The SCRUM master has a special role in SCRUM.

The SCRUM master removes impediments or blockers,

allowing the SCRUM team to proceed with their work smoothly and effectively.

The SCRUM master is a facilitator, and sometimes needs to be firm

reminding the team members not to stray outside of the work, the sprint, and

helping them to keep the sprint on track.

The SCRUM master handles logistics, such as scheduling SCRUM events and

maintaining SCRUM tools, each of which we will learn about later.

My favorite description of a SCRUM master is as a servant leader.

When something is holding a team back, the SCRUM master steps in and

does whatever he or she can to move the team along.

For example, if a team is nearing the end of a sprint and there isn't enough time to

test a feature, the SCRUM master might step in and test cases herself.

Just how far might a SCRUM master go as a servant leader?

One day, I was in the bike room and

I saw a co-worker, the SCRUM master of another SCRUM team, working on a bike.

I asked her, hey, is that a new bike?

I thought yours was green?

She answered, no, it's not my bike, but we're on the last day of our sprint, and

Daria's brake has been giving her trouble.

She was going to have somebody look at it this afternoon.

If I can fix this for her,

then she will be able to finish her work, the team will complete the sprint, and

Daria will still be able to leave on time to catch her daughter's swim meet.

I think this is an inspirational example of just what a SCRUM master

does for the team.

The SCRUM master identifies literally anything that may hold the team back, and

helps the team to get past those obstacles.

The team's success is the SCRUM master's primary objective.

The SCRUM master works in service of the team.

The SCRUM master also serves to fight mission creep.

By maintaining the integrity of the sprint, the SCRUM master makes sure that

the development team isn't distracted by work that is outside of the sprint.

This can come up when a developer gets interested in solving a problem he or

she comes across that isn't strictly related to a sprint backlog item.

It can also happen when a person with some authority talks to a team member and

says, wouldn't it be great if we had this feature?

This may come up in the stand-up, and it's a good opportunity for the SCRUM master to

step in, and remind the team of the scope of the sprint, and ask the product owner

to make sure the wishlist item is captured in the sprint backlog.

As you can see, the SCRUM master and the product owner have two important and

distinct roles in serving the team.

While the product owner helps to make sure the team has valuable work to do,

the SCRUM master helps to make sure that the team can do that work

without interference, even by the product owner.

These two roles are sometimes in healthy opposition.

And the results serves the development team well without costing the team members

a lot of time.

Here's a fun analogy that has nothing to do with sports.

In Star Trek, Captain Kirk is at the helm of the U.S.S. Enterprise, and

he usually has a mission and is set on accomplishing his mission at any cost.

Scotty, on the other hand, is the engineer and

dedicated to keeping the ship in tact and functional so they will all survive.

The two often find themselves at odds with one another with Kirk demanding more speed

and Scotty saying the ship can't take much more, but

in the end they get where they're going and the mission is saved.

You might say that Kirk is like the mission driven product owner and

that Scotty is the protective SCRUM master.

The balance of these two roles serves the SCRUM team well.