Having been around the block a few times, I know this topic is going to spark some discussion and disagreement. I welcome it all, because out of discussion, ideas emerge. I have seen organizations treat the Scrum Master role in different ways. Some view the role as merely a schedule keeper that also has project management responsibilities. Others view the Scrum Master as a part time role that has other responsibilities within the team, (such as writing code or testing) or some responsibilities outside the team. Reasons for this and other similar examples I have found generally happen for one of two reasons. Either 1) financially a company can’t afford or justify having a full time Scrum Master. Or 2) there is a lack of understanding around the value and details of the role itself.
Michael James, author of ScrumReferenceCard.com said
“An adequate ScrumMaster can handle two or three teams at a time. If you’re content to limit your role to organizing meetings, enforcing timeboxes, and responding to the impediments people explicitly report, you can get by with part time attention to this role. The team will probably still exceed the baseline, pre-Scrum expectation at your organization, and probably nothing catastrophic will happen.
But if you can envision a team that has a great time accomplishing things you didn’t previously consider possible, within a transformed organization – consider being a great ScrumMaster. A great ScrumMaster can handle one team at a time.”
What?!?!? How is that possible?