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Scrum Master in Scrum Retrospective

Last post 06:18 pm September 19, 2022 by Julie E Taylor
8 replies
02:16 pm January 28, 2015

Hello everyone,

On page 12 of the Scrum guide on Sprint Retrospective it says that

"The Scrum Master participates as a peer team member in the meeting from the accountability over the Scrum process."

I understand the part about the Scrum Master participating as a peer team member, but what does "from the accountability over the Scrum process mean"? Does it mean that

1. The Scrum Master, though participating as a peer team member in the Spring Retrospective, is still accountable for the Scrum process? or

2. The Scrum Master in the Spring Retrospective is a peer among his/her team members, and thus free from accountability over the Scrum process for now? or

3. Something completely different? What constitutes the "Scrum process"? It is right to assume that the Scrum Master is always accountable for the Scrum process because s/he is the one making sure people attend meetings, adhere to the rules, etc?

Thanks for your help!


03:15 pm January 28, 2015

The Sprint Retrospective is a scheduled opportunity for the team to inspect and adapt its implementation of Scrum.

All Scrum Team members are accountable for the process that the team follows, and they must therefore all attend the Sprint Retrospective. This includes the Scrum Master, who should ensure that the rules of Scrum are understood, applied and optimized.


11:48 pm January 31, 2015

I think main idea of this sentence is the meeting for whole scrum team (inclued Scrum master) members to find out lessons learn from current sprint, how to improve in next sprint? Obviously, Scrum master has responsibility to look back works of himself then give some ideas to the rest of team.


06:13 am February 2, 2015

Thanks guys; I think the part that trips me over is "The Scrum Master participates from the accountability over the Scrum process", where the meaning of "someone participates from the accountability (over something)" just escapes me. Now it makes a bit more sense now.


12:44 am February 6, 2015

My 2 cents:

The Scrum Master is responsible for process compliance and driving process improvements.

Process Compliance: Ensuring that the Retro occurs, the entire Scrum team participates, best practices are captured, lessons learned are captured and fed into the upcoming Sprint's backlog, etc.

Process Improvements: He/she also participates as a member of the Scrum Team as he/she has observed what worked well (as well as what needs to improve) in terms of the implementation of the Scrum framework during the just-completed Sprint (rules, events, roles, artifacts). For example, he/she may have observed inefficiencies in the execution of one or more events. He/she may been ineffective in promptly resolving impediments. There could have been problems with estimation, self-organization, etc, etc.

In many cases, the Scrum Master also facilitates the Retro session.


02:27 pm February 9, 2016

I believe SM is always accountable for Scrum process. Taking part as peer member ensures Scrum implementation is also taken into account in terms of inspection and adaptation.

What else in scrum implementation we can do to make it better?


05:32 pm June 8, 2019

What is the responsability of the Product Owner in the sprint retrospective ?


03:05 pm June 10, 2019

Same as Scrum Master and Development team.  To discuss how the team can work together better and how to improve their Scrum implementation. The Product Owner is part of the Scrum Team and can provide insights into what went well and what didn't go well from their own perspective. 


03:30 pm September 19, 2022

When the Scrum Master is not available sick or out of office, who should run the Sprint Retrospective? 

Should the Retrospective be rescheduled?


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