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 appointed to keep 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 train and push the team forward.
Because a scrum master is essential for an agile team, his role has many different obligations. 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 that the scrum master can improve overall performance, while maintaining structure. Here are four of them:
- Strengthens agility: Scrum teams must be able to reshape and follow the flow of the project. Agile development arose in part in response to shortcomings in the waterfall approach. Software development with scrum focuses on collaboration and organization of the entire team. As the team leader, the scrum master is tasked with helping the team work together while allowing flexibility. Being agile and adaptable only improves the team’s ability to deal with all the issues that may arise in the course of a typical project.
- Increase speed: 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 endeavor to deliver high-quality results in the most efficient way 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 core of this collaboration. Daily scrum meetings are a great way to improve team success. This meeting is usually short but also very informative and useful. Ongoing 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 have plenty of time, but ideally build trust and friendships. Creating an open environment where people feel valued is extremely important to the team. Even when things are going well, it is important to continually strive to improve morale, encouraging team members to support each other and to work effectively through conflicts, if they arise.
While a scrum master may not be directly involved in coding software, user experience design, or QA testing, their role in an agile team is extremely important. Not only do they tend to understand the more detailed day-to-day job expectations, but they also have a broader aerial view of the project and all the people 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.
