What is the Role of the Scrum Master in Agile?

We have different methodologies of software development like agile development, waterfall development, extreme development, Rapid Application Development (RA), Spiral development model, and Scrum development model. This article focuses on discussing the Scrum development model, its advantages, disadvantages, and the roles and responsibilities of the Scrum master.

What is Scrum?

Scrum is an agile framework that uses incremental and iterative approaches to develop a software product. It is a framework within which people can address complex adaptive problems with productivity and creativity in delivering high-quality products.

Advantages of Scrum

• Quick and efficient delivery of product/project.
• Effective uses of time and resources
• Continuous entertainment of customer and stakeholder feedback.
• Testing is done during the sprint review.
• The effort of each team member is evaluated during the scrum meeting.
• It encourages individuals to come up with creative approaches.
• It takes care of customer satisfaction and is cost-effective.
• It creates transparency among teams, stakeholders, and clients.

Disadvantages of Scrum

• Requires experienced team members.
• Works well for small team sizes only.
• It is difficult to work for large team sizes.
• It often misses the deadline.
• Team members get frustrated with daily scrum meetings.
• Scrum teams require lots of training to work in this environment.
• Estimation of the project budget is difficult.

What is Scrum Master?

A Scrum master is a facilitator/instructor/coach who is not directly involved in the development of a project (like coding, testing, designing) but he/she ensures that the team members are following the Scrum framework.

• They also ensure that the team members adhere to the agile principle and its value.
• They take responsibility as a mediator to exchange information among team members and stakeholders.
• Scrum master helps the team to work in a motivated and learning environment.
• They also encourage the idea of individuals so that the team comes out with the best product.
• Scrum master holds the soft skills with the latest tools and technologies to meet the stakeholder requirement.

Role of the Scrum Master

1. Removing Obstacles

Scrum masters identify the obstacles that hamper the progress of the team and remove the obstacles to help team members work smoothly. When a team faces third-party interruption, the scrum master takes responsibility to talk to the vendor and product owner to solve the problem without hampering the development process.

2. Training

The workshops Scrum master educates the team members about the scrum practices. They are also responsible for helping the team and stakeholders understand the agile principle. They often conduct workshops or hire professionals from industries to train teams.

3. Conflict Resolve

Scrum master help the team members and stakeholder resolve the conflicts among team members as well as between the team and stakeholders. Many a time it so happens that team members have internal conflict in decisions making common decisions or conflicts between the stakeholders regarding particular features. Scrum master helps to resolve the conflicts.

4. Protect from Distraction

Scrum masters protect team members from unnecessary distractions and help them to be on the right track of development. Distraction refers to the diversion of team attention and focus away from the primary goal. Scrum masters set boundaries and ensure team members meet the deadline.

5. Motivational Environment

Scrum master ensures a motivating environment for team members to work efficiently and smoothly. When a team gets demotivated Scrum master role comes into action, they use keep session to motivate the team.

6. One-to-one Meet

The Scrum master meets individually with team members and stakeholders to know their problems and disagreements and figure out disagreements about the working style and processes. It is a kind of mentoring session in which the scrum master meets each member and helps them if he/she is facing it.

7. Accountability

When team members distracted from the track and take lots of time to complete a particular sprint. Scrum master ensures that the sprint is completed within the given time interval to meet the deadline of the project.

8. Monitoring

The Scrum master continuously monitors individual team members and keeps track of the individual’s progress.

9. Transparent

The Scrum master is responsible for keeping transparency among the team members and stakeholders about the project, progress, and product backlog.

10. Sprint Review

The Scrum master actively participates in the scrum meeting and records the feedback.

11. Improvement

Scrum master captures the area where improvement is required and ensures that action is taken in future sprints.

12. Product Backlog

Scrum master ensures that the product backlog list is defined properly and should be managed efficiently. The agile product backlog is a list of features, user stories, changes to existing features, infrastructure, and other activities that represent the product or project requirement.