What is Scrum Master and its different from Project Manager?

Scrum Master is the role to be responsible for ensuring the operation of the Scrum team. They help teams follow the principles and practice of work to bring the best value. This role is created as part of the Scrum framework. They is not both the manager or the leader, but they are considered an expert in Scrum and they can be a trainer and supervisor for the team.

For each role of the whole project, the Scrum Master will have different responsibilities to support. As the Product Owner, the Scrum Master is in charge of providing the technical management of the Product Backlog and the process of use for the whole team. They also help the Product Owner clarify the plan for production release and support the Scrum events as requested.

Additionally, they will actively fulfill the role of an agile coach, assisting the development team in method and practice under the Scrum working process. They have to follow and maintain the workflow of the team to make sure all work is well controlled under the process. They also clear the obstacles and connect the development team with the product owner.

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Differences between PM and Scrum Master

There is an overlap between these two roles, but these roles are almost different in most projects. Mostly, a project manager will manage the project team with the responsibilities of planning, procurement, and execution of a project.

In general, the Project manager (PM) is accountable for the whole process of working with the development team. The PM will take customer requests and transfer them into scope, and goals, and plan to do estimation, define the timeframe, budget, and manage team members to guarantee productivity.

In contrast, the Scrum Master is responsible for helping the team understand theory, principles, practice, and values. Also, they take requirements from clients (considered as Product Owners) to build product backlog and define Sprint planning for each sprint.

Distinguishing between the roles of Scrum Master and Project Manager in a project is essential. However, recognizing a slight overlap between these roles in the project is inevitable. You can learn more about this here.

How to be a good Scrum Master?

It is not difficult to interpret what the Scrum Master’s responsibilities are, but it is a big challenge to be a proficient Scrum Master. And, these lists below consist of factors to generate proficient leaders in this role:

– Facilitator: they need to be a person to create the environment of the Scrum working process and generate good conditions for the team to work effectively in Scrum.

– Agile Coach: they have to train and clarify the Scrum rule and process for teams to make them understand the working methodology applied in the project. Additionally, Scrum Master needs to comprehend members’ weaknesses and strengths in their mindset and behavior. Since then, Scrum Master has plans to train and enhance team productivity and collaboration.

– Mentor: They share experiences with teams so that they can understand the value of this methodology and why a business decides to choose Scrum for working style improvement.

– Teacher: In addition to providing knowledge, they play a role as a teacher to help teams well organized under different work practices under the Scrum methodology.

– Change Agent: Scrum Master is active in generating the Scrum culture as well as advanced technical thinking. In the digital era, Scrum Master has to be always ready to learn and adapt new methodologies and solutions to make teams consecutively innovate and evolve.

The Scrum Framework does not consider the role of Scrum Master easy because it demands multiple perspectives and skills from the individual filling this role. The theory is not adequate to evaluate their skills. Instead, real experience and a flexible mindset are factors that help them adapt to all changes in unexpected scenarios.