A highly collaborative and well-managed Scrum team is ideal for agile software development. With values such as: courage, openness, commitment and respect, these scrum teams present a more collaborative and transparent management style organized to better complete the tasks at hand.
A Scrum team consists of different roles that work together to create a new product from start to finish. The Scrum Master is the person designated to keep the group members focused on the project. The short sprint style, in which this software development methodology organizes and completes work, requires a scrum master to coach and push the team forward.
Because a scrum master is essential to an agile team, their role has many different duties. They are often expected to provide a clear and consistent vision of the project, ongoing support and organization, clear documentation, and much more.
There are several ways the scrum master can improve overall performance while maintaining structure. Here are four of them:
- Strengthens agility: Scrum teams must be able to switch gears and go with the flow of the project. Agile development emerged in part as a response to deficiencies in the waterfall method. Software development with scrum focuses on the collaboration and organization of the entire team. As the team leader, the scrum master is tasked with helping the team work together while allowing for flexibility. Becoming agile and adaptable only improves the team’s ability to work through all the issues that can come up over the course of a typical project.
- Speed up: As a scrum master, it’s your job to keep the software development team moving forward even with setbacks. Scrum Masters work hard to encourage and support team members in their efforts to deliver high-quality results in the most efficient manner possible. This involves careful documentation, managing stakeholder expectations, providing realistic time estimates, and much more.
- Improve communication: A Scrum team is known for its collaborative approach to software development. Communication is at the heart of this collaboration. Daily scrum meetings are a great way to improve team success. This meeting is usually brief but also extremely informative and helpful. Continuous communication throughout the project is a trait shared by all effective Scrum Masters.
- Build morale: A scrum master has a very important perspective on the team, focusing more globally on all the people involved in the project. Working together in a close-knit style, the team needs to not only get along, but ideally develop trust and friendships. Creating an open environment where people feel valued is extremely important to the team. Even when things are going well, it’s important to continually strive to improve morale by encouraging team members to support one another and effectively work through conflicts if they arise.
While a scrum master may not be directly involved in software coding, user experience design, or QA testing, their role in an agile team is extremely important. Not only do they tend to understand the more granular day-to-day work expectations, but they also have a broader bird’s-eye view of the project and everyone involved.
While the scrum master may be the primary team leader, other team members are encouraged to take responsibility and initiative for their work. Many have found that this collaborative and organized approach to software development offers the best in terms of leadership and project management.
