What does a Scrum Master do all day!?

Maybe you just started as a Scrum Master, maybe you’re interested in becoming one. But what the heck does a Scrum Master do all day?!

In the life of a Scrum Master, every day is different. And that’s reassuring, right? No day is the same and that’s one of the many perks of being a Scrum Master. To me, at least.

Even though a Scrum Master’s life is quite varied, you still don’t know what kinds of activities form the lion’s share of your work. More often than not, Scrum Master responsibilities are limited to being the secretary of the team, the JIRA admin, the scribe who registers what’s being said during Sprint Retrospectives, Product Backlog refinement, or just the impediment remover.

However, Scrum Master accountability is so much more than that. You’re not only serving the Scrum Team but also aiding management and organization around the team. Think of adjacent business units like HR and finance.

That’s why I’ll shed more light on these responsibilities in a blog series. I’ve divided the daily activities into 3 subcategories: teamwork, Product Owner work, and organizational work. Please note that this is not meant for deep insight into all the activities; it’s merely an overview of the many tasks that could be part of a Scrum Master’s life. Click on the article to go to the topic of your liking. Or even better: check them all!

A Scrum Master’s Scrum Team focus

In this first article, I’ll explore what the various activities of a Scrum Master can be when working with your Scrum Team. Obviously, a Scrum Master without a team is like Santa Claus without a beard. Many of your Scrum Master activities are focused on the team, like safeguarding the agreed Scrum values, streamlining the team’s processes, observing, facilitating Sprint Retrospectives, and so on.

Take this list as an inspiration for your daily activities. See whether this (in)complete list makes sense to you.

A Scrum Master’s Product Owner focus

Although a Scrum Master has a large team focus, as you can read above, you also have an important role in supporting the Product Owner. You can help with the Product Vision, the Product Backlog, stakeholder management, budget and transparency, and many more tasks.

Let’s see what that means for a Scrum Master’s activities. Read how you can complement the Product Owner.

A Scrum Master’s organizational focus

The final element of a Scrum Master’s responsibilities lies within the entire organization you’re working at. As a Scrum expert, you’ll have the knowledge – and responsibility – to make other teams and departments in the organization understand the basics of Scrum. That's how you can make collaboration more efficient and more effective between teams, departments, and roles.

How does that look? You can take a proactive role in sharing Scrum knowledge, teaching and supporting other teams, helping fellow Scrum Masters, and explaining the basics of Scrum to leadership teams. Get ready to dive deeper into what I mean by that. Learn how you can impact your organization.

Are you ready to become a Scrum Master?

As you can see, a Scrum Master’s activities are highly diverse. Sometimes you’re working with people, the other time with processes. And your focus is always on finding improvements and maximizing results.

Whether you’re facilitating the team to prosper, supporting the Product Owner in his tasks, instructing other teams or leadership on Scrum, or bringing more fun to your Scrum Team’s daily work – to name but a few examples – you’re always working with different colleagues with different skills and different levels within your organization.

One thing is for sure: the Scrum Master role does not get boring easily!

Do you have a question about the Scrum Master role that’s not been answered yet? Let me know and I’ll help you find the right answer. Or do you want to become a Scrum Master? Check out our Professional Scrum Master training course.