Marcus Raitner

Servant-leadership in general and the role of the Scrum Master in particular are grossly underestimated because the impact of this new form of leadership is rather indirect. Like a gardener, they foster conditions for successful cooperation. The value a Scrum Master adds, standing like a football coach at the touchline during the game, is easily overlooked. Sooner or later, a Scrum Master will therefore be offered “real” work, like a coach being expected to take a role on the field. And the Scrum Masters who are not well aware of their actual accountability or are trying to avoid conflict will accept. The much more important long-term work on the system and the continuous improvement of the organization are then left unaddressed. But nobody notices anymore because everyone is busy with “real” work.

Have you ever experienced this? The Scrum Master being abused as a jack of all trades? Because, after all, a Scrum Master is supposed to “help” the team and the Product Owner. The Scrum Guide says so! For sure, that must include working a little bit within the team or at least taking some of the annoying project management tasks off their hands, such as reporting and documentation.

Even if that were true, is it also helpful?

The Scrum Master is supposed to take care of impediments, right? Yes, the Scrum Guide includes “Removing impediments to the Development Team’s progress.” And the Scrum Master serves the team, the Product Owner, and the organization. Indeed, and again the Scrum Guide clarifies, that this is to be understood as servant-leadership—as help for self-help.

An example of an impediment that we run into regularly is the Development Team being bothered with status reporting. This is an impediment to be tackled by the Scrum Master, but the actual dysfunction isn’t resolved if the Scrum Master devotedly takes over the reporting work from the team. The real challenge is to show that the required reporting slows down the team, doesn’t add value to their development work, and then, together with the recipients of the status report, find a better way to satisfy their real and hopefully legitimate interests.

Inexperienced Scrum Masters are afraid of addressing the conflict between the demands placed on them and the actual accountability of their role. It is by no means easy to disappoint such expectations, especially when it makes a Scrum Master liable to being blamed for letting down the team and avoiding responsibility. Many have never experienced it differently and are more or less happy to be pushed onto the field, for which some urgency can always be called upon. But in doing so, these Scrum Masters forget the seemingly less urgent but more important long-term work on the system.

The job of Scrum Masters is not to seek popularity and avoid conflicts. Scrum Masters can be expected to question and address unhelpful organizational practices and related interactions between the organization and the team. A Scrum Master working the system like a modern court jester can only succeed with the right perspective and the necessary independence. This is why the touchline is where the Scrum Master should be.

My hope for Scrum Masters around the globe is to keep this in mind every time they are tempted or pushed to go do “real” work.