4 Common Challenges That Scrum Masters Are Likely To Face And Overcome

Agile is now widely recognized and is being adopted by many organizations worldwide. It has lately emerged as one of the most dynamic styles of managing a project within the development teams.

What is far more interesting is how the scope of Scrum has developed across the industries in a very limited period! It is no longer restricted to IT and Engineering firms but has found its sound footing and functioning in various other industries too, like manufacturing operations etc. In short, if you have a concrete product, then Scrum has a perfect managing solution for you!

CSM training makes you agile enough to explore the tremendous scope available in fairly new industry sectors, which are lately warming up to the new concepts. A CSM course is not only a requirement but also a hard felt necessity when it comes to the broadening of the mind and filling up the knowledge base. And, it is absolutely essential too, while exploring the possibilities in a completely new and challenging environment per se.

Responsibilities of A Scrum Master

Scrum procedures are headed by the Scrum Masters. With the intention of streamlining the process cycle and improving the output, the following are the major responsibilities that Scrum masters might be required to shoulder during the course of action.

  • Scrum Master acts as a bonding force which keeps the project and its elements together during its lifecycle.
  • He / She is directly responsible for the strengthening of the entire workforce and extending full support in all the scenarios.
  • Scrum Master is responsible for the team meetings, discussions and follow-ups
  • The final and the major responsibility of the Scrum Master lies around providing the quality and value output to the consumer within the stipulated timelines.

Challenges a Scrum Master is Likely To Face In Fresh Set-ups Or During Transitions


Expectations in Management Roles: Many firms are likely to confuse the Project Managers with the Scrum Masters.

While former is responsible for the complete project management from the inception to the completion, the latter can largely be seen as the facilitators for the Scrum within the Project Team and on an organisational level as well.

It can become a bit of a challenge for a Scrum Master when the responsibility boundaries began to merge. Good thing is that it is a transitory phase, which can be corrected with the right counselling and role explanation.

As an organizational leader, one needs to broaden their vision and look at the responsibility of a Scrum Master in the light of being a guide, process implementor and largely a facilitator for the successful follow-up of the best practices in a firm.

Aversion to the change: Seldom any change is brought without some degree of resistance attached to it.

And, if trends are anything to go by, resistance doesn’t usually come from the Teams or the departments undergoing change, but, it is from the individuals who are for some reason averse to the idea of transition.

Scrum Master in all the possibilities is the agent of that change! So, some challenges are natural to come up during the set-up phase. With little patience, persistence and Agile training, you are sure to get past this initial hurdle to finally embark on a journey to introduce a historic change in your field of implementation.  

Sticking to the Timelines: Time holds the utmost respect in all spheres. When it comes to the Scrum, no other entity is as precious as sticking with the committed timelines. However, it can become a bit of a challenge to implement within a Team.

For Example, suppose the morning meeting timeline is fixed for 10 minutes. Now, it is all too easy to get into the discussion mode and include the technical details, which might not be on the agenda. This can possibly stretch the meeting and fail your commitment.

Scrum Masters need to regularly face and overcome this challenging scenario by keeping conversations crisp and to the point.

Taking the stand-up meetings can help, greatly. Members are bound to get tired; hence, only relevant points will be discussed before dispersing off.

Sudden Change Requests: A general rule followed from the book by the Scrum Master is to never accept a change in between a sprint. However, the same can be done in the beginning or towards the end.

The real world doesn’t work the ideal way though! Hence, Scrum Masters might need to include some changes in the interim processes too.  It can be because of the bugs or sudden change requests made by the clients or stakeholders.

That is why holding a two-way discussion within the working entities is highly crucial to understand the consumer and market requirements rather than blindly following a set process.

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