The 3 tangible benefits of the Scrum Master

In this article, we will illustrate the tangible benefits of Scrum Mastering in 3 areas, with concrete feedback.

As a Scrum Master, I've had the opportunity to see first-hand how adopting the Scrum methodology can transform a company. The Scrum Master's role is essential in guiding teams towards agility and maximizing the value created for the company.

Scrum Master benefits

Scrum Master benefit #1: the "team" axis 

Among the Scrum Master's benefits, the most spectacular is often the one for the team, being both the fastest and the most valuable. Indeed, commitment and motivation are difficult to reinforce through traditional levers, such as those used in HR policies.  

In a context where many companies are faced with a lack of employee commitment, the Scrum Master's role promotes trust, autonomy and, by extension, individual responsibility, thanks to the secure framework offered by Scrum (a supportive team, the right to make mistakes...). 

These elements foster transparent collaboration, which in turn leads to empowerment of team members. 

In Scrum, as is often the case in real life, more involvement at work mechanically reinforces motivation: it's a virtuous circle. The only difficulty is to start this movement, which can then become self-sustaining. 

Scrum Master benefit #2: better products and services 

Improving the definition and quality of the product (in the broadest sense of the term, which can include the product and/or the service) is another of the Scrum Master's significant benefits. It follows on from the first benefit: by encouraging open communication with stakeholders, prioritizing functionalities according to feedback from the various expertises... In short, with the collective intelligence of an involved team, the Scrum Master contributes to the creation of better quality products. 

This product improvement can be in its definition or in its quality. Improving the product already means defining the RIGHT product. Commitment also enables and facilitates innovation, by integrating adaptation into the product production process, and sometimes to disruptive innovations. 

This improvement can be in product quality, thanks to the strong commitment of the team, and the rituals and improvement practices that make it possible to achieve this key agile value. 

Scrum Master benefit #3: more effective and efficient operational production organization 

Finally, the Scrum Master brings predictability and greater efficiency. By structuring planning and rituals, and identifying potential risks, he or she helps to reduce uncertainty and ensure that objectives are met on time, which is essential for profitability. Here again, team commitment and collective intelligence will be invaluable assets. 

The results

These 3 axes combine to deliver tangible results, such as increased value creation, and depending on the case, also increased team productivity. Working with Scrum teams, I've seen how effective planning, regular meetings and transparent communication can transform a once ineffective team into a high-performance workforce. 

Take the case of a software development team struggling to meet deadlines. After implementing Scrum and benefiting from the support of a Scrum Master, the team understood the causes. They gave themselves permission to act on them, and significantly reduced delays. This is often achieved by learning collectively to focus on priority elements, to eliminate unnecessarily time-consuming practices, to dare to confront problems, and to collaborate more naturally.

This improvement has led to more frequent deliveries, and therefore greater customer satisfaction, which has strengthened the momentum. The Scrum Master also helped the team regain confidence in its ability and reliability, and restore a positive image with stakeholders.  

Risks thwarted 

Through the various Scrum rituals, the Scrum Master has enabled the team to take ownership of strategic issues and actively participate in identifying and managing risks. Who better than the team to monitor potential obstacles, delays and quality issues in real time? Come up with clever ideas to mitigate risks, or thwart risks before they become major problems? 

In a company launching a new product in a competitive market, thanks to the team's commitment, the risks associated with development, production delays and customer feedback were identified (and dealt with) as early as possible. As a result, the product was launched with the expected quality, minimizing potential financial losses. 

High-quality, loyal employees 

The Scrum methodology emphasizes constant collaboration and communication between team members. Here again, the Scrum Master plays an essential role. 

Let's take the case of a company that wanted to reduce the silos between development and operations teams. Thanks to the intervention of the Scrum Master, regular synchronization meetings were set up, promoting better mutual understanding and faster problem resolution. This resulted in faster delivery of functionality, and a dramatic reduction in conflicts between teams.

For other companies, these were development/business silos, or development/customer service center silos. These were addressed with tangible results.

We have seen in various sectors that reducing structural inefficiency and improving working relationships also has a strong impact on employer brand (which facilitates quality recruitment through word-of-mouth) and on reducing staff turnover.

Arguably, it also reduces presenteeism and absenteeism. However, this potential gain is difficult to establish, as it is not easy to measure or establish direct causality.  

Improving customer satisfaction 

Customer satisfaction is at the heart of agile approaches. A Scrum Master can make a significant contribution to achieving it. In particular, he or she helps the team to ensure that customer needs are constantly taken into account, to prioritize functionalities accordingly, and to make all stakeholders aware of the importance of this major imperative. 

A common practice is for the Scrum Master to coach the Product Owner. Whether the Product Owner is a beginner or already established in the role, the Scrum Master is a valuable source of methodological insight and advice on the implementation of tools and methods for the Product Owner. 

Those with a real understanding of agility know just how key the Product Owner is (and how difficult a role it is to fulfil). So, in our experience, helping the Product Owner to better understand his role, equipping him with tools, or introducing him to the subtleties of the methodology is a fundamental contribution of the Scrum Master.  

Conclusion 

We illustrated the tangible benefits of Scrum Mastering in 3 key areas: committed and motivated employees, better products in terms of definition and realization, and a more effective and efficient project mode. 

Unsurprisingly, these operational benefits translate into tangible results in the short, medium and long term. High-performance teams, better risk management (and therefore problems avoided or dealt with as early as possible), loyal quality employees, and greater customer satisfaction.

Thanks to these purely methodological levers, the Scrum Master can make a key contribution to the success of company projects.

In certain contexts, the tangible benefits of Scrum Mastering will require the support of an agile coach. Click here for an article illustrating this complementarity.