• Agile & Scrum Basics

What is the difference between Scrum Master and Product Owner?

Scrum basically has 3 roles: Scrum Master, the Product Owner role and the Development Team. The Scrum Master bears responsibility for the process. The Development Team works extremely hard to develop the product. The Product Owner ensures that maximum customer value is created. The entirety of these three roles is called Scrum.

These Scrum roles are equally important for efficient and strong collaboration. But what are the differences between the Scrum Master and the Product Owner? This article provides clarity and creates an overview of the differences between the two Scrum roles.

Scrum Master

The Scrum Master is the facilitator. Thus, the Scrum Master is the liaison between the Product Owner and the Development Team. The Scrum Master makes work of three key components in the work process:

• Motivation of team members;
• Team efficiency;
• Relational processes in the team.
• Removal of (organizational) barriers.

For the Scrum Master, it’s all about quality, efficiency and a smoothly running system.

Product Owner

The Product Owner is the value creator: the person with the vision. He or she translates the desire of customers and/or stakeholders. The Product Owner is particularly concerned with:

• Constantly monitor vision;
• Team focus;
• Stakeholder management.

The Product Owner role is responsible for the list of tasks still to be done (product backlog).

Interplay between Scrum Master and Product Owner

Every Scrum team has a Scrum Master and a Product Owner. As you know, a Product Owner fills the heads of the team members with the why of the work being done. The Scrum Master makes sure the team members can do their work well. Both roles work well together. The interplay between Product Owner and Scrummaster is important because it creates flow, efficiency and value.

Most importantly, don’t forget the essence of Agile working. Agile working is about delivering value for customers and/or stakeholders. But also about adapting and improving the moment something changes and having the right conversations with each other. Whether you work from the role of Scrum Master or Product Owner doesn’t matter. What matters is that together you realize the optimal result for the customer.