Skip to main content

Scrum and the Business

Last post 01:49 am August 17, 2018 by Ching-Pei Li
4 replies
07:46 pm August 16, 2018

How much of the business do you think it's important for the Scrum Master to know?

With the premise that the product owner is the bussiness expert he's in charge of the business part of the product... 

I'm in charge of 3 squad in my company, and it's really hard for me to know the business of all... But I do take cara of the framework part, but the squad demand me to know more of the business to adapt the framework and to help in the decision making... Sincerily I'd prefer to not dive into business part... 

How dou you guys manage this in your company? 


08:11 pm August 16, 2018

I think the SM needs to know enough in order to be able to make Scrum effective within the organization. You have to be able to understand obstacles that are brought up, you have to understand the bigger picture if you want to be successful at coaching your team on the small things they work on. You don't have to be an expert but you need to know enough to be effective.


09:03 pm August 16, 2018

the squad demand me to know more of the business to adapt the framework and to help in the decision making

That would ring warning bells with me, in so far as:

- there may be a danger of trying to change Scrum rather than the organization

- the ability to form a self-organizing team might be compromised


10:46 pm August 16, 2018

What do you mean by the statement that you are in 'charge'?  As a Scrum Master, should you be in charge of the team, the developers or a product?

One of the stances of a Scrum Master is to have some knowledge of the business domain you work on, but you are not expected to be an expert by any means.


01:49 am August 17, 2018

How much of the business do you think it's important for the Scrum Master to know?

Just enough for you to sniff out some signs before the problem happens. 

Just enough to help you understand the obstacles the team encounters.

Just enough for you to understand how to provide advice and assistance to Product Owners.

I'm not quite sure about your actual situation, so I can't give you very specific advice.

Sometimes the company wants you to know a little bit more about the business side, perhaps the Product Owner or stakeholder feels that there is something wrong with your communication.

Or the team believes that there are problems with the Product Owner, and they want you to know more about the business side to help them communicate.

In any case, it is recommended that you communicate with your team in an open way to understand what they really think.

Of the three roles of scrum, scrum Master is most in need of patience and communication skills, rather than playing the role of a blood coach or a traffic policeman.


By posting on our forums you are agreeing to our Terms of Use.

Please note that the first and last name from your Scrum.org member profile will be displayed next to any topic or comment you post on the forums. For privacy concerns, we cannot allow you to post email addresses. All user-submitted content on our Forums may be subject to deletion if it is found to be in violation of our Terms of Use. Scrum.org does not endorse user-submitted content or the content of links to any third-party websites.

Terms of Use

Scrum.org may, at its discretion, remove any post that it deems unsuitable for these forums. Unsuitable post content includes, but is not limited to, Scrum.org Professional-level assessment questions and answers, profanity, insults, racism or sexually explicit content. Using our forum as a platform for the marketing and solicitation of products or services is also prohibited. Forum members who post content deemed unsuitable by Scrum.org may have their access revoked at any time, without warning. Scrum.org may, but is not obliged to, monitor submissions.