Confusion regarding Scrum Master's role..
Who supports the Scrum Master in removing impediments?
As per my knowledge Development Team and Product Owner. Its always a good idea to ask the rest of the team for help ), but we prefer not to get
help from outside the team, because it will weaken our self-organization.
But I read somewhere SM can take help from senior management. Is it true? If yes, then what about the meaning of self-organized team.
Why do you think that getting help from outside the team will weaken the team's self-organization?
A team that is self organizing has a few characteristics - the team members have the ability to make and follow through on decisions regarding the work they are doing, work is not assigned to the team or the members put pulled by the team members, any kind of commitments are made by the team and not individuals on the team, members of the team are actively improving themselves as individuals and seeking to improve the team as a whole.
How does seeking help from outside the team prevent those characteristics (or any other that you can think of) from being realized?
Scrum master is only required to remove impediments, when the development team cannot remove those by themselves. The reason the development team might not remove those by themselves, is because they might be beyond their direct influence. This is when scrum master should intervene. So, the development team cannot help scrum master in that. Senior management help is useful here.
I read somewhere SM can take help from senior management. Is it true?
It is true that in many organizations, senior managers are the only ones who *can* remove certain impediments. The requisite power and authority is vested in them.
The more agile an organization becomes, the fewer impediments of this type there will be. A self-organizing and cross-functional team will have the necessary resources and authorities for addressing impediments internally.
It is true that in theory, as the Scrum Guide puts it "Cross-functional teams have all competencies needed to accomplish the work without depending on others not part of the team."
But usually this is not 100% achieveable. Usually we are lucky if we get "all skills needed to accomplish the work". So from time to time someone will have to remove impediments outside the team's control. And that is the SM's responsability. To achieve this SM can make any contacts needed.
The other thing that is not mentioned is the reminder that impediments are not just technical debt or team conflict. Impediments come in all shapes and sizes and not every impediment can be resolved by the team. Say upper management is forcing produce demos on a daily basis leading up to a release. Say the Product Owner has checked out and is no longer a willing participant of the team. Say 2 developers come down with the flu and will be out for 1 week of a 2 week sprint. These are all cases of impediments that are not uncommon but in many cases will require the SM reaching out to senior management for assistance.