Scrum Master: Position or Role?

The Scrum Master is a facilitator who ensures that the Scrum Team is provided with an environment conducive to completing the product’s development successfully. The Scrum Master guides, facilitates, and teaches Scrum practices to everyone involved in the project; clears impediments for the team; and, ensures that Scrum processes are being followed. The Scrum Master is the person responsible for ensuring that the product development is progressing smoothly and the Development Team members have all the tools to necessary to get the work done. The Scrum Master monitors the Release Planning and sets up and oversees meetings. The role of the Scrum Master is based on the concept of servant leadership in which leaders achieve results by giving attention to the needs of those they serve.
Corresponding to a Scrum Master role in a project, there could be a Program Scrum Master for a program or a Portfolio Scrum Master for a portfolio. The Scrum Master is the “servant leader” of the Scrum Team who moderates and facilitates team interactions as team coach and motivator. The Scrum Master is responsible for ensuring that the team has a productive work environment by guarding the team from external influences, removing any obstacles, and enforcing Scrum principles, aspects, and processes.
Thus, Scrum Master is more a role than a position. Note that the Scrum Master role is very different from the role played by the Project Manager in a traditional Waterfall model of project management, in which the Project Manager works as a manager or leader for the project. The Scrum Master only works as a facilitator and he or she is at the same hierarchical level as anyone else in the Scrum Team—any person from the Scrum Team who learns how to facilitate Scrum projects can become the Scrum Master for a project or for a Sprint.
Scrum Master – is a role and not a position because:

• Acts as a guardian and facilitator for the team.
• Protects the team from external interference
• Does not get work done, but only facilitates the team.
• Ensures the team follows and implement Scrum practices
• Acts as a motivator and coach to the team
• Acts as a change agent, ensuring a smooth and effective change process
• Scrum Master is at the same hierarchical level as anyone else in the Scrum Team

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Significance of Daily Scrum Meeting

Being an active member of a couple of IT projects  and regularly attending hours of daily scrum meetings today I am overwhelmed to share my thoughts about it. An integral part of the Scrum process is the Daily Scrum meeting which is a regular ritual practiced every morning. The team comes together on each working day about the same time to discuss the status of the project. The synonyms to the Daily Scrum meeting include “Daily Stand up”, “Daily Scrum”, and “Scrum Meeting” among others. The meeting is an informal gathering of all the team members coming together in a circle. The very objective of this meeting is to ensure better coordination among the team members working towards the end goal. The Scrum meeting should not be confused with Status meeting, a meeting to provide status update to management or other stakeholders.  Every team member’s active participation is appreciated along with a high degree of candidness.
The milestone of having this meeting is to get a daily feedback on the progress of the project. The meeting is moderated by the Scrum Master. The sprint backlog is updated during the meeting. The challenge faced by the team members should be noted and resolved by the ScrumMaster.  The technical discussion usually happens after the Scrum meeting and is attended by relevant technical members.
Last minute hiccups at the end of the sprint can be avoided if there is a crystal clear update about the project during the daily standup. It is recommended that the product owner attends the daily standup. The daily stand up should happen even in the absence of the product owner or ScrumMaster.
The meeting is timeboxed to a maximum time of 15 minutes and happens before the task board. Care must be taken to ensure each team member has sufficient time to answer the 3 questions which could last about 2-3 minutes. Any topic that needs further discussion is noted in the “virtual parking lot” which is discussed in detail after the standup. Why do we have standups and not sitdowns? If a person is standing still he is uncomfortable and if this standing person is speaking he is all the more at discomfort. It is this discomfort that cut short lengthy discussions.
The 3 Questions which seek an answer during the daily standup includes
1) What did I do yesterday?
What have I achieved?
2) What will I do today?
Task for the day
3) What impediments my progress?
Challenges faces by me

The significance of this meeting is that it brings all the members of the team on a common platform. It instills discipline in the team. All the details pertaining to requirements and releases are obtained from the product owner. The daily standup helps in identifying and plugging the gaps in the teams commitment and understanding of requirements.

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