How can Scrum Master as a Servant Leader make a Significant Difference in Agile Software Development? Learn about the various roles relevant for Scrum Masters.

1. Scrum
Master as a
Servant
Leader for
the Scrum
Team
www.bacancytechnology.com

2. Introduction

3. A scrum master giving instructions to
team members
A scrum master coordinating with team
members and other stakeholders
A scrum master assigning tasks to various
team members
A scrum master strategizing how to bring
together team members for the Daily
Scrum or stand-up meetings
A scrum master restricting his duties only
to his team and not expanding his role that
has the potential to bring a significant
organizational change
For example, when opening a firewall port
cannot be resolved by the team, a scrum master
declares that the team cannot resolve it, and he
passes the buck to the product owner. This is a
classic act of letting go of a small and yet great
opportunity to make a significant difference in
the overall fabric of the organization.
In a typical agile software development
project, a scrum master is often seen doing the
following things almost daily:

4. A scrum master as a servant leader sorts
out daily stuff, thereby ignoring the
potential of long-term improvements in
the overall efficiency and team skills.
For example, developers often would
have no clue how to utilize test
automation in the agile software
development when a scrum master is
too busy in other development project
activities.
A scrum master managing a team that is
not efficient enough to produce a
“Done” increment by the end of each
sprint
A scrum master managing a team that
does not have any clarity on the product
backlog
A scrum master is dealing with a team
with transparency issues because of
their earlier waterfall background in the
software development process.

5. All these situations sound quite familiar, don’t
they? They do. It feels like our very own
comfort zone or the proverbial sense of
familiarity. However, do you think that these
tasks performed by the scrum master are all
that a scrum master can do or should do? Do
you think that there is more to the roles and
responsibilities of a scrum master than these?
If yes, read on.
As they say, the real thing always starts out of
one’s comfort zone. So, when we start thinking
out of our comfort zone, we tend to discover
things that are like precious treasures buried
under the layers of Time and Space, waiting to
be found and seen by us.
Before discussing what treasures we can find
by taking the role of a scrum master out of our
comfort zone, let us have a few words about
what exactly the Scrum is and the real
responsibilities of a scrum master.

6. What is
Scrum?

7. The 2020 Scrum GuideTM defines scrum as:
“Scrum is a lightweight framework that helps
people, teams, and organizations generate
value through adaptive solutions for complex
problems.”
It also sets forth five scrum values:
Commitment, Focus, Openness, Respect, and
Courage.
One of the best features of Scrum is its
simplicity. It derives its simplicity from being
intentionally incomplete, leaving room for
relationships and interactions through
collective intelligence of people who exploit
this framework to execute the agile software
development process seamlessly.
This conscious incompleteness allows the team to
explore various processes, techniques, and
methods without compromising the basic values
mentioned above.

8. What is a
Scrum
Master?

9. Scrum master is also called iteration
manager, agile coach, or scrum team coach.
A scrum master is a part of Agile team who
helps to understand and implement Scrum
theory thoroughly.
The one does so by remaining faithful to
Scrum as prescribed in the Scrum Guide.
Hence, the role of a scrum master as a
servant leader who is there to serve
whenever required.
However, lack of thorough understanding
of the scrum, and its purpose often leads to
the undervaluation of this role, creating
scenarios that we just saw at the outset of
this discussion.
These scenarios can be overcome with the
correct understanding of Scrum and the
role of a scrum master.

10. Let us explore what scrum master is and
how the one can bring about a significant
change in the organization’s overall
efficiency and work culture.
Essentially, the role of a scrum master is
quite broad. His prime responsibility is to
implement Scrum framework in the agile
software development process. In order to
do this, a scrum master needs to work with
not only just teams but also with the
product owners as well as the organization.

11. Scrum master
as a Coach

12. What does a coach exactly do? Does the
scrum master go out in the field and play?
Of course, not! A scrum master also does
not need to go out in the lab and actively
participate in the agile software
development process.
A scrum master’s job is to make the teams
efficient and skilled in such a way that the
teams can manage the development process
independently. Rather than constantly
instructing the teams what to do or what
not to do, for that matter, a scrum master
needs to train the team in Agile scrum
project management so that the team is
able to create high-value increments, which
are in alignment with the definition of
“Done.”

13. Scrum master
as a
Counselor

14. There will always be chaos and tension
between different stakeholders during the
development process. It is the job of a
scrum master to create psychological safety
for all the teams to be able to perform at
their best and come up with innovations
and new ideas.
This would also involve training the team to
embrace their vulnerabilities, deal with
them, overcome them, and finally establish
the culture of transparency or openness,
which is one of the values of the Scrum
framework. A scrum master can coach the
team in a way that all the team members
feel confident and safe enough to express
themselves without the fear of being judged
or looked down upon.

15. Scrum master
as a
Collaborator

16. A scrum master serves as an important link
between a product owner and the project
teams. Many times, an absent product
owner causes delays and tension in agile
software development.
A skillful scrum master is a master
collaborator who has the knack to make a
product owner an active participant in the
entire software development process in
spite of the product owner’s busy schedules
and other responsibilities.
Such an effective collaboration goes a long
way in building a scrum team that learns to
trust the process and the role of a scrum
master.

17. Scrum master
as an
Observer

18. The role of a scrum master is that of a smart
observer. He is a person who has an eye for
detail. He has a knack for observing and
paying attention to the daily activities of
the teams and team members. This ability
helps him have a clear understanding of the
teams’ efficiency and skills and the
individual team members.
Being a good observer also involves being a
good listener. A good scrum master is also a
good listener who is skilled in listening to
all the stakeholders.

19. Scrum master
as a
Repository of
Knowledge

20. A scrum master also serves as a walking
encyclopedia for the teams. He has the
overarching knowledge of the product and
the processes, including Scrum, Extreme
Programming (XP), Kanban, and SAFe.
An experienced and knowledgeable scrum
master is a precious resource who is always
there to help the teams get through the
inevitable bumpy rides during the software
development processes.

21. Scrum master
as a Master
Builder of
Scrum
Culture

22. A scrum master plays a significant role as a
master builder by establishing a thorough
scrum culture across the organization. He
leads, trains, and coaches the organization
to adopt Scrum effectively and smoothly
with all of the aforementioned skills.

23. Scrum master
as a Servant
Leader

24. We have already discussed about the
importance of agile servant leadership in
the agile software development process in
this post. The scrum Guide categorically
defines scrum master as a servant leader
who is there to serve and not command or
control.
The main responsibility of a scrum master
as a servant leader is to help teams be self-
organized and self-managed. He trains
teams to deliver effectively by
implementing and supporting lean-agile
practices, SAFe principles, ScrumXP,
Kanban, and other software development
processes that the team is accustomed to.
As part of his servant leadership skill, a
scrum master also makes the team
coordinate with other teams of the Agile
Release Train (ART).

25. A scrum master is also there to remove any
obstacles in the path of the development
process. By doing so, he ensures high-value
deliveries, continuous and consistent flow,
and improvements.
As a quintessential servant leader, a scrum
master also works with the extended Scrum
Master community. This makes them more
efficient in helping the teams communicate,
coordinate and cooperate in a better way.
This training then helps the organization
achieve its business as well as delivery goals
quite efficiently.

26. Why do
Organizations
Need an
Efficient
Scrum
Master?

27. In light of the discussion, it is quite evident
that the role of a scrum master is
misunderstood more often than not. Hence,
managers often don a hat of a scrum master
who has an altogether different personality
than a regular project manager.
This happens most of the time with those
enterprises who want to join the Agile
“bandwagon” without a correct
understanding of the Agile and its processes
and various frameworks, especially the
Scrum. In their aspiration to get quick
benefits of being “Agile”, enterprises find
themselves absolutely unprepared actually
to think and function the Agile way.
In this context, enterprises need scrum
master as a servant leader who has
developed the Agile mindset after years of
training and experience, and who knows the
Scrum inside out.

28. Conclusion

29. It is quite obvious that the role of a scrum
master is not an ordinary role. He is the
person who becomes the scrum master
after a lot of training, experience, and the
thorough absorption of Agile and Scrum
principles and values.
The role of a scrum master is often
misunderstood only because the
enterprises fail to understand Scrum per se.
They often adopt Scrum to execute
software development projects, forgetting
that the core of Scrum lies in its use of
managing the risk.
When this essential purpose of the Scrum as
a risk management framework is lost or
forgotten, or misunderstood, organizations
often tend to appoint someone who is
anything but a scrum master.

30. Hence, the organizations must make the
right efforts to understand Scrum master as
a servant and absorb its essence in their
culture and DNA for efficient Agile software
development. Only with this thorough
understanding can a Scrum Master make a
real difference that the organizations
expect and deserve to!

31. Thank You
www.bacancytechnology.com