The Scrum Master promotes necessary organizational changes

The Scrum Master acts as a change agent in the organization into which the Scrum Team is inserted, advising, leading, and planning the adoption of Scrum where necessary. That is, he works on the environment around the Scrum Team and other parts of the organization to bring about the necessary changes so that the Scrum Team can do its work more productively and effectively.

This work may involve, for example, teaching Scrum to the Scrum Team members themselves, as well as to the people they directly depend upon to do their work, and other relevant stakeholders, so they can have quality interactions and collaborate rather than create impediments.

However, the most important – but at the same time the most difficult and challenging – work is to promote the necessary cultural changes for the use of Scrum to be effective. For most organizations, adopting the agile mindset, Scrum and an empirical approach implies a profound shift in how they understand, plan and deal with work, with the people who do that work and with their customers and users (see introduction to the chapter Why Scrum? and the sections Scrum is agile and Scrum is based on empiricism from the chapter What is Scrum?).

Normally, when identifying an impediment to the work of the Developers, the Scrum Master searches for its root cause. However, when this impediment originates from the organization’s own functioning, the Scrum Master will act as an agent to promote the necessary changes and thus prevent the impediment from occurring again. For example, he may consider it necessary to modify some inefficient rule or structure that generates waste or hinders the work of the Scrum Team, and he will work towards that.

An effective Scrum Master is persistent and persevering and does not accept that he cannot change the organization in which he works. As difficult and time-consuming as this effort may seem, making the necessary changes is an essential part of the Scrum Master’s work.

He is able to move between the Scrum Team and the organization of which he is a part, building relationships with key people who have influence over the Scrum Team’s work. Through good rapport, political insight and the ability to ask questions, the Scrum Master gains access to important information and uses it to align the Scrum Team’s needs and goals with those of the organization (see Leader of a self-managed team in How is the Scrum Master?, in this chapter). This can also help remove barriers between relevant stakeholders and the Scrum Team that may constitute an impediment, and foster their collaboration as needed.

The Scrum Master can also work together with other Scrum Masters to carry out the work described here, forming, for example, a community responsible for this performance.