Category Archives: Scrum roles

How to get a Full-Time SM?

Most ScrumMasters should be full-time!  (Well, ok, if you are already hyper-productive (5x-10x) AND you can stay that high with a 50% SM, god bless you, then do that!  Otherwise, it pays to have a full-time SM helping the Team get better — if you actually get better, and you can.) Below is the slide […]

Question about: The PO, vague requirements and the Team members

Hana writes from Finland.  [Shortened, and lightly edited.] Hi Joe, …. I found this question without answer, so I have an interest to know it’s answer. Regards, Hana I responded: Hi Hanna, ….[See my response in-line, below.] …. Thanks! Joe Question – The product owner wants to build security firewalls into the product. How can […]

ScrumMaster vs Agile Coach

Question Joe: I’ve found that an Agile Coach has been engaged to coach a Scrum Team. What is the difference in roles between an Agile Coach and a Scum Master?  I thought the Scrum Master would be responsible for coaching the team?  Or possibly the Scrum Master is new and/or not as effective as expected? […]

ScrumMaster: No Power

One of the key things about the ScrumMaster is that he/she has no power.  No authority. There is a line in Scrum (from Ken Schwaber?) that “the ScrumMaster has no authority”… and I understood that meant that the ScrumMaster did have the authority to define or describe what Scrum is (the authority on that), but […]

What happens to Project Managers?

From one of our students: Thank you Joe, I took the exam and passed 34/35! One question if I may: I noticed in the top mistakes list that ‘having a project manager’ is listed. Why is Project Manager so bad here? Does that just mean that a team tries to implement Scrum with a typical […]

Q: Becoming a good ScrumMaster

Q: “What is your advice on becoming a good ScrumMaster?” A: This is a good and difficult question. The difficulty is where to start and how best to express it. First, what is a good ScrumMaster? What makes one better than usual? You may think it odd, but the first thing I want to say […]

The ScrumMaster should not be the ‘people’ manager -1

At Agile Carolinas we recently had a good meeting tonight about the ‘iteration manager’ role that one firm is using.  And with a good discussion of the pros and cons. Many thanks to Ike Eichorn and Brad Ball. I do not wish to discuss all the ideas raised, but make a few observations about how […]

Why should the PO attend the Daily Scrum?

Umm. Good question.  We partly discussed this in an earlier post. First, the Scrum Guide (2011) does not require that the PO attend the Daily Scrum.  If you asked Jeff Sutherland his preference though, he would say it is better if the PO attended regularly. OK, but why? Well, first, the Team needs to know it […]

Are there Project Managers in Scrum? No (but…)

Scrum has only 3 roles: Product Owner, ScrumMaster and Implementer. Who is responsible for ‘the project’?  Well, that would be the whole Team. What do we do with George, who was a Project Manager (PM)?  Well, we have to talk to George.  Maybe he would make a great ScrumMaster or a great Product Owner.  Or […]

The Team and the Implementer Role

There has been, in several places, some good discussion about the roles in Scrum.  And often the discussion turns (explicitly or implicitly) to ‘what is the Team and what does it mean?’ The Team The full team is what is most important.  Product Owner (PO), ScrumMaster (SM), and Implementers.  Together.  About 7 in total. Ideally […]