Who is the Scrum Master?

The Scrum Master is accountable for promoting and supporting the understanding and use of Scrum. Using, among different techniques, his knowledge of Scrum and ability to deal with people and groups, the Scrum Master works to facilitate and enhance the work of the Scrum Team. He assists the Product Owner and the Developers of the product in continuously improving their processes and practices, aiming to become more efficient and effective in doing their work, besides making their work more enjoyable.

The Scrum Master ensures the quality of interactions among the Scrum Team members and between them and external people. To this end he can acts as a facilitator when necessary and teach those involved whatever is needed to promote interactions that maximize the results of the Scrum Team’s work. The Scrum Master, together with the Product Owner and the Developers, make up the Scrum Team. He serves the entire Scrum Team, including the Product Owner. It is a common mistake to focus only on the Developers and leave the Product Owner unattended. He also serves the entire organization.

To conduct this work, the Scrum Master:

promotes and supports the use of Scrum, working so that the framework is understood and properly used by the Scrum Team.
facilitates the work of the Scrum Team whenever needed, in its day-to-day activities and during Scrum events, aiming to increase the team’s autonomy and enable its members to work together to develop the product, communicating effectively among them, continuously seeking to improve their processes, and carrying out their work with responsibility, quality and productivity.
causes the removal of impediments that hinder the work of the Developers and, where possible, help prevent them from occurring.
promotes the necessary organizational changes for the Scrum Team to do its work effectively.

The Scrum Master is:

a leader at the service of the Scrum Team and the organization as a whole, facilitating interactions between the team’s members as needed, supporting and enabling them to fully develop their potential and skills, generate more value and become more autonomous.
competent in soft skills – that is, has behavioral and personal skills such as communication, facilitation, and political skills. The Scrum Master is also courageous, proactive, and self-confident to make any necessary changes, remove impediments and protect the work of the Scrum Team.
present to the extent possible during the Developers’ work to observe, identify, help create transparency and resolve issues, as well as remove impediments and protect the Developers from detrimental disruptions.

Fun fact: ScrumMaster or Scrum Master?

Scrum Master was originally called “ScrumMaster,” with the two words together. That is how it was put in early articles since the initial definition of the role (BEEDLE ET AL., 1999; SUTHERLAND, 2001; SCHWABER, 2003; SUTHERLAND, 2004), in the first books on Scrum (SCHWABER; BEEDLE, 2002; SCHWABER, 2004; 2007) and in the first two editions of the Scrum Guide (SCHWABER, 2009; 2010).

With Ken Schwaber’s troubled departure from the Scrum Alliance in 2009 and the subsequent creation of Scrum.org, the name was changed to “Scrum Master,” in two separate words. It had already appeared like this in the 2011 edition of the guide (SCHWABER; SUTHERLAND, 2011), when Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland, the creators of Scrum, began to write it together.

What I heard about the reason for this change was that “Certified ScrumMaster,” the certification offered by the Scrum Alliance, is registered by that entity. For that reason, Ken Schwaber changed the name to “Scrum Master,” in order to avoid rights issues in creating his own certification on Scrum.org, the “Professional Scrum Master.” Here in this book – as of this edition –, I have chosen to adopt the name officially defined in the Scrum Guide: “Scrum Master.”