Summary of the pros and cons of rotating Scrum Master role in a Scrum team

1. Rotating the Scrum Master role
Will Abson, Alfresco

2. What does a scrum master do?
• Teaching, Coaching, Mentoring?
• Organising and facilitating meetings?
• Introspection and self-improvement

3. What doesn’t a scrum master do?
• Directly contribute to sprint goals?

4. Robert Martin a.k.a. Uncle Bob
• Agile Manifesto author
• Event by Scrum Event on 1st May 2018
• Hosted by Skills Matter
• “Let’s take a good, hard — and honest — look at the
state of the software industry in 2018”
• “Programming, Process, Principles & Politics”

5. The C in CSM is unfortunate. Again, this is not so
much about scrum out of the box as it is about the
scrum community. That letter C has gotten far too
significant for it's intention. It is true that the people
in a scrum team need to be trained. One of the
things they should be trained about is the role of
the scrum master. The problem with the C is that
it changes the notion of scrum master from a role
into a person. It is the person who has the C. In an
ideal case, the members of the scrum team will
rotate through the scrum master role the same
way the members of an XP team rotate through the
coach role. This rotation is never perfect, and
sometimes the role sticks to one or two people
more than others. But the idea was never to raise
up a particular person with a rank. We never
wanted that C emblazoned on their chests.
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/scrumdevelopmen
t/conversations/topics/44851

6. Should we rotate the scrum master role?
• Could give new opportunities for coaching and insights into team
working
• Gives team members a reason to refresh their agile knowledge and
review practices
• Might prevent teams becoming beholden to the Scrum Master
• Lack of resources?

7. “In my family, we rotate who cleans the table and loads the
dishwasher. Any of us can do that job. We do not, however,
rotate who cooks dinner. My wife is a far better cook than
anyone else in the family. We want the cooking to be the best
it can be, so we don’t rotate that job.”
Mike Cohen, 26th January 2012
https://www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/blog/rotating-the-
scrummaster-role

8. Opportunities
• “If team members are struggling to understand the duties of the
ScrumMaster, they may want to consider rotating each team
member through the role”
• “With time the team can begin to treat this position as their
manager. And the person in that position typically detects and
dutifully fills the apparent need. The result is a breakdown in the
team’s self-management practice.”

9. Problems?
• Someone who has rotated into the role usually has other, non-
ScrumMaster tasks to perform during the sprint, and these often
take priority.
• It’s hard to train enough people to do the role well.
• Some people will use their time as ScrumMaster to try to push
through changes to the process.
• Designating someone as ScrumMaster for a sprint or two does not
automatically make someone value the job, which can lead to
ScrumMasters who think Scrum is a mistake.

10. Scrum trainer advice – Barry Overeem
• Can you rotate the Scrum Master role: yes!
• Do I recommend rotating the Scrum Master role: no! no! no
– Unless you are simply “going through the routine”
– See https://blog.zombiescrum.org/
• http://www.barryovereem.com/can-you-rotate-the-scrum-master-
role-2/

12. Thank you