10 critical tasks for a ScrumMaster

It has been always asked what is a typical day look like for Scrum Master and I would say it is not the same every day.

Here's why:

1. Lets say it is 2 weeks sprint then during the first day SM is busy facilitating the Sprint planning and ensuring the team members have committed the stories which they find it fully confident.
2. 2nd day onwards, SM is talking to PO to ensure the for the coming backlog refinement/grooming meeting there is clear requirement defined with clear expectations.
3. SM is lucky if he/she has knowledgeable PO who not only understands the Scrum but also understand why it is so important to have clear requirement defined. This can give SM to sit relaxed, however if this is not the case then SM's most of the time goes in coaching PO and impractical world it is dependent on the person who is playing the PO's role.
4. lets say during backlog grooming meeting, we discussed some requirement which is understood and some which have gaps identified by team then this creates another task for SM to follow up on that open items to ensure by pre-planning meeting or next refinement/grooming meeting things are clear.
5. Apart from tracking the backlog, SM has to keep looking into day to day progress. SM is lucky if team is self organized who takes care of most of the issues however if this is not the case then SM's time goes in coaching team members in resolving the issues on their own.
6. There are issues which need to be handled by SM on his own by talking to management however this requires preparation by SM which is think from the management point of view. This takes effort and time.
7. Lets say SM is handling a team of 9 people then there is possibility of 9 different directions from where communication is flowing. And every day there is possibility of new issues to occur.Sometimes team do not report in a timely manner which creates another issue.
8. During the sprint SM has to ensure the requirement committed by team is going in the right direction for example code review completed, testing started or not and if this is not the case he/she has to follow up on this.
9. At the end of sprint SM has to facilitate Sprint demo and retrospective meeting where new ideas/feedbacks comes up by various stakeholders and tracking them to closure becomes another task for SM in coming sprints.
10. Finally i would say if there is one more team handled by team of same size then just multiply the work to 2 times.

Though Scrum Master is not doing testing, coding or preparing requirement but he/she is ensuring people involved in doing these activities are following Scrum and keeping the schedule/release on time.

if you see any other task for SM then please share those...