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The Scrum Master  not only removes impediments, facilitates collaboration of the Scrum Team during the Agile product development but also serves the entire organization. The Scrum Master ensures proper communication, and provides guidance to the Developers, the Product Owner and the entire organization.

A Scrum Master is at the nexus of the Scrum Team and the organization. Some Scrum Masters serve as the Scrum Team's facilitator, mentor, coach or a teacher at times; and also as an organizational Agile Coach. Read further to know about the skills required and challenges faced by a Scrum Master .

Skills required for a Scrum Master 

Good knowledge of Scrum framework 

A Scrum Master knows the Scrum framework inside out and knows the strengths and vulnerabilities of the framework. Hence, Scrum Master s teach Scrum to the Scrum Team, customers, organization, users and other stakeholders. They also realize what is the right way to implement Scrum. 

A Scrum Master knows how to tackle and overcome obstacles from experience in a practical environment. They apply their learnings quickly in their own Scrum Team, and also expand the learnings to other teams in the organization thus reducing the need to re-invent the wheel. 

Servant Leadership

The Scrum Master must cultivate a servant leadership kind of leadership rather than 'Command & Control' way of working.

As per Wikipedia, Servant leadership is a leadership philosophy in which the main goal of the leader is to serve. This is different from traditional leadership where the leader's main focus is the thriving of their company or organizations. A Servant Leader shares power, puts the needs of the employees first and helps people develop and perform as highly as possible.

The Scrum Master serves the Scrum Team by removing the high priority blockers so that the Scrum Team can move forward and develop great products and services.

The Scrum Master serves the organization by planning for organizational Scrum adoption, sharing good practices with other Scrum Teams, coaching leaders and customers" hence becoming a change agent to the entire organization.

Mindset to empower teamwork and collaboration 

A Scrum Master doesn't rule over a team or make the decisions, but rather works as a facilitator for the Developers, the Product Owner, senior management, and stakeholders. The Scrum Master makes sure that the problems and the progress of every department are heard, and the entire organization works as a single unit to resolve the issues. 

However, the job of a Scrum Master is not just to manage deadlines or tasks, but to help the Developers determine whether they can deliver Sprint after Sprint, and work towards the shared goals. Though a Scrum Master can represent the Developers, they can also step-back at times to empower the Developers to collaborate with the Product Owner and the senior management. This fosters way to create a self-organizing Developers eventually.

Mentor the Scrum Team

While Scrum Master s empower the team to knock blockers out with better communication, their knowledge and experience in the industry, make them appropriate to mentor the Scrum Team. This knowledge shared with the Scrum Team in turn will help negotiate with businesses, clients, and stakeholders. 

Great Scrum Master s don't provide solutions and decisions, but teach the Scrum Team how to make the right decisions and let them handle situations by themselves. The Scrum Master s show them the mirror to enable them analyse and determine what went well and find a better alternative method for solving problems.

Coaching

As per Wikipedia, Coaching is a form of development in which the coach supports a learner or client in achieving a specific personal or professional goal by providing guidance.

Coaching is about unlocking the potential of an individual or a team. The Scrum Master must use Coaching as an approach to solve problems and make the Developers self-organizing. To become a great coach, the Scrum Master needs to have skills such as listening, emotional intelligence, critical questioning etc.

Build Trust

A Scrum Master knows the value of developing trust within the Scrum Team and outside the Scrum Team as well. When it comes to working with a Scrum Team, a good Scrum Master makes sure that their team is working with someone who they can rely on, and make them feel that if something goes wrong, they have someone to approach, to be able to be protected.

A Scrum Master creates confidence to the Developers about quality delivery of the work in stipulated time. This is possible by introducing appropriate technical practices within the Developers that would improve quality and productivity. A good opportunity to brainstorm such improvements is during Sprint Retrospectives, by having the entire Developers and the Product Owner. 

A Scrum Master also lets a Developers experiment. Sometimes, this may lead to failure "due to which the Developers and the organization are learning on a continuous basis. Fail fast“ Learn faster. In the longer run, this leads to innovation, building trust, improvement in productivity, faster time to market etc.

Flexible to change

A great Scrum Master encourages Scrum Teams to welcome changing requirements, and that could be late in the overall product lifecycle as well“ of course any changes are taken outside the Sprint.

Instead of a big bang approach, the Scrum Master coaches to work in smaller cycles, called Sprints, which allow to accept constant feedback, for a better time to market, creating high quality products that provide the best value.

Predictability

Being futuristic is an important leadership skill that the Scrum Master's could coach the Developers and Product Owners.

A Sprint or a product development may appear easy on the surface, but most of the time, they contain many hidden complexities and clauses. A Scrum Master  must help Product Owner to think through these complexities, communicate with groups to make sure they are identified and adapted as per the dynamics imposed by markets, users and competition.  Scrum Master s also coach Product Owners how to prioritize the Product Backlog and make it visible, make appropriate budget decisions, prioritize Product Backlog Items etc. They also help how to use Release Burndown charts to track the progress.

Scrum Master s also help Developers to learn how to use Sprint Burndown charts, inspect and adapt as per the progress made so far, and help make plans to achieve the remaining Sprint Goal.

Useful Links:

A-CSPO Online Course Baltimore, SAFe Agilist Training Colorado Springs, A-CSPO Online Certification Corpus Christi, Advanced Scrum Master Course Wyoming City, Advanced Scrum Master Certification Training Cincinnati, Leading SAFe Online Training London, Kiran Ravula Scrum Trainer, Advanced Certified Scrum Master Training India, Advanced-CSM Course Training Hamburg, A-CSPO Virtual Training Course Durban