Job Description of a Scrum Master

Job Description of a Scrum Master

What does a day-to-day life of a Scrum Master look like? What is he/she supposed to do (and not do !)
as a part of their role? Read on to find out.

1. Represent the team

A scrum master is supposed to take care of his/her team members. A scrum master should voice the
opinions of the scrum team at all appropriate forums. A scrum master should be unbiased towards
anyone in particular when it comes to speaking on behalf of team members. A scrum master is required to
keep the team updated of what is going on in other teams. One of the important duties of a scrum
master is to protect his team members from external disturbances such as upper management, other
teams etc. Although a scrum master is not supposed to be doing performance evaluations, he/she can
definitely provide clear, real and impartial feedback to the management about the scrum team members.
A scrum master could work with the appropriate people to ensure that the team members are benefited
with rewards and recognition advantages whenever required. Having said all of the above, a scrum master
should never take decisions on behalf of the team. A scrum master should never assign tasks. A
scrum master should never micromanage team members.

2. Boost morale

A scrum master has many responsibilities that may not be measured on paper. One such important
responsibility is that a scrum master should boost the confidence of the team members whenever they are
feeling low. There are various tricks and tactics that a scrum master can use to boost the team’s morale.
Asking the right questions at the right time to provide a bigger picture to everyone is an important duty
of a scrum master. This can help the team understand the goals at a wider level. Also, the team could
understand what exactly is their contribution to the goals explained by the scrum master. This can
motivate the people by leaps and folds.

3. Eliminate roadblocks

When a team is executing in a scrum model, the team members could face a lot of challenges. A scrum
master’s primary responsibility is to solve the challenges faced by the team members. This does not
mean that a scrum master should know answers to all the questions. Sometimes connecting the team
members with the right people is all that is required to be done. One of the important agile values is
encouraging communication. And almost always; communication is the key to the problems.

4. Facilitate discussions

Arranging a meeting and facilitating a discussion are two different things. Arranging a meeting ensures
booking a venue, sending invitations to required people, ensuring that everyone shows up etc. However,
facilitating a discussion is a different ball game altogether. Facilitator needs to convey the meeting agenda
to everyone at the beginning of the meeting. This can ensure that the discussion is convergent and doesn’t
lead to waste of time. In case the people start diverging from the meeting agenda, then the scrum master
acting as a facilitator should bring the people back to the primary topic of discussion. Every meeting will
be fruitful if there are some useful takeaways from the meeting. A limited list of action items should be
communicated and agreed upon to ensure that the discussion leads to somewhere. A scrum master who
is acting as a facilitator should keep track of time and should not encourage discussions that waste
everyone’s time and doesn’t yield any helpful outcomes.

5. Resolve Conflicts

Many times the discussions happen as business as usual. Sometimes, the team members get into conflicts.
It is the responsibility of a scrum master to resolve these conflicts. Conflict Resolution doesn’t
necessarily mean that one party has to compromise for the sake of another party involved in a conflict.
A scrum master should ask the right questions so that the pros and cons of each option are out in the open.
This will help everyone come to a common understanding thus resolving the conflicts.

6. Teach Agile Concepts

It is an important responsibility of a scrum master to keep learning about agile all the time. At the same
time, a scrum master should keep iterating agile values and principles for his/her team members. Training
scrum and agile concepts from time-to-time is a regular activity that a scrum master should do.

7. Be a bridge

A scrum master should be a bridge between the scrum team and the external world. Be it other
engineering teams, management team, PO/PM team or anyone else. The scrum master should ensure
that there is a forum readily available for any clarification/discussion required to carry out the team’s
day-to-day activities.