Product Owner Exerting Leadership At Standup

Perhaps this sort of thing illustrates why Ken Schwaber felt it necessary to create scrum.org.

I would not classify this behavior as "exerting leadership". It smells more like exerting micromanagement and mistrust.

Any belief where one feels the need to "drive" the team and question their progress on a daily basis is quite simply the opposite of Agile/Scrum.

Just keep in mind that one of the main characteristics of a Development Team is that it's self-organizable and no one but the Development Team itself tells it how to perform its work.

What happens if the scrum master is failing to exert leadership and the team is not self-organizing around this deficit? I work on a very small team as the PO, and am currently struggling with the Scrum Master's failure to lead AND failure to deliver as a developer. Honestly looking for pointers on how to handle this.

Meghan,

What leads you to believe that the Scrum Master for your team is not doing an effective job?

Regarding the development issue, the team has ownership of all sprint backlog items and the sprint goal. If the team is not delivering, that must be treated as a team issue, and not a deficiency with any single team member.

One of the biggest problems I've seen with organizations and implementing Scrum is with the Daily Scrum. I believe that it is because of articles such as the one in the opening post or the Scrum For Dummies book. People not in the Development Team want to oversee or participate in that event. It becomes a status report. Although there can be value in a quality Scrum Master occasionally observing and providing feedback OUTSIDE OF THE EVENT, it is made very clear in The Scrum Guide that this is for Development Team members only and NOT a status report. Trust the senior members to foster the conversation and build a safe environment for holding each other accountable to commitments. Despite the source literature, quotes, and videos from Ken and Jeff . . . this is a problem that is almost always present highlighting the true lack of Agile mindset in people and organizations.

U agree, Ian, this is why Scrum.org exists,

Hi Andrew,

On a general note, the PO is not a mandatory participant in dailys. He may participate with the main purpose of feeling the team's spirit/motivation and only if he does not speak. The daily is for the team and the SM only in order to sync and to raise impediments.

Michael

"The Scrum Master enforces the rule that only Development Team members participate in the Daily Scrum."

It is that simple. If the Product Owner, a manager, a maintenance person, the CEO, or anyone else is there then the Scrum Master is not fulfilling the duties of the role: "The Scrum Master is responsible for ensuring Scrum is understood and enacted."

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@Meghan Turjanica: Mixing responsibilities (DT member as SM, DT member as PO, SM as PO) leads to issues. I understand that this happens in smaller organizations and those just learning Scrum, but it is highly beneficial to segregate the responsibilities as soon as possible. During the Sprint Retrospective is that place to bring your concerns to the entire Scrum Team and work together to find a solution to implement.