Scrum Master

ScrumMasters: Don't be a fixer

I think one of the best aspects of agile development is the ability for a team to frequently learn from their mistakes. It's especially crucial that this happens in a blame free environment. When something goes wrong during an iteration, it's important that no team member is singled out. The entire team accepts responsibility for their failures and successes together. And when a team makes mistakes, they need to learn from them. The key components for in a team's ability to learn from their mistakes are the attitude and interactions of the ScrumMaster.

There are a few things a ScrumMaster must do to help their teams learn from their mistakes. First and foremost, the ScrumMaster cannot be a fixer. When things are broken or not working the team, not the ScrumMaster, must figure out how to fix things. If the ScrumMaster continually steps in to fix the problem, the team never learns how to fix a problem for themselves. This leads back to the old command and control structure of more traditional development approaches. Instead of being a fixer, the ScrumMaster needs to be an enabler.

Scrum Master Vs Project Manager

Scrum Master is specialized in ensuring the scrum process is implemented as intended. He is the one who takes care of the different agile practices to reach the team. Project Manager is the one who takes care of the planning, project deliverables, billing, process, QA, etc...
And now the question for many is can a project survive without the Scrum Master. Its often the case that a traditional project manager takes training as scrum master and he takes the role of a scrum master.

Backing up the unreliable people

Scrum Master role in the Scrum development method in the first place "was designed to change the power relationship and interaction dynamics from the traditional Team Lead or Project Manager". Scrum Master organizes the daily meetings, removes the impediments, reminds the Sprint goal, often maintains the Sprint backlog and does other secretary-like work.

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