What is the main role of scrum master?
The Scrum Master is an effective role that ensures the members of the team deliver to their desired potential and agreed values which the team has assigned itself to, by practicing it in the best way possible. It is also deemed as a “facilitator for an agile development team.”
Technically, scrum is a process framework that’s main role is to manage product development and handle other knowledge work. It works on a well-thought-out process to provide its team a well-established hypothesis on how to function, on how to get things done, and reflect to find solutions if experiencing any obstacles.
It also incorporates practices from other frameworks that fit in the team’s context to make the best use of them.
The main responsibilities of a scrum master include-
-To optimize the team dynamics and make the most of it.
-Ensure a healthy environment where the team can be effective.
-When encountering obstacles, clear them and bring effective solutions at the same time.
-Make sure there is a good relationship between the team and product owner.
The role of the scrum master was created to support the idea of the Scrum framework itself. Initially, the motive of the title was to coach others and be an expert at Scrum. However, it is important to realize that the role does not have actual authority.
Other key terms for this role that are interchangeably used are iteration manager, team coach, or agile coach.
Skills Required-
Depending upon experience, there are different types of scrum masters.
-Rotating scrum master- The responsibilities of the scrum master are shared by the members of the team on a rotational basis. One can also say that the positions change on a sprint by sprint basis. Mainly, the responsibilities are administrative.
- Part-time scrum master-One of the team members handles the scrum master responsibilities with their share of responsibility for the team.
- Full-time dedicated scrum master- The person’s sole responsibility is as a scrum master.
- Full-time scrum master that handles more than one team- This model is frequently used when the person’s sole responsibility is just to be a scrum master. However, in this case, they work with more than one team.
- Agile Coach- The person that does not have a specific team, however, it works with several teams only on certain contexts and specific needs.
Benefits-
The two best benefits for having a scrum master is that he can assess distractions, disruptions, and obstacles and address them so that the rest of the team can easily focus on the work and provide the output that will help generate the desired outcome.
Other than this, the idea is to have an experienced person on the team who already has access to agile, and scrum and knows the experience of using it in different situations so that when the need arises the team can figure out the best way to apply it in their situation.
Several limitations that can arise if the role is misapplied-
Ineffective leadership would result if you assume that project managers can attire this role of scrum master who is used to give command and control type leadership.
Asking someone to fill in this role’s shoes without having any substantial experience in an agile setting,
Keeping the same expectations from a team that is well acquainted with each other would require less of a scrum master than a team that is quite new to working with each other. The understanding of agile values and principles gets aligned as the members work together with time. So, that’s one thing you need to take care of.
Primary Contributions-
Scrum master’s major contribution is to effectively manage the work of a team, make it codependent in a well-meaning manner that involves product development. A good amount of planning, control over the work, and risk identification go along with the farsightedness to assess mitigation and issue identification.
