This does not refer to the career path of the Scrum Master. I mean, how far can a Scrum Master go without hitting an insurmountable wall, and what happens then?
The article ‘Role of the Manager’ by Pete Deemer on the goodagile.com website offers good insight into how the typical role of a manager, or role of a typical manager changes in Scrum. I have been fortunate enough to experience a lot of the scenarios given in this article. Managers who gracefully retract and step in only when asked to, and managers who just have to give their opinion on every story and every task and every task estimate. Some of this behavior trickles from the top. And in an organization that decides to buy-in into Agile, there is or should be clear communication across all levels about the management’s endorsement of Scrum. But doesn’t practice often turn out to be different from concept?
There surely comes a time when its critical to beat your competition, or go to market with a new feature, like yesterday! This may be a time when even executive management feels they would like to ‘bend’ Scrum a bit, and urge the pigs to cross the finishing line a bit faster?
What should the Scrum Master do in such a situation? Accept the trade-off even if it might mean derailing weeks or months of ‘scrummification’( surely there is no such word in the dictionary)? Take a stand, put his/her foot down and remind management about what they signed on for when they accepted Scrum? Or is it ok as long as the customer says its ok?
How idealistic can a Scrum Master really be? And how far can he go before he needs to bend or break?
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