Is Scrum Master a full time role?

It is not uncommon in a Scrum Master training classes to encounter questions such as “Is being a Scrum Master a full time role?”, or “How much time does a Scum Master contribute towards his role?”, or “Can a person from the development team multitask as a Scrum Master?”
New Scrum Masters might be apprehensive about the role that they might play as future Scrum Masters. However, certified Scrum Masters need to truly understand the responsibilities of a Scrum Master to realize the vital role played by them. The success of a Scrum project rests equally on the shoulders of the Product Owner, the Scrum Master, and the Development team. While the Product Owner and the Development team have their clearly established roles and responsibilities, it might seem that a Scrum Master performs only support roles such as coordinating meetings, removing impediments that are plaguing the team, or shielding the team from interference from the Product Owner.  This might make the Scrum Master seem like a glorified nanny.
Even organizations too sometimes view the Scrum Master role as a part time role. There can be several reasons why Scrum Masters are part time roles. The organization might be short of human resources to have a dedicated Scrum Master or the organization does not consider the Scrum Master’s role worthy of a full time role.
There is an obvious conflict if a developer also performs the role of a Scrum Master. This takes away the objectivity that is required in a Scrum Master while dealing with issues related to the Product Owner or even internal conflicts.
So, let’s focus on the issue where the role of Scrum Master is not considered substantial enough to be a full time role. Sprints in Scrum, unlike stages in waterfall, are intensive periods of activity where development takes place. Any impediments that are not resolved immediately can have an effect on the success or failure of a sprint. The Scrum Master not only resolves impediments as and when they arrive, but also has keen foresight to spot potential issues and create an environment that can help avoid any issues to occur.
The Scrum Master undoubtedly assumes the role of a leader. He coaches and mentors team members both at an individual and a group level to get the best out of the team. He also ensures the team collaborates smoothly and the team delivers what they committed to.
It might seem that a Scrum Master’s responsibilities are vague and general. However, most of the Scrum Master’s responsibilities are performed behind the scenes that require a strong understanding of multiple dimensions such as people, domain, and business requirements.

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Comparison between Agile Vs. Traditional Project Management

Traditional project management specifically emphasizes on conducting a long and detailed upfront planning for all projects irrespective of whether the requirements are known or not. The long upfront planning is emphasised to ensure fixing the variable like time, cost, scope etc. Lot of time is spent on upfront planning these parameters. In today’s fast changing environment, requirements keep changing, and all this upfront planning is wasted if there is a major change in the specification at a later point of time.
While Agile is a general approach used for software development, agile emphasizes on teamwork, frequent deliveries of working software, customer collaboration, and time boxing events and allowing the ability to respond to change quickly.
Scrum is one of most common used form of Agile. Scrum encourages iterative decision making and reduces time spent on unknown variables which are prone to change. Scrum embraces change like no other. Scrum is based on the concept to deliver the greatest amount of value to the customer in the shorted period of time, ensuring a potentially shippable product at the end of each sprint otherwise called iteration.
Traditional project management emphasis on linear processes, comprehensive documentation, spends high time on upfront planning; all requirements prioritization is fixed for the lifetime of the project, and works in managed organization. Traditional project management is adverse to changes and follows a formal change management system. The Return on Investment is after the project is closed and the customer inputs or the involvement in the project may vary depending on the project lifecycle.
While Agile follows an iterative processes and are divided into sprints of shorter span, as agile is more open to changes in the specification, there is less amount of time spent on upfront planning, prioritization of requirements is based on business value and the product backlog is frequently groomed by the product owner. Agile follows self-organized style as individuals are not managed and the organization is de-centralized. Since Agile is split in iterations they pick up small amount of work and rest can be changed and updated to the prioritized. In Agile the Return of Investment is achieved early as release happens in phased and received throughout the project life. The customer involvement in the project is very high as the development work on the concept of customer collaboration.

These are the major differences between a traditional vs agile project management.

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