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Scrum Master Q&A Fulltime Scrum Master Role

19 March, 2018
Cristiana

Cristiana

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In my Scrum Master training courses, I get a lot of questions about the workload of a Scrum Master. One question I hear frequently is this: Is the Scrum Master role a full-time job? The answer is yes! In my opinion, the Scrum Master role is a full-time job. As a Scrum Master, you support the Development Team, the Product Owner, and the organization. You help others understand and master Scrum, and to achieve their potential at different levels. Scrum Master activities can include any of the following:
  • facilitating Scrum events
  • working on the Scrum process
  • helping teams to become better
  • supporting empiricism
  • promoting inspecting and adapting
  • facilitating teamwork
  • removing and solving impediments,
  • assisting the Development Team to become self-organizing
  • help the Scrum Team to live by the Scrum values,
  • and observing team dynamics.
You will have your Scrum Master radar on at all time. You watch the things that are not being said, and you sense the things that are not on the surface. You can’t do that if you’re not there. With this in mind, here are some answers to some other frequently asked questions. Can you combine your Development Team role with the Scrum Master role? No, you will lose focus and will not be able to excel in either role. Imagine yourself as a developer, you are in the zone, minding your own business and delivering value. Then, suddenly, another developer has an impediment - the deployment to the acceptance environment did not go well because this environment is down. Your team member has tried everything to get it back up again, but it doesn’t seem to help. He asks you if you could help him. If you do not help your team member right away, he is not able to continue. So you leave your current coding and help your team member. When you finally have solved the impediment, you return to your work and continue. You have to connect with the subject again, since you were distracted for a while. Your focus is lost. What if your company requires you to combine your Development Team role with the Scrum Master role? If your company requires you to combine your team and Scrum Master role, make clear agreements with the Development Team about how to interact in the event of an impediment. Make it explicit agreements which role has priority. Can we rotate Scrum Mastership amongst Development Team members? No, you can’t rotate Scrum Mastership amongst Development Team members because not everyone on the team is a capable Scrum Master. The Scrum Master role requires certain capabilities, skills, and behaviors. Some of these Scrum Master characteristics can be learned, coaching, listening, facilitating, mentoring, observing, intervening but others are innate, such as servant leadership and being pro-active. If you have a role on the Development Team and you are also the Scrum Master, you will lose focus. What if your company requires you to rotate Scrum Mastership? If your company requires you to rotate Scrum Mastership, make sure that you are the Scrum Master for more than one sprint (e.g. three sprints) so you can start developing SM skills before you switch. Can you combine the Product Owner and Scrum Master role? No, it’s not a good idea to combine the Product Owner and Scrum Master roles because it creates a conflict of interest. As a Product Owner, you’re busy with your stakeholders, changes in the market, exploring what delivers the most business value and helping the Development Team understand the requirements you have. As a Scrum Master, your focus is on supporting the Development Team, the Product Owner, and the organization. So, the people you contact the most are different and have different approaches.   As a Product owner, you want to deliver business value at the right pace. You can challenge the Development Team to take up a lot of items in the Sprint Backlog. As a Scrum Master, you protect the Development Team from overly demanding Product Owners (believe me, they exist). You do this by helping them asking challenging questions, like: Do we really believe we can finish this? Do we understand what is being asked? It is difficult to approach the team while wearing two hats. You will lose focus.   What if your company requires you to combine the Product Owner role and the Scrum Master role? If your company requires you to combine the Product Owner role and Scrum Master role, make sure you have a clear distinction between them.  It’s also important to clarify which position you’re coming from with those with who you interact.   Can you work as a Scrum Master at a different location from your team or the Product Owner? No, it’s not possible to function effectively in the role of Scrum Master if you are not onsite with the Development Team. You need to be present to sense the things unsaid or feel the vibe in the room. If the Scrum Master and Development Team work at the same location but the Product Owner and stakeholders are at another location, the necessary contact and collaboration are lost.   What if logistics require the Scrum Master and Development Team to work in separate locations from the Product Owner and stakeholders? If you can't work in the same onsite location, interact with each other as often as possible. Make an all-day video connection if possible. Ask Development Team members who work on different locations to work together in the same location for a period of at least one month. The team members will get to know each other a bit, this will help to build trust in the team. If you’re still stuck in a situation that prevents your Scrum Team from performing at its best, please contact us: [email protected]  

Cristiana

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