If someone serves as the Developer and Scrum Master or Product Owner and Scrum Master simultaneously, it becomes challenging to maintain equilibrium between both job roles. A person can be a good Scrum Master or a good Developer/Product Owner because Jack of all trades is a master of none.
At some point in the development phase, it becomes necessary to terminate anyone part-time role, otherwise losing great developer’s skill and getting ineffective leadership. The same goes for Product Owner and Scrum Master combination, otherwise compromising ownership or more likely a leadership.
Agile Management and Scrum Methodology:
Agile management includes a set guiding principle that uses an iterative methodology for software development, and Scrum is a specific set of rules that are to be followed while using an Agile approach for software development.
Agile management contains various software development techniques that have been influenced by iterative and incremental development.
It includes:
- Extreme Programming (XP)
- Rational Unified Process (RUP)
- Scrum
The agile approach provides a solution for the challenges that occurred in a development cycle due to constant variation in requirements and collaboration between self-organizing cross-functional entities. Agile methodologies promise a well organized project-management approach that encourages a set of smart practices, allowing an instant delivery of high-quality software, which transforms development according to customer demand. Agile methodologies exist as an extension for the limitations in a traditional waterfall model, where all the requirements are analyzed in the beginning and listed in the initial phase of development. While in an Agile approach, requirements vary with each iteration. This approach sustains flexibility to adopt changes in the business need or customer demand and helps the project to thrive in a continuously evolving environment and dependencies.
Scrum is a crucial methodology of Agile process within which people can solve complex problems, while positively producing deliverables of the richest quality possible. Scrum itself is an individual process for fruitful teamwork on complex problems.
The scrum process enables a team to self-organize and make changes rapidly as per agile rules. Scrum is always challenging to manage but simple to understand.
Scrum Team:
The Scrum Team composed of a Product Owner, the Development Team, and a Scrum Master. Scrum Teams are always self-organizing and cross-functional. Self-organizing teams identify the ways to accomplish their task, instead of being directed by outside actors. Cross-functional teams have all the capabilities required to complete the work without relying on other roles that are not part of the team.
Scrum Master:
A scrum master serves as a coordinator for an agile team. The title of the scrum master sounds centric, but the scrum master is not the project leader and is not responsible for outcomes alone.
Part-Time vs. Full-Time Job Role:
In few perspectives, Scrum Master is a part-time job role, and one can also be a developer during a project lifecycle as well as Scrum Master, or the product owner can play the role of Scrum Master as well. Somehow, the Scrum model allows this order, but it is not professional and especially if you are fresh in the Scrum domain. Experts recommend avoiding this habit. The apparent reason is that the Scrum Master’s role is more important than just being a mediator in the Scrum cycles.
Being a developer is a full-time job. There are multiple problems to solve, requirements to fulfill, discussions to be held. More importantly, the role of Scrum Master is to provide support to the team, protect the team from distractions, also put on additional stress and complexity to the situation. It instantly becomes harder to differentiate where to concentrate more. What happens is that one of the job roles observes success and others fail. In general, the Developer’s job seeks more attention as deadlines and pressure escalate; the Scrum process left ignored.
The duty of the Scrum Master is to ensure that:
- The team is continuously evolving in accordance with live needs.
- To find better ways for the team to overcome the communication barrier.
- To clear the path for the team to perform and thrive.
- To remove obstacles from the roadmap.
Scrum masters manage these tasks by focusing on the team and their needs. They serve as the babysitter of the Scrum team to keep the cycle continuously evolving and improving.
When the team deviates from their original track, which was proposed at the start of Agile and Scrum, the Scrum Master’s role is to pull them back. Teams may deviate, its psychological factor to immune any challenge or change, especially under pressure. Its the Scrum Master who keeps the process align and bring a team back to performance.
A Product Owner that also holds the role of the Scrum Master experiences several issues. The two sides remain in dispute. The Product Owner tends to get the product completed in a minimum budget and as early as possible. Whereas the Scrum Master does the polar opposite of it for the feasibility of its team. Which one surpasses the other? In case of an unexperienced Scrum Master or Product Owner debuting in the Scrum process and with the idea of just complete the project, the Product Owner role outruns the Scrum Master role. The product owner dominates his/her Scrum Master’s side. Scrum Master role clutched by command and control domination, tries to push the team towards extreme to get the job done faster. It leads to Compromises in quality, which results in the form of bad Agile experience.
Conclusion:
Every situation is different, and it is possible that a Scrum Master can perform on dual or triple roles efficiently while fulfilling all job needs equally. But, it is recommended that you do not have to become a Scrum Master in a dual or triple role to avoid a bad experience, which may lead to poor quality of product and wastage of both time and money.
In the modern era of technology, where old-school methods of project development are not sustainable, Agile is the need of the tech world. Demand for agile professionals has increased in the IT industry and also rising in other engineering fields as well. Agile Scrum Certification can provide all the benefits when someone plans to switch jobs or seek a career in the Agile world. Overall Agile Scrum Certification can promise better visibility, better salary, and better credibility.