• Scrum Master

In Scrum, we are all Scrum Masters

‘Master’ in Scrum Master may imply that the person with that role has a hierarchically higher position on the team when it comes to process. But that goes against a key Agile principle: the pursuit of self-organizing teams. So as long as the team continues to look up to a “Master” when it comes to the process, that team is not self-managing. So how does it work?

A good Scrum Master tries to make himself redundant

Only when we place the responsibility for job satisfaction and productivity with the team, not the Scrum Master, does the upward spiral of improvement really take off. The Scrum Master needs the commitment of the entire team to keep improving. This works best when each team member feels she has influence over her own situation. That what she says, feels asks and thinks matters. That she is not a cog in a machine but an expert in an A-team. The Scrum Master works toward empowerment. In the ultimate case, the Scrum Master is then redundant.

A good Scrum Master will always be indispensable

How can you strive for redundancy and still be indispensable? The point is that the redundancy of the Scrum Master depends on the situation. And that situation keeps changing constantly. Moreover, perfection is only an aspiration. Therefore, the Scrum Master will rarely become completely redundant. It is also just as practical to have someone with good feelers and an ambition to improve the process. Someone who likes to find out when a team is running or not. Someone who wants to know which knobs to turn to improve the atmosphere. In doing so, that person develops knowledge and expertise in that area. And as Spider-Man’s uncle said to his nephew, “With great power comes great responsibility.”

We are all the Masters of our own Scrum

Scrum is a team sport. So it’s not just Scrum for managers. If the Scrum Master needs to make himself redundant, we as a Scrum team just help out! The best way to do that is to be open about your own feelings and energy while Scrumming. You don’t wait for the Scrum Master to intervene. You don’t let your job satisfaction depend 100% on someone else, do you? So even if you have not yet mastered Scrumming, you are master of your own Scrum.