The ScrumMaster is responsible for making sure that all the pieces of the Scrum process come together and work as a whole. The Product Owner must do his or her job. The Team must do its job. The chickens must be kept in line. The Product Owner and the Team must collaborate appropriately and use the Scrum meetings for inspection and adaptation.
The responsibilities of the ScrumMasters can be summarized as follows:
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Remove the barriers between development and the Product Owner so that the Product Owner directly drives development.
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Teach the Product Owner how to maximize ROI and meet his or her objectives through Scrum.
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Improve the lives of the development team by facilitating creativity and empowerment.
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Improve the productivity of the development team in any way possible.
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Improve the engineering practices and tools so that each increment of functionality is potentially shippable.
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Keep information about the team’s progress up-to-date and visible to all parties.
When the ScrumMaster fulfills these responsibilities, the project usually stays on track. These responsibilities should be enough to keep the ScrumMaster busy; no ScrumMaster should have any time left over to act like a typical boss.
Indeed, a ScrumMaster who acts like a program manager probably isn’t fulfilling all of his or her duties as a ScrumMaster.
