Scrum Master

Scrum Master can be both a role within a Scrum Team and a standalone profession. A Scrum Master is the person who teaches the team how to work with Scrum and ensures that Scrum events — such as Daily Scrums, Sprint Reviews, Retrospectives, and others — are carried out properly.

Responsibilities of a Scrum Master

1. Introduce the team to Scrum
A Scrum Master is often invited to a team that has only recently transitioned to working with Scrum. As someone deeply familiar with the framework, their first responsibility is to introduce the team to Scrum, explain its events, and help establish work practices that follow the rules.

2. Act as a facilitator
The second responsibility of a Scrum Master is to serve as a facilitator during Scrum events. They not only organize Daily Scrums, Sprint Reviews, and Retrospectives, but also ensure that discussions are effective and constructive. A good facilitator ensures that:

• every team member has the opportunity to speak and be heard;

• creative disagreements and debates do not escalate into conflicts;

• work-related discussions result in clear outcomes and decisions.

Simply introducing Daily Scrums and Retrospectives is not enough. The Scrum Master’s most important duty is to guide the team toward accountability.

3. Foster accountability within the team
At its core, the Scrum Master role is about coaching — working closely with the team and its leadership. The ultimate goal is to help the team become self-sufficient. Ideally, after working with a Scrum Master, the team is able to:

• make key decisions about the project;

• clearly define and deliver tasks;

• reflect on its work, identify process issues, and solve them collaboratively;

• operate effectively within Scrum without relying on the Scrum Master’s constant involvement.

In other words, after completing one or two projects with the support of a Scrum Master, a project team should evolve into a fully independent Scrum Team.

How it works in practice

Not every company can afford to hire a dedicated person to oversee processes in one or more project teams.

In practice, the role of Scrum Master is often taken on by the most experienced team member — the one most familiar with the Scrum framework.