How important is the role of a Scrum Master
A lot of times I’ve heard the sentence “Scrum Master is such a useless role”, this is what so many companies like to say about Scrum…
A lot of companies nowadays work with Agile Framework, mainly Scrum. However, I’ve noticed a weird pattern: despite the fact of working with Scrum, many companies do not hire a Scrum Master.
What? That’s not a joke.
Unfortunately, many times I hear the sentence “Scrum Master is such a useless role,” even worse, that is not only some companies’ view, but also Product Owners and Developers sometimes share this idea. Why does it happen?
Companies tend to say that Scrum Master is not needed because the team is aware of how to do Scrum and they are already self-organized, therefore no need for a position to facilitate it. For sure, also the company will save some little money by not hiring a Scrum Master.
Team members, like Product Owners and Developers, may see that there is no need for someone to take care of the Scrum, since they are already “good enough” on it, the Scrum Master has no room here.
Before we question the need for a Scrum Master, you should understand deeper what this role is all about. Therefore I would recommend reading this article, Agile Development: What is a Scrum Master? Roles and Responsibilities?
The big question is: does it make sense not to have a Scrum Master?
I’ve got some experience in both scenarios, with and without Scrum Master, the situation is clear.
I recently read one article which compares Agile mindset vs. Agile mechanisms, which is clarifying why companies struggle with agile frameworks.
Let’s look at what the Scrum Guide says about the role of the Scrum Master.
The Scrum Master is 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.
The Scrum Master is a servant-leader for the Scrum Team. The Scrum Master helps those outside the Scrum Team understand which of their interactions with the Scrum Team are helpful and which aren’t. The Scrum Master helps everyone change these interactions to maximize the value created by the Scrum Team.
In short, it is not possible to enjoy the full benefits of Scrum without a Scrum Master. It is like a football team without a coach; it becomes a mess.
A big problem that we face is that companies don’t understand what a Scrum Master is, Willem-Jan wrote a fantastic article about it, which I need to borrow a sentence from:
The role is the Scrum Master is completely misunderstood.
Teams without Scrum Master
The teams complain that they cannot focus on bigger goals, that they work only in features or even fire fighting sometimes, there’s a lot of interruptions, and stakeholders don’t respect the way they work. Sprints are full of scope change; the teams generally don’t get better sprint by sprint.
Companies are not satisfied because the result presented by the team is not satisfactory. Managers think that everything takes too long. They don’t know what is happening within the team.
Even such teams insist saying that the need no baby-sitter, that’s such an awful and distorted view of the Scrum Master. This role is much more significant than someone who schedules ceremonies.
In a scenario such this one, I would ask sincerely:
If we do believe we are good enough as a team, why do we have some many complaints?
Teams with Scrum Master
When the Scrum Master role is applied correctly, the issues mentioned previously can be reduced step by step within time.
One risk to be avoided is to give the Scrum Master so many teams that he or she cannot have time for all the activities that should be taken care of.
The take away here is: Scrum Masters are not only the guardians of the Scrum Framework, but they help the companies and the team to get the best of Scrum. They need to ensure that the principles are followed: transparency, inspection, and adaption. Scrum Masters work between chairs where they coach the business side as well as the Development Team, ensuring that Scrum is bringing more learning and value to everyone.
Stepan Wolpers wrote a more in-depth article about 70 Scrum Master Theses; I decided to take one part of it
A scrum master should recognize that different stages of a scrum team’s development require different approaches: some, teaching; some, coaching; and some, mentoring.
Considering that we can clearly understand that being a Scrum Master is a broader and deeper role, which will help the team reaching the most significant benefits of the Scrum Framework.
My humble opinion is that companies that decide to work with Scrum and find reasons not to hire a Scrum Master are not trying to work with Scrum. To get the benefits of Scrum, it requires a tremendous amount of effort, time and mindset changing, e.g., Product Owners must focus on delivering value instead of features, developers should focus on solving problems instead of closing tickets and so on.
The good news is companies that face the challenge of implementing Scrum properly, enjoy the benefits of delivering value as fast as possible to the business, a highly motivated team, continuous improvements, and fewer problems with communication and sometimes no problems at all.
There are plenty of useful articles about this role; don’t underestimate the importance of a Scrum Master. Here are some posts that I picked for you: