Scrum Master
The Scrum Master is the accountability within Scrum responsible for establishing Scrum as defined in the Scrum Guide, helping the team and organization understand Scrum theory and practice, and removing impediments.
Explanation
The Scrum Master serves the Scrum team by coaching team members in self-management and cross-functionality, helping the team focus on creating high-value increments, removing impediments, and ensuring all Scrum events are productive and timeboxed. The Scrum Master is not a traditional project manager and does not assign tasks or direct the team.
The Scrum Master also serves the Product Owner by helping find techniques for effective Product Backlog management, facilitating stakeholder collaboration, and helping establish empirical product planning. At the organizational level, the Scrum Master leads and coaches in agile adoption, helps employees and stakeholders understand Scrum, and removes barriers between stakeholders and the Scrum team.
PMI frames the Scrum Master as a servant leader, someone who leads by serving the team. On the exam, look for answers that emphasize coaching, facilitating, and removing impediments rather than directing or managing people.
Key Points
- •Accountable for establishing Scrum as defined in the Scrum Guide
- •Acts as a servant leader and coach, not a traditional manager
- •Removes impediments that block the team from delivering value
- •Facilitates Scrum events and helps the organization adopt agile practices
Exam Tip
When a question asks what the Scrum Master should do, favor answers about coaching, facilitating, and removing impediments over directing or making decisions for the team.
Frequently Asked Questions
Related Topics
Scrum Framework
Scrum is a lightweight agile framework that uses fixed-length iterations called sprints, defined roles, events, and artifacts to help teams deliver complex products incrementally and iteratively.
Servant Leadership
Servant leadership is a leadership philosophy in which the leader prioritizes serving the team, removing impediments, and empowering individuals to perform at their best.
Self-Organizing Teams
Self-Organizing Teams (also called self-managing teams in the 2020 Scrum Guide) are teams that determine the best way to accomplish their work without being directed by people outside the team.
Most-studied PMP concepts
High-yield topics our learners drill most before exam day.
Burndown Chart
A Burndown Chart is a graphical representation of work remaining versus time in a Sprint or release, showing whether the team is on track to complete the planned work.
Relative Estimation
Relative Estimation is an agile technique where work items are sized in comparison to each other rather than in absolute units like hours or days, providing faster and more accurate estimates.
Sprint Review
The Sprint Review is a Scrum event held at the end of the Sprint where the Scrum Team presents the Increment to stakeholders, gathers feedback, and collaborates on what to do next.
Sprint Backlog
The Sprint Backlog is the set of Product Backlog items selected for the Sprint, plus the Sprint Goal and the plan for delivering the Increment.
Timeboxing
Timeboxing is the practice of allocating a fixed, maximum amount of time for an activity, after which the activity stops regardless of whether it is complete.
Resource Leveling
Resource leveling is a resource optimization technique in which adjustments are made to the project schedule to keep resource usage at or below a defined limit, often resulting in a longer project duration.
Risk Register
The risk register is a project document that records the details of individual project risks, including their identification, analysis results, response plans, and current status.
Stakeholder Mapping
Stakeholder mapping is the visual representation of stakeholder relationships, influence, interest, or other attributes using grids, matrices, or diagrams to support analysis and engagement planning.
Cost Performance Index (CPI)
Cost Performance Index (CPI) is an EVM efficiency metric that measures cost performance as the ratio of earned value to actual cost: CPI = EV / AC.
Part of
Agile & Hybrid
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