Scrum Master: the leader who serves!

6 things that have been changed in Scrum Masters role

You just got hired to a position that the company itself does not understand? Congratulations! You are now a Scrum Master. But don’t you worry, everything is going to be just fine!

Scrum Master is maybe the most misunderstood position in IT as people fail to understand its purpose. It is, perhaps, because people read the guide and take the most suitable phrases for them without even finishing the sentence and want the SM to apply especially that requirements. It is like some religious sects do; i.e. taking some suitable phrases from the Bible, and concentrating only on them avoiding the other ones that somehow contradict their wishes. This might be, of course, because the guide was a little misleading in the past, but now we have an updated one, that provides detailed information about what the Scrum Master is competent for.

This article is dedicated to the New Scrum Guide’s comparison to the previous one and is a part of upcoming series. In this particular one, we are going to discuss the role of the Scrum Master in the New Scrum Guide.

For SMs, this new Scrum guide is just a consolation of the soul as one can be a “captain obvious” to mention that we do things we are not supposed to do at all. And you know why it happens? Because in every Scrum Master’s Job Description, there is this point highlighted to the maximum level that the Scrum Master is an IMPEDIMENT REMOVER. So, if there is any slight problem in the team, for example, the team does not feel like self- organizing, people that are not competent in their roles, or the company does not want to recognize a standard workflow, or there is no other person to talk to providers or stakeholders. Sure, it is the Scrum Master who should carry all this burden in him/her. We sure love to do that as we feel proud of our productive days. However, when this becomes a usual thing, people start to misunderstand the role’s initial purpose.

In respect to this, what the founders of the Scrum Guide Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland did is to reconsider this position’s JD by paraphrasing and even changing the emphasis of the words used to describe the Scrum process. I was really excited to take in the Live event of the new Scrum Guide’s release, that helped me realize how they came to this change.

So let’s dive in the changes in the Scrum Master’s role:

1. From the first sentence, we can see that the emphasis is put on establishing Scrum, not promoting or supporting it. The difference is very crucial because the Scrum Master is authorized now to establish the process, and not just support or promote it. You might think that these are just words, but don’t you believe that every word can mean a groundbreaking change in a sentence? Sure, after establishing the process, we should promote and support it as we are the ones who are accountable for the Scrum Team’s effectiveness.
2. The next one is maybe the most critical change in the guide. Yes, it is somewhat a play on words. However, it changes the whole essence of Scrum Master’s leadership. From being a servant-leader, the Scrum master became a true leader who serves the Scrum team and the organization. Now you will say they just have twisted the words for their own sake. I bet they did for our sake, because sometimes there is only one way to prove what you do, and that is the psychological influence on people. I have an example of my own, that proves this to be true. One day, a developer working in one of my teams told me if there was somehow or somewhere mentioned that you are a real leader for the team, I would approach you in a completely different way. Well, this might not be in every team, but, in fact, this happens. Anyways, psychological influence is a way to solve the problems. And also, the true leader always serves unconditionally, hence putting the word servant before the leader, minimizes the true essence of the word ‘leader’.

3. Another issue that was changed is that the SM should teach the team to self-manage not self- organize. The term self-management and self-organization describe how the Scrum Team should work. These terms are not that much different from the first sight; however, the change could not be done without a reason. As far as I am concerned, putting the verb manage instead of organize puts more accountability on the team as a whole, not on single people from the scrum team.

4. The next issue that caught my eye is that now the SM causes the removal of the impediments, not that he/she removes the impediment. Could this mean that the self-managing team now can remove the impediments itself? This issue needs a brainstorming, I guess. What you think? Comment your ideas about this:)

5. A lot has been changed in the SM’s service to the PO. We no more need to ensure things POs are supposed to know or do. Makes sense, right? Meanwhile, there are issues that we need to help them with, that is absolutely normal. The final point here, i.e. “facilitating stakeholder collaboration” was an added point that we have already been doing as required.

6. The final point in the New Scrum Guide is the SM’s service to the organization, the points of which were interchanged and paraphrased between one another and became more emphatic. The point that was added to this section was “removing barriers between the stakeholders and scrum teams” that we most certainly were doing as requested or needed. Thanks for noticing at last.

It is amazing how things are changing everywhere. Sometimes the rules that define us are changing too, thus shaping and opening a new era for our development.

See you in the next one!
Adios!

#scrum25 #scrumguide #happybirthdayscrum