Becoming ScrumMaster

Angela Druckman is an agile coach and Certified Scrum Trainer. She specializes in agile transformation, helping teams and organizations all over the world improve their competitive position and effectiveness through agility.

  Agile   Leadership   Scrum   ProjectsAtWork  

Many project managers are making the transition to ScrumMaster, but problems arise when old behaviors and work patterns are brought to the new role. Here are some common issues that organizations face when their new ScrumMasters do not fully understand the subtleties of the Servant Leader function.

While the ScrumMaster is clearly a leadership role in Scrum, it is also a role that has no traditional authority. This means ScrumMasters do not “manage” their Scrum teams or Product Owner or anyone else, for that matter. They are, instead, servant leaders.

A good ScrumMaster uses observations and questions, not to tell a team what to do but to lead a team to discovering for themselves what to do.

Problems can occur in the ScrumMaster role when the people fulfilling the role bring old behaviors and working patterns with them into the job. While some skills and traits from their previous job — be it team member, project manager, or something else — support the ScrumMaster role, others do not.

Here are some common problems organizations face when their new ScrumMasters do not fully understand the subtleties of the role:

Master of Disguise

Good project managers often have strong, directive personalities. They are comfortable with accountability in every sense of the word and have no qualms about “taking charge” of a situation …

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