Who Will Be Your Scrum Master?

When you look at your team, do you feel it's making progress? Do you feel that you're moving towards high delivery performance in your project? Maybe there's someone playing the role of Scrum Master, or maybe you don't yet have one on the team. I'm sharing with you, from my own experience, some key elements to have in a good Scrum Master.

He has to master the process

Software development is complex, and that's no surprise to anyone (at least, I hope it is!). However, the software development process is much more complicated than simply following the four Scrum events.

There are many variables that improve software delivery performance. The best teams deliver 106 x faster than the worst performing teams, have a 7 x lower failure rate, and when there is a failure, they are 2,604 x quicker to put things right.

Implementing performance-enhancing capabilities is no easy task, and requires a thorough understanding of DevOps and Lean (minimizing waste). This is a far cry from the clichéd image of the Scrum Master who simply puts post-its on a wall during a retrospective!

In-depth understanding of team dynamics

The culture of your organization has a direct impact on the performance of your teams. I know I'm pointing out the obvious, but it's important. Not everyone in the team has the same experience or the same level of attention to detail. Conflicts often arise between developers as some take quality more to heart than others. Another example is denouncing the Product Owner when "tasks aren't clear enough".

The person who plays the role of Scrum Master must excel in the art of creating a climate of trust and transparency, known as psychological safety. It's this factor that will boost continuous improvement in your team, and therefore lead to better delivery performance.

Can a team member be Scrum Master?

At first glance, this choice isn't completely crazy. Instead of hiring someone, we're going to take someone from the team. I've tried it, I'm guilty! Today, I no longer recommend it. Maybe temporarily, but it's a band-aid on an open wound. When you take on a developer from the team, it usually translates into someone who's only going to facilitate meetings.

After the ceremonies, he goes back to work on his tasks. His mental load is not really to improve the team's performance, but rather to perform his primary role, which is to develop the product. His thoughts in the evening are more focused on how to fix his bug, rather than understanding the root cause of the bottlenecks that are damaging the team's performance.

And I'd even add that, often, this developer is the very cause of several bottlenecks in the team, because he's usually involved in several roles and company meetings and is "too busy".

In addition, the developer is necessarily biased in his judgment and understanding of the situation. The Scrum Master serves the development team and the Product Owner. The developer, on the other hand, is not necessarily at the center of all discussions, and will have several blind spots. The developer won't want to be at the center of these discussions, because his real job is to develop a quality product, not coach the Product Owner.

Can members be rotated?

Choosing a new person at each ceremony to "play the role" of Scrum Master is often a syndrome of the previous point. It's a scenario I recommend even less. For the team to achieve high delivery performance, the Scrum Master must serve and influence his team towards better practices.

Successfully influencing people to adopt new behaviors depends on gaining the trust of your peers. Building a relationship takes time. It involves one-on-ones, celebrations, phone calls, difficult conversations, lunches, etc.

Ultimately, the Scrum Master has a game plan for getting the team to adopt a better work process. Sometimes, it's the outsiders who get in the way of the team's performance, for example with interruptions or meetings. So in this case, if the Scrum Master role changes hands regularly, who will really have the incentive to solve it?

In the end, it's hard to find a good Scrum Master. People who tick all the boxes are rare or expensive. The fact remains that investment is essential if you want to achieve high software delivery performance. You just have to be aware of the impact of the decision you're making!

Feel free to contact me at awalsh@nexapp.ca if you have any questions, or leave comments! I'd also be very grateful if you'd share this article!

Looking forward to seeing you in the community!