I’m a new scrum master. Our organization has jumped into the deep end with the move to scrum. I was previously a PM. I often times feel like I don’t have a lot to do any more, which is not a great feeling. Hoping for some thoughts on what I can proactively do to move the team along and make them better at this process. The team is also struggling with the transition and still multi-tasking. This in the end will make me look like I’m failing. Any tips on how to drive the transition? It doesn’t help that the director of the team keeps pulling scrum team members into the production issues. Also, curious to know what other org’s reporting structures look like in a scrum environment. We’ve been advised our org structure is only as it is now due to historical reasons. What may the new structure look like? Thanks.

Yes. You are right. I was being a little funny. 🙂

“This is the job of the Scrum Master; he carries the big Scrum stick and he beats people over the head with it when they step out of line.”

I wouldn’t be so eager to call SM ‘guy with the stick’ – when the team is forced to Scrum just because some guy (namely SM) enforces Scrum, there is no point of Scrum at all. I think the biggest task for SM is to understand the very basic foundations of Scrum and being able to explain those foundations to Scrum Team.

From my experience the biggest challenge for SM is not only to act as a manager, who – as you said – removes impediments but (even more importantly) to be a great psychologist (or couch if you prefer) who can help utilise greatest features of each team member and team as a whole.

Oh yeah. Then why is the Lion the king of the jungle?

.. I know, I know, and of course you are right. My wife pointed out the same thing and I told her no one would notice. 🙂

Lions live in savannas, in jungle you get eaten by tigers, leopards, jaguars and cougars. Almost all the big cats except the lion 😛

Fair point. But, many teams think they are doing Scrum or have different interpretations of it, so the Scrum Master can serve as the person who everyone else relies on to make sure the process if being followed correctly.
I’ve definitely seen plenty of teams where the team hasn’t fully bought into Scrum and that ends up being a disaster.

Of course, if your team needs a scrum master in order to get the team to follow scrum, then it sounds like the team hasn’t fully bought in to the process, so why is the team practicing scrum?