Is The Scrum Master Really Needed?
Originally published in GoRetro
Scrum is by far the most used agile framework in the world. It’s pretty simple to understand, though challenging to implement properly. Over the last years, I’ve worked for many companies and participated in several interviews, but one thing was clear:
Companies often transform Scrum into something slightly different from its original intent.
Executives have a hard time understanding what Scrum is about. Many people perceive Scrum as a set of roles, events, and artifacts. They miss the mindset behind doing Scrum. If organizations do Scrum with the traditional waterfall mindset, Scrum will be nothing more than a flawed process.
One pattern I identified was working with Scrum without a dedicated Scrum Master. Although it may seem odd at first glance, it might make sense depending on your scenario and team seniority.
In this post, I will share my learnings on when it makes sense to have a dedicated Scrum Master and when it doesn’t.
Does it make sense to have a dedicated Scrum Master?
Before we can understand if it makes sense to have a dedicated Scrum Master or not, we should clarify what a Scrum Master is.
