What does a scrum master do all day?

Question

To quote wikipedia:

Scrum is facilitated by a ScrumMaster, whose primary job is to remove impediments to the ability of the team to deliver the sprint goal. The ScrumMaster is not the leader of the team (as they are self-organizing) but acts as a buffer between the team and any distracting influences. The ScrumMaster ensures that the Scrum process is used as intended. The ScrumMaster is the enforcer of rules."

Working on this basis, and the fact that most businesses are running 2-3 projects at a time, what actual work tasks does a SM do to fill a full time job? Or, is it not a full time job and that individual do other things such as development, sales etc?

Do any SM's out there have anything to share?

Answer 1

Unfortunately we don't have the luxury of having dedicated scrum masters. I am also a team leader and senior developer which more than fills the day.

Answer 2

I typically am on Stack Overflow all day. Oh, and I try to co-ordinate lunches.

Answer 3

The key to the ScrumMaster role is to remove impediments.

Answer 4

The ScrumMaster/ Iteration Manager

• Builds the Release Plan
• Builds the Scrum/ Iteration Plan
• Plans and hosts the
  • Scrum/ Iteration Planning Meetings
  • Show & Tells
  • Release Planning Meetings
  • Retrospectives
• Owns the blocker board and actively works with the team to identify and remove blockers
• Updates the team WIKI
• Updates Big Visible Charts in the team room including the story card wall
• Participates in the daily standup
• Participates in the daily Scrum of Scrums

The ScrumMaster/ Iteration Manager is also the sheep dog, that is they protect the team (herd). Finally, the ScrumMaster/ Iteration Manager is the point of contact for the team to external resources but primarily the Project Manager.

Answer 5

"acts as a buffer between the team and any distracting influences"

That is a full time job. There are a bunch of people who would love to get information from the team and it is the SM to handle those questions. To do that job well, it is important to be proactive, not reactive. Therefore they should be keeping all the wheels running smoothly. It is an amazing transformation when the SM is working well.

Answer 6

I think there will be as many answers to this question as there are people to answer it. On a small team with dedicated people who mostly know what they doing, the role of SM is almost invisible; on a larger team trying to cope with vague requirements and power struggles the SM will be highly visible and probably never have a moment to themselves, as they will become the lightning conductor for all the frustrations of the team (and stakeholders outside it).

There's no substitute for knowing what you want to achieve and having a small team of people who know how to achieve it. If you have that, and you "adopt SCRUM", you will probably be convinced quickly that being a Scrum Master is easy. But if instead you have a big mess of a team, and an undefined goal, and a lot of political fighting going on, and you "adopt SCRUM", you will probably come away thinking that being a Scrum Master is a full-time (perhaps impossible) job requiring a combination of very rare talents. Most real teams are probably somewhere between these extremes.

Answer 7

Please note: this question and answer is over twelve years old. The consensus understanding of the role of scrum master has moved on massively since then and so I no longer view this as a valid answer to the question, let alone one worthy of being the accepted answer. By all means downvote it. Beyond that, pay it no heed.

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The Scrum Master will do things like ensuring scrums occur, organising sprint planning meetings, retrospectives etc. Also (s)he will be able to explain to management what the team is doing and why the team members cannot be poached off onto other projects until the sprint finishes. Beyond that, there aren't really any defined tasks for the Scrum Master. So one person should easily be able to be Scrum Master for 3 teams, and still have time left over to either do management type jobs (holiday requests, procedures, attending boring meetings with directors or whatever), or be free to contribute to the development resources of the team.

Answer 8

While ScrumMaster is a role within the Scrum framework, the individual fulfilling that role must be a member of the Team. In Scrum, Team members should at all costs be full time. Team members should be able to pick up tasks on the Sprint backlog. They might be development tasks, testing tasks, configuring the CI server tasks, etc... If you can't contribute to the burndown then why be on the team? Buggering off and joining another team is the last thing any self respecting ScrumMaster should do. ScrumMasters should be servant leaders that are embedded with and dedicated to their Team and product. ScrumMaster is a role on a Team, not a job title. I disagree with those that think you can be a ScrumMaster on more than one project at a time and still be world class. The fact is, that's just not Scrum.

Answer 9

First and foremost: remove impediments.

It is best if a Scrum Master is dedicated to one team, so that impediments are removed as soon as possible. Some of this can be done proactively, for example by pushing the PO to analyze certain stories better for the next Sprint.

If there is extra time available it is convenient if the SM has some skills that can make him function as a developer or tester on the team. I've seen good result with SM's that delegate as much as possible to a (classical) project manager and focus on development most of their time.

Answer 10

To make a long story short, the Scrum Master is responsible for making things happen. And in practice it is often the case that the Scrum Master is actually a project manager in disguise. At least that's the case in my company.

Answer 11

Working on this basis, and the fact that most businesses are running 2-3 projects at a time, what actual work tasks does a SM do to fill a full time job?

Anything within their skillset to help the Team achieve the goal.

Or, is it not a full time job and that individual do other things such as development, sales etc?

ScrumMaster was not originally intended to be a full time job. ScrumMaster is a role fulfilled by someone on the Team. That team member is dedicated to the product full time. So, when he\she is not doing ScrumMaster duties they default back to burning down tasks on the Sprint Backlog.

Answer 12

Everything and anything that developers need to keep being productive. Order pizza. Go talk to admins, management, other teams. Do bureaucracy kind of stuff. Fix the build server if no one else's available.

Answer 13

The key word here is that a Scrum Master's role is a facilitator's role. And as someone rightly mentioned up there his most important job is to ensure seamless distraction free environment for his team, which means removing impediments, making sure his team has whatever they need at all times. Scrum master is a link between the Product team and the Development team. The decision making is done by the TEAM and not Scrum master. It is bad idea to share one Scrum Master between multiple teams as requirement of one team may be an impediment for the other team and hence defies the whole purpose of a Scrum Master. Also it is very dangerous to have your Manager as your Scrum master as the pressure of delivery on the manager may force him to micro manage which is a killer for any scrum team. Other than the regular stuff which is

• Arrange Sprint planning and retrospectives
• Facilitate daily standups Arrange
• Demo's at the end of sprint iteration
• Address team's concerns mentioned at the standups

A few important things that a Scrum Master has to manage on a day to day basis is

• Foresee and remove any distractions for the team before even it hits the team.
• Encourage team to communicate more
• Maintain constant communication with product team to check what needs to be done in preparation for future sprints
• Make sure the team follows the processes they have collectively agreed upon as sometimes during sprint busyness some processes slip through the crack
• Constantly find ways on how to improve the processes followed by the team

Most importantly a Scrum Master has to standby and support his team.

All this work takes up a lot of time and does require a dedicated Scrum Master who performs no other role.

Answer 14

Scrum Master is like the mother bear for the team. They look after the team's health (project wise), protect them from pesky outsiders and remove any obstacles for the team. I play ScrumMaster for my team but I am also a development lead (for the same team!) who takes part in technical discussions, design discussions, coordinating between the developers and QA on our team(if they arent already doing it themselves). I do try and take on actual development tasks to burn the chart down when time is available.

Isnt it extremely distracting for the ScrumMaster to play that role in multiple teams. God I would find that confusing. Which impediment is blocking which team again?? Wait who was working on this task??

Answer 15

A Scrum Master role implemented correctly, is invaluable to the Project and should not be look upon as a Part time role. The most important aspect of the role is to act as an obstacle remover for any queries raised in the Scrum meetings by the Development Teams. A Technical Scrum Master (which is what most SMs tend to be) should not be a Developer on the team, but should be able to advise on design and solutions (an extension to pair programming if you will).

They are responsible for updating the ProductBackLog (stories should be created by the business), SprintBackLog and BurnLog and for liasing with the business and IT Management on progress. They also manage a SpikeLog for any items that require investigation that may evolve into Stories (again driven by the business).

Answer 16

As drivendevelopment implies, the ScrumMaster is a full team member and thus should be full time. I generally treat my role as "ensuring the team functions as a well oiled machine", which can have a number of meanings at different times. Frequently, a SM spends a lot of time facilitating the team's interactions with people outside the team, especially those related to business analysis and stakeholder expectations. Beyond that, it is a matter of meeting the mechanical items listed by Cam and looking after the physical and emotional state of the team.

Related to one of the earlier answers, one of the fundamental aspects I insist on is that no member of the team is a direct report to me, nor to each other. This precludes things like vacation time, expenses, etc from being part of my job, but goes a long way towards not cluttering the trust relationship that must exist.

Answer 17

As generally understood priority # 1 on scrum-master list is to remove impediments as reported by team. But this should not stop here, he should constantly look out for potential impediments.. and more importantly impediments that are there but not yet identified. Ken said Impediments are opportunities. So scrum-master should avail these opportunities all day along to bring his team(s) to hyper productivity.

Ultimately purpose of scrum is to bring success to projects. Purpose of having a scrum-master is to ensure that scrum succeed in fulfilling purpose of scrum. Now to to fulfill purpose of scrum-master, he/she must think & act at strategic level as well. This is full-time job.