Heather McLean

What exactly is the role of the Scrum Master? This has been a subject of debate at my office from time to time. Everyone has varying perceptions of what the Scrum Master does, and even individual Scrum Masters vary from team to team.

If you want to go to the source, Ken Schwaber describes the responsibilities of the ScrumMaster thusly¹:

• Remove the barriers between development and the Product Owner so that the Product Owner directly drives development.
• Teach the Product Owner how to maximize ROI and meet his or her objectives through Scrum.
• Improve the lives of the development team by facilitating creativity and empowerment.
• Improve the productivity of the development team in any way possible.
• Improve the engineering practices and tools so that each increment of functionality is potentially shippable.
• Keep information about the team’s progress up-to-date and visible to all parties.

This is a great academic basis for the Scrum Master. Unfortunately, most teams implementing Scrum are far from academically ideal. It may be helpful for these teams to imagine the Scrum Master in more common terms. This is why I refer to the role of Scrum Master as being a “den mother” (or father, if you prefer).

A den mother is a leader or protector of a group². In this light, the Scrum Master is there to lead the Scrum initiative and to teach the team members and the Product Owner the ways of Scrum and encourage success. Additionally, the Scrum Master must protect the team from outside influences, removing hinderances to success and blocking attempts from non-team-members influencing the team directly.

The den mother is also a coach, fostering the growth of team members and facilitating communications between the team, the Product Owner, and the stakeholders. However, this should not be mistaken for coddling the team. The Scrum Master should help the team to empower and manage themselves and take responsibility for themselves and each other.

He or she is also responsible for ensuring that everyone plays by the rules of Scrum. The den mother must act as a referee to protect the team and the business from chaos and failure. Once the team has reached a certain level of maturity, however, they should also be allowed to bend the rules of Scrum in whatever ways make the team more productive. As with most things, you have to master the rules before you can break them.

And that’s my personal take on the Scrum Master as den mother. I’m sure my view differs from yours, but that’s part of the beauty of Scrum. Everyone can vary it slightly to get the maximum effectiveness for their particular team.

¹Ken Schwaber. Agile Project Management with Scrum. Microsoft Press, 2004. p.36.
²http://www.answers.com/den mother