ScrumMaster Dos and Don’ts

A ScrumMaster should not:

1. Own the product decisions on Product Owner’s behalf
2. Make estimates on team’s behalf
3. Make the technology decisions on team’s behalf
4. Assign the tasks to the team members
5. Try to manage the team

One of the ScrumMaster’s prime focus should be to facilitate self-organization. Here’s how he should deal with above situations:

1. Facilitate the product owner to maintain and prioritize the Product Backlog and own the business decisions
2. Help the team members to come up with most realistic estimations they can
3. Help the team members to make right technology decision
4. Inspire the team members to pull and own the tasks and work with them to remove any impediments that are holding them back to achieve those tasks
5. Facilitate self-organization within the team

Someone who’s does not have good facilitation skills should not be selected as team’s ScrumMaster no matter what certifications or credentials she has.