12 Awful Scrum Master Mistakes
Destructing their team
The Scrum Master is a leader who serves the Scrum Team. This is an important accountability. It is the Scrum Master who guides the team to be effective using Scrum. A Scrum Master is accountable for:
- the Scrum Team’s effectiveness;
- establishing Scrum as per Scrum Guide.
They do this while coaching, teaching, training and facilitating. Their impact is largely indirect.
But many Scrum Masters struggle. Often they don’t even notice it themselves. As a trainer, coach, writer and Serious Scrum community member I interact with many Scrum Masters. I find it baffling how often I have come across misconceptions of the Scrum Master accountability.
Here are the 12 biggest mistakes I have seen Scrum Masters make in my years of doing Scrum, to the detriment of their teams.
1. Inadequate knowledge of Scrum
The sheer number of Scrum Masters that carry this title without actually knowing what Scrum is is disheartening. The list of misunderstandings is endless. Here are two prime examples:
- I know Scrum Masters who believe Scrum is a feature delivery framework. But this is not the case. Scrum is a framework to create valuable products in complex…
