Ideal candidates for being Scrum Master
Businesses that are new to Agile methodologies and Scrum Framework initially fail to find a Scrum Master. The good news is that you don’t need any special experience to become a Scrum Master. You can be a Scrum Master, but you won’t be effective without some experience in Agile.
People with the Scrum Master skillset can come from any domain. As per the Scrum Guide (November 2017), The Scrum Master is responsible for promoting and supporting Scrum as defined in the Scrum Guide. Scrum Masters do this by helping everyone understand Scrum theory, practices, rules, and values.
Sometimes, companies restrict themselves to assigning the position of Scrum Master only to software engineers or technical leaders. While software engineers or technical leaders may do a good job in this position, as they are often well known both within and outside the team, you shouldn’t just choose them.
Scrum Masters, however, may be selected from several different existing roles/people within the team. From my point of view, project managers are ideal candidates to be practitioners of Scrum.
Project Managers are often well organized, they have a clear understanding of the software development process in their organisation and have good relationships both within and outside the team. For all these reasons, when transitioning to a Scrum Master position they can be very effective. But, please note that many traditional project managers use the Authority inherent in their position to lead their teams, which is opposite of nature of the Scrum. This means that traditional project managers will not only have to give up the natural influence that previously accompanied their role, but they will also need to consider how many of their previous activities, including individual task assignments, budgeting and forecasting, and status updates, would alter or even fully disappear in the role of Scrum Master. Some traditional project managers may adapt well to their new position as a Scrum Master and become very successful, but others can struggle to make the transition.
