Conclusion: When and Why to Fire a Scrum Master?

coach_talksI was covering “Process and Responsibility” topics in my last post.
To finish my analogy with Football Coach i want to suggest three main aspects that will help you to distinguish great Scrum Master from mediocre one.

1. Process is more important than value

Process is only a tool that can help to achieve results. Great Scrum Master will experiment with various practices and approaches to find what fits best his team, which depends on team’s maturity, experience, mentality and etc. And what is more Great Scrum Master will always think about the value being created by the team.

2. Suggests decisions only, but provides no information

Great Scrum Master will work towards increasing the transparency and bring as much information as possible to the team, so they understand the problem and would be able to participate in the decision making. Great Scrum Master will make sure big picture is not lost and everybody knows what is important and why it’s important.

3. Maintains status quo

Great Scrum Master is always focused on improvements. Without challenging status quo nothing much can be achieved. You can’t win two tournaments in a row if you are not going to change tactics and strategy.

What is next?

Professional Football team has several coaches. This is another interesting discussion to have… But remember - Scrum Master is team member with different skills set. Good luck in finding a great Scrum Master and right balance between number of team members and number of “Scrum Masters”!

Presentation is available here