Audio Overview:
It’s a statement I’ve heard more times than I can count:
“The Scrum Master’s role is to coach the team. They’re not responsible for the delivery outcome.”
Cue my internal groan, especially when this comes from Scrum Masters themselves. No wonder, in developers’ forums (search for “Agile” in the Blind app, for example), Scrum Masters are often re-labeled as “process police.” This perception shifts them from the supposed Servant Leader to a person the entire team resents.
Think of a professional sports coach: If your team constantly fails to advance in tournaments, what would the team’s owners do? Would they not evaluate the coach’s ability to inspire, strategize, and get the best out of their players? Would they not look for someone who could achieve better results? The same applies to being an Agile team’s coach.
The question every Scrum Master should ask themselves is: “What value do I bring to my team and the company?”
The Organizational Lens
Organizations invest in Agile ways of working because they want better outcomes: happier customers, successful products, faster time-to-market, improved quality, and so on. If Scrum Masters aren’t helping deliver these outcomes, then why are they there?
Don’t get me wrong — mindset and culture are crucial. But are they perceived as more important than actual value delivery by the organization’s leadership? We may have the best team culture, but if we don’t ship products or services that customers value, we are failing as a business.
In my years leading Agile practices at one of Canada’s major banks, the most successful Scrum Masters on my team were the ones who took great care of the delivery process. They created transparency and predictability in the flow, kept the team aligned with their plan, and effectively managed stakeholders’ expectations.
Part of the problem is value communication. Developers’ value is evident in the form of a working product. A Product Owner’s value is made clear through roadmaps, backlogs, and overall strategy. Yet, measuring a positive shift in culture or mindset isn’t as straightforward. And let’s agree — the degree of framework implementation is not a good measure either.
So how can Scrum Masters make their value apparent, especially with mature teams? They do this by coordinating and organizing the value delivery flow, contributing to increased productivity, progress transparency, blockers removal, expectations management, and product quality.
The Case Against “Not My Job”
Coaching, facilitation, and servant leadership are key parts of a Scrum Master’s role — but they all serve one purpose: enabling the team to deliver valuable products effectively and sustainably.
If the team isn’t delivering, the Scrum Master can’t shrug their shoulders and say, “Well, that’s not my job.” It is their job. Maybe not in the sense of hands-on enhancement of the product, but in the sense of owning and improving the system of work that enables delivery.
A Scrum Master who doesn’t feel accountable for delivery risks becoming irrelevant. They risk becoming a box-checker — scheduling meetings and enforcing frameworks while the team struggles to collaborate and ship meaningful work. That’s not leadership. That’s clerical work.
Every team member sees the contributions of others toward the common goal. If a Scrum Master isn’t creating visibility around their own work or bringing significant value, they will never become a leader in their team. Instead, they become a glorified team secretary. And most teams simply don’t need one.
Delivery Is a Team Sport
Let’s take a step back. What does delivery actually mean? In an Agile context, it means creating valuable, working products for customers. Delivery isn’t just about hitting deadlines or pushing out features; it’s about ensuring that the right value reaches the right people at the right time.
And here’s the thing: delivery cannot be solely the Product Owner’s or developers’ job. Delivery is a team sport. It includes every member of the team. In other words, if you don’t take responsibility for the outcomes, you are not truly part of that team.
Think of a team as a system. If that system delivers effectively, it’s because all its parts are aligned. If it doesn’t, something is broken. The Scrum Master’s role is to look at the system, identify what’s broken, and help the team fix it. Whether it’s unproductive meetings, unclear goals, interpersonal conflicts, or external dependencies, the Scrum Master’s job is to lead the team to become a better version of itself.
The Scrum Master as a Leader
Leadership is not easy — but it’s what’s expected from the Scrum Master role. Leadership is not about sticking to a checklist or staying within predefined boundaries. It’s about stepping up when the team needs you.
A great Scrum Master doesn’t observe from the sidelines. They lean in. They challenge the team to think bigger, work smarter, and aim higher. They don’t police the process, but they also don’t ignore dysfunction or missed opportunities.
Servant leadership in action isn’t about doing the team’s work for them. It’s about creating the environment and systems that enable the team to deliver their best work.
A great Scrum Master frees the team from distractions that don’t contribute directly to the product. They ensure developers can focus on developing and Product Owners can focus on discovering the next big thing. A great Scrum Master seeks feedback from their team and stakeholders. They ask, “What are the things you expect me to do that I’m not doing?” and adjust to meet those expectations. Governance, reporting, forecasting, release coordination — great Scrum Masters handle or simplify these tasks, not because it’s written in the Scrum Guide (it’s not), but because it needs to be done to keep the team focused on creating value.
Reframing the Role
It’s time to reframe the Scrum Master role to explicitly include responsibility for delivery success, just like any other team member. This doesn’t mean they take on the responsibilities of the Product Owner or developers. It means they wear the delivery leader hat, roll up their sleeves, and help the team succeed.
So, for all the Scrum Masters who want to stay on top of their career – the next time someone says, “The Scrum Master isn’t responsible for delivery,” challenge them to think bigger. Scrum Mastery isn’t about booking meetings and moving tickets on a Kanban board. It’s about creating a system where the team thrives and produces value. If that’s not the Scrum Master’s job, then what is?