Scrum Master job description

One of the critical requests I get from the community members and my students is a job description for the Scrum Master. It would be in a scenario where they want to hire a Scrum Master but don't know what the Scrum Masters would do. The first thing that comes to mind while forming a scrum team is hiring a Scrum Master. But what they look like in a Scrum Master and what they want them to do after joining the Organization is still a mystery, a confusion, or a knowledge gap.

Scrum Masters are hired to help teams transform from where they are today to a better state with better outcomes. To do that, the teams have to change. Change is hard, and they need a change agent to help them. Scrum Master is a change agent. A change agent brings change through open communication, experience sharing, behavioral analysis, feedback, and guiding them with different perspectives. 

When a group of people comes together, they need help working together. They struggle to identify their problems, solve them, and make decisions together. They need the help of a facilitator. The Scrum Master is a facilitator. The Scrum Master facilitates enabling the team members, helping them understand the purpose, creating visibility to a bigger picture, helping them address the elephant in the room, and making sure the team understands the impact of doing vs. not doing certain things. 

The Scrum Master is also a coach and has an excellent understanding of systems, professional, and relationship coaching. They help the team members resolve conflicts mutually, build trust between them, and help the individuals understand the relationship between different components in the system. 

What would be a general job description that we can provide for a Scrum Master? Considering the roles and responsibilities of a Scrum Master, along with what is expected out of them, will be good for starters. 

Job Description:

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• Mentors the Scrum Team on using Agile practices and principles to deliver high-quality products and services to our customers.

• Coach the team for high performance by recognizing their areas of strength and improvement and applying appropriate development techniques.

• Responsible for ensuring Scrum is understood, and the team adheres to Scrum theory, practice, and guidelines.

• Coaches the Scrum team in self-organization and cross-functional skillset.

• Works with Scrum Team and internal and external stakeholders to influence and drive decision-making and support the organizational project or product teams.

• Helps the team resolve impediments and work with other Scrum Masters to increase the effectiveness of work and quality of the deliverables in the Organization.

• Works with Agile coaches and other Scrum Masters to grow within the role.

• Contributes to the advancement and improvement of Agile practices and process that helps within the Organization.

• Facilitates and supports all scrum events: Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review, and Sprint Retrospective.

• Coach the Product Owner in Product Discovery, Product Backlog prioritization, stakeholder management, and other things that help with value delivery. 

• Applying Systems Thinking and Liminal thinking regularly to challenge oneself in personal growth. 

• Facilitating ideas, promoting non-violent communication, applying emotional intelligence, and managing conflicts within Scrum Teams to improve collaboration. 

These are some of the key points that will help to get started. We can keep adding a few more points depending on other duties, skillsets, certifications, experience, and responsibilities. It is necessary to understand the core reason behind hiring a Scrum Master, which will help define the job description better. Best candidates who apply for open positions read the job description and expectations clearly before applying. So, it is critical to have an excellent job description. 

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