A lot of clients ask me, what does a scrum master do?
More and more I stop using the term scrum master. A lot of business folks have difficulties with the terminology and job description found in literature.
I believe what an agile team basically needs is a project leader. Someone who uses a situational, empowering and inclusive management style. The term servant leadership coins it pretty well, but I found that also a hard title to sell to executives. They just don’t like the word servant. So let’s just call it project leader.
Now what does a project leader do?
- Facilitate teamwork
- Coach and guard the agile principles and values
- Help the team to reach their committed goals in any possible way
- Build trust and close collaboration with all stakeholders
A good project leader makes true agility possible which results in competitive advantage, adaptability and organizational sustainability.
Aren’t these great targets to work towards?
I prefer Team Leader, or Team Coach. Project leader implies a team can only be on one project, which is not always true, especially in support situations.
Coach is a great term because a coach is a person that is invested in success/failure (winning/losing), but isn’t on the field doing the work. Their job is to provide the mentoring and tools (and environment) for the team to be able to succeed.