Scrum Master

Practitioner’s Guide
Written by Eugene Lai
The role of the “Scrum Master” is one of the most sought-after job
roles in recent years due to the growing popularity of Scrum, the most
popular and widely-adopted Agile framework in the market today.
However, this role is also one of the most challenging positions to fully
understand for many reasons.

The objective of this whitepaper is to demystify some of the

misconceptions about the Scrum Master role and provide a few
insights for both current and aspiring Scrum Masters to help them
make a meaningful impact to their teams and organizations.

In this paper, I have assembled a collection of tips based on personal

experience building and cultivating Scrum teams. I will offer a few
recommendations on how to serve as an effective Scrum Master,
as well as a few techniques for handling unique situations that are
seldom found in formal publications. The suggestions mentioned are
intended to invoke further exploration and thought prior to applying
to specific organizational situations.
 What is a “Scrum Master”?

The Scrum Master is a highly misunderstood role within the Scrum framework due to
many factors. Organizations often relegate this role to an administrative role – someone
who sets up meetings, coordinates facilities and/or sets up the teleconference, takes
notes and updates the Agile Management Tool for the team, etc. While these tasks
are important and need to be done, the Scrum Master’s job goes far beyond these
activities. The reason that many Scrum Masters focus exorbitant amount of time on
trivial activities is that some organizations do not fully understand the Scrum Framework
itself, which leads to confusion to the core responsibilities of the Scrum Master.
As described in the Scrum Guide, the Scrum Master is expected to embody the core
values of Scrum: Courage, Commitment, Respect, Openness, and Focus. How a Scrum
Master exhibits and promotes these values is typically left up to the individual to decide.
Below are a few recommendations for active and aspiring Scrum Masters.

Courage

Focus Commitment

Scrum

Openness Respect

Courage– A Scrum Master demonstrates courage by challenging the status quo,

by continuously reinforcing the Scrum values through consistent practices. This may
seem like common sense, but this is a long journey that requires persistence and a
strong will.

Commitment– A Scrum Master commits to serving the team, to the Scrum

framework, to helping the team to achieve success in any way possible.

Respect– A Scrum Master respects ideas and opinions shared by the team, while
encouraging healthy conflict that fosters innovation.

Openness– A Scrum Master is always open to feedback and constructive criticism,

regardless of the situation.

Focus– A Scrum Master is focused on teaching the team to operate as a unit, to always
look for a better solution to issues related to people, process, or tools.

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 Key Skills for a High-Performing Scrum Master

One of the interesting characteristics of a Scrum Master is the variety of skills required
to be effective in this role. Some organizations feel that it is imperative for a Scrum
Master to be a subject matter expert, while others focus more on soft skills such as
the ability to negotiate and facilitate difficult conversations. In most cases, the ability
to navigate organizational boundaries and culture is one of the most critical skills for
a Scrum Master. This talent can be difficult to quantify and articulate when it comes to
cultivating a Scrum Master.
Aptitude and attitude are important traits for a successful Scrum Master; he/she should
have a passion for continuous improvement and relentless pursuit of knowledge. This
person should be inherently curious and have an internal motivation to help others
succeed. While such characteristics are often difficult to train or teach, with proper
mentorship, individuals with the right attitude can be developed into highly-effective
Scrum Masters.
The term “Servant Leader” is typically used to describe the Scrum Master, but this
term can be difficult to understand. Is the Scrum Master a servant or a leader? The
answer is: Both! The Scrum Master is expected to serve the team, and at the same
time, influence the team towards an effective way of collaborating, while supporting
the team’s freedom to make decisions and solve problems creatively. Such dynamic
skills are very difficult to acquire, and are often learned through hands-on experience.

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 Scrum Master Anti-Patterns - What traps should a Scrum
Master watch out for?
On the journey of discovery and continuous learning, many Scrum Masters will likely
encounter challenging situations that will put their core values of Scrum to the test.
Below are a few pitfalls that all Scrum Masters should be aware of and actively watch
out for. How a Scrum Master handles each specific situation will likely vary depending
on organizational dynamics and project context. However, in most instances, these
situations often challenge the Scrum Master to consider various options that could
have lasting impact to the team.

1. Temptation to tailor Scrum practices. More than likely, most Scrum Masters
will encounter this situation at some point in their career. Many maturing
Scrum teams have a tendency to pick and choose specific Scrum practices to
apply and to ignore. It is the Scrum Master’s responsibility to champion the
Scrum values and apply the practices within the spirit of Scrum. Excessive
tailoring often originates from the lack of understanding for the purpose
of that specific event (e.g. eliminating Sprint Retrospectives). In this type of
situation, the Scrum Master is expected to educate and mentor the team
on the purpose of each collaboration event. The framework is designed
strategically for each event to work together, so eliminating any component
will significantly degrade the overall effectiveness of the framework. In lieu of
customizing Scrum, the Scrum Master can help the team inspect and adapt
by conducting a Root Cause Analysis (RCA) to diagnose problem areas, then
determine the proper solution to address the issue. More often than not,
the team will discover that the solution may be very different than what they
originally anticipated.

2. Complacence with status quo. Scrum Masters are often faced with the
difficult decisions on a daily basis, one of which is to challenge the norm
or leave things the way they are. This type of situation could be related to
engineering practices or how the team is currently practicing Agile/Scrum.
Team complacency can be considered a risk that should be addressed in some
way, especially for mature teams. Often times, a Scrum Master will need to
manage the “speed of change” carefully, and help the team develop a mindset
of continuous improvement. This will require consistent adherence to the
core Scrum values. For new teams, it is typically easier to motivate the team
to introduce incremental change on the path to building a high-performing
team. For teams that have been successfully delivering solutions using Scrum,
the Scrum Master will need to be more creative and come up with innovative
ideas to continue to inspire change. One way to accomplish this is by applying
different types of Retrospectives to continue challenging the team.

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 3. Motivating the team using risky techniques. One of the changes that has
occurred within the Agile community in recent years is the de-emphasis on
metrics such as burn down charts. While this may seem counterintuitive, the
root cause for this change is the belief that the value of such data has been
overshadowed by negative impacts caused by misuse of the data. Metrics
such as team velocity, work item estimates, and burn downs are often used
by organizational leadership to motivate higher productivity and output
through competition. This is a risky approach to team motivation. As the
Scrum Master, the preferred approach is to instill a mindset of continuous
improvement, which provides a more positive view and a more sustainable
change in mentality. How do we teach something as fundamental as
professional growth and learning? That is a challenging subject which can
be addressed in a variety of ways. The key takeaway is that a Scrum Master
is expected to motivate the team through core values instead of by fear of
negative outcomes; he/she should also have enough courage to challenge
those who may be unintentionally creating a negative dynamic using team-
level metrics.

4. Holding one individual accountable instead of the team. With the advent
of various Agile Management Tools such as JIRA, CA Agile Central, Team
Foundation Server, etc., many Scrum teams run the risk of unconsciously
evolving into a task-centric team in which individuals take ownership of
specific work items. While this practice may seem harmless on the surface,
this dynamic could have subtle effects on teamwork. When specific team
members own individual work items, team collaboration may degrade. As
the Scrum Guide suggests, the entire team should own the entire Sprint
Backlog (i.e. collective ownership), not a single individual; this mindset fosters
shared ownership and accountability, which encourages collaboration and
maximizes team effectiveness as a whole. So, what can a Scrum Master do to
motivate teamwork despite the tool having single owners to work items? One
possible solution is to reinforce the concept of shared ownership by calling
out that the person “assigned” to the User Story is meant to represent the
point-of-contact for that Story, and that the entire team has the opportunity
to help each other meet the acceptance criteria for that Story however they
can. Another technique is to take a different approach during Daily Scrums
to focus on the work items instead of individual team members. In practice,
instead of encouraging each team member to share their progress individually
at the Daily Scrum, use the Sprint Board as the focal point to discuss what has
been completed for each work item (by all relevant team members) and what
can be done to make progress towards completion as a team. This approach
may build a different mentality of shared accountability.

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 What Are Some Tricky Questions or Situations That a
Scrum Master Should Expect?
Regardless of the size and nature of the project, Scrum Masters will likely encounter
many difficult situations and be expected to answer challenging questions throughout
the project. Below is a collection of potential scenarios that a Scrum Master may need
to address. Note that responses to the situations are offered as possible solutions to
consider; these may vary depending on specific project constraints and organizational
context.
1. “Can we skip the Sprint Retrospective? The other developers feel that it’s a
waste of time.”
Suggested action: One way to address this is to examine the reason for the team not
getting value out of the Retrospective before eliminating it from the standard practice.
Applying root-cause analysis techniques such as Fishbone/Ishikawa diagram or “5-
Whys” can often reveal the real problems at hand. In this case, it is likely that the
Retrospectives are just not facilitated effectively, which leads to lack of engagement
and perceived value.
2. “We only have 3 days left in this Sprint, and we won’t be able to finish all
the work we planned. Can we extend the Sprint by a few more days so we
can wrap this up?”
Suggested action: With only 3 days left in the Sprint, any work that is not expected to
be completed within the Sprint should be evaluated. The team may consider several
options: (1) Put the work item back into the Product Backlog and select a smaller work
item that is more likely to be completed, (2) Abandon this specific work item (i.e. put
the work item back into the Product Backlog) and “swarm” on remaining/in progress
work items to maximize completion of work, (3) Refine (or split) the work item into
smaller, simpler parts and focus on the part that is more likely to be completed within
the current Sprint.
3. “The other Scrum team (in XYZ department) is doing 50 points per Sprint,
and we are only doing 30. Should we try to finish 50 points next Sprint so
we don’t look bad?”
Suggested action: This is a complex situation that may require multiple actions. The
more important aspect that should be addressed is the fundamental understanding
of Story Points; why do teams feel that they are in a competitive environment? Is
management directly or indirectly using team output as a measure for success? This
type of behavior can create a negative dynamic that should be addressed to negate
potentially damaged morale or induce unintended behaviors (such “gaming” the
system by altering point values intentionally).

6
 4. “Can we do the Sprint Demo every two Sprints instead of every Sprint? We
have not been able to show any completed work in the last few Sprints so
there’s no point in having this demo meeting every Sprint.”
Suggested action: Sprint Review (a.k.a. Demo) is an important Scrum event that is
designed to maximize transparency and provides the opportunity for inspection
and adaptation. If the team is consistently unable to produce anything meaningful,
there are bigger problems that must be resolved because the team is not functioning
properly. Some of the potential causes of this may be: (1) User Stories are sized
inappropriately (too large) and/or have poorly-written acceptance criteria, (2) Team
consistently overcommits to work, (3) Team consistently over-estimates work, or (4)
Excessive churn in resource capacity. There may be additional issues that lead to a
team being unable to produce results. The best way to determine the source of the
problem is through root-cause analysis.
5. “This User Story turned out to be a lot more complicated than we had
expected. We estimated it at 5 points but we know think it should have
been at least a 13 or larger. We think we still have a chance to finish this
during the Sprint. But, should we update the tool and change the estimate
to 13?”
Suggested action: The purpose of estimating work using Story Points is to accomplish
two goals: (1) Discuss the problem set, the solution, and the approximate complexity,
(2) Establish a team-level velocity to forecast future work. The point values for a Story
is a snapshot in time which is based on the team’s best understanding of the problem
domain at that point in time. There is minimal value in updating the estimate after
additional learning and discovery has been done. Hence, the general recommendation
is to leave the original estimate as-is and allow natural learning to occur over time,
which should eventually improve the team’s ability to estimate more accurately in the
future.

Closing Thoughts

The job of a Scrum Master is challenging because it is often morphed into or merged
with traditional job positions such as Project Manager or Program Manager. This is
likely the result of a combination of lack of understanding for the Scrum framework
from an organizational perspective. When organizations seek to apply Scrum in a
meaningful way, they must commit to gaining an accurate understanding of what this
role means and how critical this role is to the overall success of the adoption of Scrum
and achieving the expected Return on Investment.
To ensure credibility and legitimacy to this role, Scrum Masters owe it to themselves to
operate with a high standard to help evangelize Scrum as an effective way of producing
meaningful results. This can only be achieved through focus, commitment and courage.

7
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Eugene Lai
MBA, PgMP, PMP, ACP, CSP-SM, SPC, SAFe-RTE, ICP-ACC, CSaSP

Mr. Eugene Lai is a seasoned innovator in Information

Technology and process engineering with over 20 years of
proven track record delivering high-impact solutions within
PMOs and Agile teams. In previous roles as Lead Software
Engineer, Chief Scrum Master, Principal Program Manager,
VP of Project Management, PMO Director, Technical
Consultant and Agile Advisor, Mr. Lai has successfully
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companies and U.S. Department of Defense customers
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to organizations such as Project Management Institute
(PMI), Scrum Alliance, and ASPE Training.

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initiatives by applying a variety of methodologies and frameworks such as Traditional Waterfall/
SDLC, Large Scale Scrum (LeSS), Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), Scrum and Kanban. Mr. Lai
has architected 5 corporate PMOs and successfully executed Agile transformation efforts for
6 different organizations.

Mr. Lai currently holds several professional certifications including: Certified Scrum Master
(CSM/PSM), Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist, Professional Scrum Product Owner
(PSPO), Scaled Agile Program Consultant (SPC), Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP), Project
Management Professional (PMP), and Program Management Professional (PgMP).

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