Are you curious about the role of a Scrum Master? Well, let me tell you, it’s a pretty important one! A Scrum Master is like the conductor of an orchestra, keeping everything running smoothly and ensuring the team is working together to achieve the project’s goals.
They are responsible for facilitating meetings, managing sprints, and eliminating any obstacles that may arise during the project.
But, it’s not all about just making sure everything runs on schedule. A Scrum Master also acts as a coach and mentor for the team, guiding them to work in an agile way and continuously improve their processes.
It’s a challenging role, but also a very rewarding one. If you’re considering a career in project management, becoming a Scrum Master could be a great choice for you.
What is Scrum?
Scrum is a very popular agile framework these days. Companies or organizations that carry out agile transformation will mostly use Scrum in their work processes.
Scrum is characterized by its simplicity. The way Scrum works allows us to work much more easily and doesn’t need to be complicated.
Scrum brings together and strikes a balance between working ‘how you want’ and working ‘with instructions’.
What people love about this Scrum framework is that it gives a person or team clarity on what needs to be done and what is the main focus for the team to work on.
Scrum Master Scope of Work
The Scrum Master is responsible for ensuring that the Scrum process in a project runs smoothly. As the Scrum Master, you will be accountable for guaranteeing that all teams carry out agile practices and being the liaison between the product owner and the development team.
Your role here is behind the scenes and not involved in generating product development ideas or strategies.
However, your responsibility is to guide the team through the Scrum process with their expertise and experience. This is because not all team members often have a good understanding of Scrum, especially team members who are new to the framework.
Without a Scrum Master to support the process and help the team understand Scrum’s values, rules, and practices, the development project could have failed.
At first glance, the Scrum Master’s role is almost the same as that of the Project Manager, but the two are different.
The Project Manager is directly involved in a project, including planning, leading, managing and monitoring the project.
Meanwhile, the scope of the Scrum Master’s duties is only as a facilitator and trainer for the agile development team so that the products made can be completed on time with the specified quality.
Scrum Master Functions
The Scrum Master functions so that everyone who uses Scrum understands Scrum as a whole, including the rules of the game and the mindset of empiricism and Scrum values: commitment, courage, focus, openness, and respect.
In addition, the Scrum Master not only functions as a teacher but also as a coach. Even so, the Scrum Master does not have the authority to provide solutions or even impose his will.
Scrum Masters can provide coaching to the development team so they can find answers to the problems they face themselves, for example, using powerful questions techniques.
In conclusion, the Scrum Master functions as a leader serving the Scrum Team through facilitation and coaching.
Scrum Master Roles
Product owner
The scrum master’s role in supporting product owners in the following aspects:
- Find methods to effectively manage the product backlog.
- Help communicate the owner’s wishlist to the project team.
- Arrange and optimize product backlog.
- Organize scrum events as necessary.
Organization
The scrum master’s role in the organization in the following aspects:
- Lead and coach scrum adoption.
- Plan scrum implementation.
- Implement changes and steps to increase the team’s productivity.
- Collaborate with other scrum masters to improve the methodologies’ efficiency.
Skills Required
1. Understanding of Scrum and Agile Training
The Scrum Master must understand the terminology and adequately apply the Scrum framework. If you are still not very good at it, then one way to hone your understanding of Scrum is to take the Scrum Master certification.
Certification will give you a level of expertise beyond just the typical project manager or team leader.
Here are the lists of Scrum Master certifications:
- Scrum Alliance Certified ScrumMaster (CSM)
- Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) Scrum Master
- Professional Scrum Master (PSM) by Scrum.org
- ICAgile Certified Professional – Agile Team Facilitation (ICP-ATF)
- International Scrum Institute Scrum Master Certification (ISSM)
- Project Management Institute – Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)
- Certified Scrum Master (CSM) by KnowledgeHut
- Scrum Master Accredited Certification (SMAC) by ScrumStudy
- Lean-Agile Scrum Master (LASM) by Lean-Agile Institute
- Agile Scrum Master (ASM) by Agile Academy
81% of Certified Scrum Masters feel they can improve their practice directly. Remember that you also need extensive knowledge of agile work formats and methodologies such as Lean, Kanban and XP.
2. Coaching Skill
Having coaching skills is very important for Scrum Masters because you help the whole team to follow the agile path correctly. You not only know what needs to be done but can also explain why the entire team needs to be involved and encourage members’ skills so they can work together even more.
3. Stick to The Rules and Regulations
The Scrum Master is not a manager but a facilitator. So he needs to have active listening skills and pay attention to every challenge faced by the team at every step.
In addition, it is also necessary to pay close attention to the team’s daily activities to get a clear picture of members’ contributions during the sprint.
4. Creative
Creativity is essential when the Scrum Master has to help the team solve problems, bring change ideas, design sprint retrospectives and more.
This skill can also lead the Scrum Master to discover uncharted territory and experiment with product ideas.
5. Can Easily Adapt
After becoming a Scrum Master, you must also be able to adapt quickly to changing team needs. Changes in organizational systems and being able to inspire the same behaviour within the team.
Salaries Data
According to Glassdoor, a Scrum Master in India earns an average salary of ₹14,00,000 per year. It can go up to ₹22,68,000 per year depending on the experience of the candidate and the company requirements.