Scrum Master vs Team Lead
Im hired as a Scum Master for one distributed team. Im fairly new in this role (10months) and so is the development team. Im frequently asked from management to ensure that the development team is registrating time, following development and deployment processes and other "team lead" stuff. How do you see this? Will this secure trust in the Scrum team or will it disturb it? How can I manage both roles and still be seen as "the friend" by the development team?
Jan,
Is management's desire to have you oversee the team's time entry, development practices, and deployment processes, a sign of trust to you?
In the role of Scrum Master, my advice to you is to serve the team and focus on helping them work better. It is not the responsibility of a Scrum Master to be a "friend" to the Development Team, or to micro-manage them on behalf of management.
Scrum Master's main duties:
1) Serve the Development Team, Product Owner, and Organization (in that prioritization order!)
2) Enforce Scrum
Sounds easy, but it is incredibly complex and difficult. Good luck to you.
These are totally 2 different roles which is common in most of the organisations to be done by an individual who does in the conventional PM methodology People Manager being an integral part.
You wll have to clearly define your responsibiliies in these 2 roles and communicate as wel. This way it will be clear for the team to be aware what responsibilities you have during SCRUM ceremonies.
The main duties are already mentioned.
> Im frequently asked from management to ensure that the
> development team is registrating time, following development
> and deployment processes and other "team lead" stuff. How do you see this?
I'd see it as an opportunity to coach the wider organization about the value and practices of Scrum. Why is logging developer time thought to be valuable, rather than the meeting of Sprint Goals and the delivery of product increments? Why does the organization's perception of value and accountability diverge from this? If management are keen to sponsor the correct application of Scrum, what do they intend to do about it?