creating a safe environment so team members feel comfortable sharing feedback and to help them find solutions together.
As a scrum master, you will be working with product managers on what they need from your team in order to deliver on their goals. It’s important that you have an understanding of agile development so that you can work closely with everyone involved in the process and make sure everything goes smoothly.
The Responsibilities of a Scrum Master
The Scrum master is the team’s problem-solver and organization guru. They work with both product owners and development teams to refine processes where it makes sense, but are not in charge of anything outside their scope.
Coach Team Members
The Scrum Master makes sure that team members are trained and have an understanding of Agile processes.
Beyond this, they ensure that team members are prepared for meetings, know their tasks at hand and are aware of what others on the team are doing.
The Scrum Master should also provide guidance when a team member is struggling or has questions and make sure they’re managing time well.
Host daily stand-ups
Also referred to as a Daily Scrum, these meetings shouldn’t last longer than 15 minutes and give each team member the opportunity to answer why they did yesterday, what they plan on doing today, and what roadblocks are preventing progress.
As the Scrum master, it’s okay to ask about estimated time needed to complete specific tasks.
It’s also a great idea to ask about any blocking issues that are preventing team members from getting their jobs done.
The Scrum Master should make sure everyone is on the same page and can work together as a cohesive unit.
Help the product owner with the product backlog
The product owner is responsible for creating and maintaining the product backlog. Essentially, this is a list of work teams need to do.
The scrum master ought to help the product owner refine and maintain the product backlog using information gathered from the daily scrum.
The scrum master can assist by scheduling meetings and writing user stories as needed.
Remove potential roadblocks
To help the team focus on the important tasks that need completion during each iteration. The scrum master must find any issues that could impede progress.
For example, when the Scrum master observes a team member being pulled in too many directions, they can quickly work with other stakeholders to redistribute their workload and find ways for them not to be so overwhelmed. There are also more direct roles that may need someone’s attention such as overseeing meetings or managing risks.
Teach scrum best practices and agile principles
The role of the scrum master will actually extend beyond coaching mentors. They need to be able to act as a mentor and teacher for onboarding any new team members or employees.
As a teacher, the Scrum manager helps new team members to work comfortably within their skillset.
The Scrum master teaches them how to be self-organized and stay focused on the task at hand throughout any changes in scope or vision of a product so that they can continue working effectively as part of an independent unit.
Scrum masters typically serve as a facilitator for the team, but they are not responsible solely for project outcomes.
Instead of running meetings and managing others’ work like many other types of managers do, Scrum masters focus primarily on removing barriers that prevent people from being productive with their daily task commitments.
No matter what your roles and responsibilities are in a product team, it is highly recommended to use the best product management software for better team and task management.
The 7 Essential Qualities of a Good Scrum Master
A successful Scrum Master knows that their role is multifaceted and requires many responsibilities. They must be able to get the job done, no matter what it takes.
Though there may be a ‘one size fits all’ solution for some situations, each situation will vary depending on the culture of your team as well as how you are perceived by others in order to facilitate change through creativity or pushing boundaries if necessary.
In that same vein, constantly self evaluating is invaluable as you continue to push the envelope. That’s why these seven qualities are essential when it comes to being a successful scrum master.
Facilitator
The first essential quality, being a facilitator, means constantly working with your team to improve.
What this means is that you need to have a mindset for change and be the driving force behind it. What’s more, if your team isn’t on board with what needs to happen then it can set them back in their progress.
Mentor
This comes down to helping team members improve their technical abilities wherever the scrum master can.
This quality is about knowing what you’re talking about and having a good knowledge of your product.
What this means for scrum masters, though, is that they need to be able to explain concepts in an understandable way so their team members can follow along.
Conductor
As the scrum master, you are the conductor that makes the cogs in the machine go when it comes to process.
If things aren’t going as they should, you need to be the one that identifies what’s the issue and fix it accordingly.
Peacemaker
Sometimes there are internal disagreements within the scrum team or outside it that impact the team.
What this means for a scrum master is that they need to be able to help settle the disagreement and bring peace back into the team.
It’s important that your scrum master understands how their role affects other roles in the team as well as themselves which includes being willing to work with others who have different opinions or ideas if it will ultimately benefit you, them, or everyone else on the project.
This can sometimes mean compromising so both parties get what they want, but are still satisfied with where things end up while still making sure one party doesn’t lose out entirely.
Guiding Light
The scrum master is there to ensure that the team members are living their values. The responsibility falls on them when a member (or all of the group) does not live up to these standards.
They should be made aware if this starts happening so they can change their behavior accordingly before becoming detrimental or affecting other areas in life outside of work.
A good Scrum Master is someone who has a lot of empathy and kindness. They’re also there to help guide the team when they have doubts or questions about what their role entails, how things work in the company, etc.
Brick Wall
As the brick wall, you are stopping any impediments or constraints that are going to get in the way of the team reaching their full potential and producing an amazing product.
Of course, you’re going to empower and encourage your team to manage their own issues internally, but you are the wall for external issues.
Your job is to work with the product owner, business owner, and others in the organization to help resolve it.
Evangelizer
The scrum master will bring his or her own skills to the team.
In that same vein, you need to understand how the organization works and act as your team’s number one fan whilst adapting to the organization and helping them adapt to the team.
In order to do so, you will need to be an evangelizer for your team’s work.
You’ll want the organization and other stakeholders in the process to understand what has been done by your team; why it was done and how well they did it!
Why Do You Need a Scrum Master?
The best way to understand this is through an analogy.
Let’s say you have a team of all-stars across the board. Everyone is the best at what they do.
Some people may argue that the team is so good, they don’t even need a coach.
But on the other side of the coin, we always see star studded teams falter because they don’t have a coach to bring them together.
Sometimes the coach doesn’t even need to bring them together; sometimes all that’s needed is someone gently guiding in the right direction.
Without a good coach though, and your team is in crunch time, there will be no one to look towards to make the necessary calls, which can have a detrimental effect.
If you have a bad coach, you’ll notice it, but if there is a good coach, you’ll wonder why they are even there, which means they’re doing a good job.
The Benefits of Having a Scrum Master on Your Team
Without a scrum master, you will never be able to enjoy the full benefits of scrum without the scrum master. So what are the benefits?
Implementation of best practices for product management
A Scrum Master is usually the one who facilitates the process of setting up and building a team.
They are in charge of making sure that all parties involved have clear visions as to what should be done, so they can work together efficiently on projects.
The Product Owner will need input from an agile coach (which could very well be our Scrum Master) for guidance when it comes to communicating their vision or goal of how features should look like at its completion.
A key responsibility for this position is implementing best practices during development phases in order to make quality software without delays. Additionally, feedback needs to come from them if there’s any issues being encountered along the way which would otherwise hinder progress towards achieving goals.
Keep all parties aligned
The scrum master is the one who helps an organization stay on track with their goals.
They do this by facilitating and hosting a daily meeting (daily scrum) where they ask each member of the team to give updates about what has been done so far in order to identify potential obstacles, find solutions if necessary, and make sure that deadlines are met while maintaining desired outcomes for clients.
Introduce agile engineering best practices
Scrum Masters are the ones who help development teams implement continuous integration (CI) and testing environment practices.
This reduces time needed to develop products, as well as ensuring quality improvements.
Pair-programming sessions also occur where two developers work on a project at once – which not only speeds up progress, but ensures that there is no disruption in flow or stalled productivity when one person has an idea for their next task, whilst working with another developer’s codebase from earlier tasks within the same day.
Make a well-oiled scrum team
The Scrum Master is the facilitator of a team’s success, and as such does everything they can to make sure that things are running smoothly.
This includes facilitating daily scrum meetings (standups), setting up retrospectives, sprint reviews and marathon planning sessions. A
Scrum Master tracks progress on these with burndown charts so that any issues may be discussed during stand-up time or dealt with early before they become obstacles in achieving goals at full speed ahead!
Working with the necessary stakeholders
The Scrum Master’s primary responsibility is to ensure that the team can work well with other stakeholders.
Specifically, the Product Owner relies on them for their expertise, and they help keep track of how the product progresses as a whole.
Furthermore, they serve as an interpreter between engineers who have technical skills, but may not be familiar enough with product creation in order to communicate effectively.
So, as the scrum master, bridging those communication channels is key to success.
Where Do I Go From Here?
It’s no wonder that more and more companies are incorporating scrum methodology into their agile process – it has proven to be a useful tool for fostering collaboration, trust, speed and quality.
A well-functioning team needs a strong scrum master who can lead the way in meeting all of those objectives.
We hope that this in depth article will help your company reap the benefits of this great approach and will help keep your product moving along at a steady pace.
Have you tried Chisel yet? We think our platform offers many advantages over traditional tools like Jira or Trello because it gives teams one single source for product development.