The Scrum Master as a Scientist
As described in the Scrum Guide, the Scrum Master is a servant-leader for the Scrum Team. This is an accurate description considering that Scrum Masters are constantly serving their teams by removing impediments, facilitating interactions, and helping people understand Scrum theory, practices, rules, and values. However, servant leader is not the sole identity of a Scrum Master.
In addition to being a servant leader, a Scrum Master is also a scientist. More specifically, a Scrum Master is a behavioral scientist, someone who focuses their time on studying how the actions of people affect their development, their relationship with others, and their future behaviors.
The Science Council defines scientist as someone who systematically gathers and uses research and evidence, making a hypothesis and testing it, to gain and share understanding and knowledge.
Based on this definition, a scientist has three core responsibilities:
- Gather and analyze data
- Develop and test their hypothesis
- Gain and share understanding and knowledge
Let’s take a closer look at how each of these three responsibilities aligns with the day-to-day activities of a Scrum Master.
Gather and Analyze Data
For a Scrum Master to successfully provide servant leadership to his or her team, he or she needs to identify what the team is struggling with and what’s propelling the team forward. To acquire this information a Scrum Master gathers and analyzes data via observation and research.
Every meeting and interaction, verbal or non-verbal, is an opportunity for observation. For example, a Scrum Master might notice that team conversations are dominated by a particular team member, or that instead of having face-to-face conversations, a particular team member tends to send multiple emails throughout the day. Both of these observations provide data that can then be analyzed to help create a hypothesis.
A Scrum Master can also make observations by inspecting a team’s scrum board and backlog. For instance, a Scrum Master might notice that user stories aren’t moving across the scrum board, that user stories do not meet INVEST criteria, or that the team backlog has not been prioritized. All of these observations can lead to a hypothesis about why the team might not be performing at its highest.
To support his or her hypothesis a Scrum Master can look at historical evidence such as a change in velocity, acceptance rate, and sprint burndown charts to see if there are any patterns or outliers that may correlate to his or her observations.
Develop and Test a Hypothesis
After developing a hypothesis, a Scrum Master can support his or her team by helping design and execute an experiment. For example, suppose a Scrum Master has hypothesized that his team is experiencing communication issues due to not having a centralized communication platform. During the team’s Sprint Retrospective the team comes up with three ideas for solving their communication issue: (1) use Slack, (2) get everyone a company phone, and (3) have the team attend a communication workshop. After some discussion the team decides that using Slack is the most feasible solution. The Scrum Master could then help the team create an experiment that will put this idea into action. In this example the Scrum Master may suggest that the team try using Slack for two weeks and have a follow-up meeting to discuss the impact using Slack had on the team.
Gain and Share Understanding and Knowledge
The Scrum Guide states that one of the ways the Scrum Master serves their organization is by helping employees and stakeholders understand and enact Scrum and empirical product development. To accomplish this a Scrum Master must first gain information by observing their team, analyzing their team’s past performance, conducting research, and reviewing the outcomes of the team’s experiments. After becoming equip with this information a Scrum Master can share their understanding and knowledge with their organization via interactions such as coaching sessions or lunch and learns.
Despite not wearing a lab coat, Scrum Masters certainly perform the work of a scientist. As a Scrum Master goes about his or her day, he or she is observing a team’s communication, relationships, progress, and more. With this information a Scrum Master can then form a hypothesis and work with the team he or she has been observing to perform an experiment that could change the team’s behavior. Finally, equip with all this information, experience, and knowledge a Scrum Master can educate his or her organization and help guide the organization towards agility.
