If you are thinking about "saving money" by eliminating the Scrum Master, think again! They are the glue that holds the Scrum Team together. What are good communication, effective events and a focus on value worth, after all? A pretty penny, I'd say.
The Cost of Miscommunication
Think about it—how much money could your company lose just from communication issues? Diluted focus, busywork, poor coordination, unnecessary impediments, issues not escalated, can easily drain hundreds of thousands—or even millions—of dollars. (Believe me I've seen it happen.)
The Scrum Master’s job is to improve the adoption of Scrum and ensure the team is working effectively. That means:
Helping people understand how to work together and how they contribute to the success of the team.
Removing impediments before they cause delays. (this alone would be worth a very pretty penny)
Ensuring that the Product Owner has crafted and communicated a clear Product Goal so that the team stays focused on value
Promoting Empiricism, which means transparency, inspection and adaptation so that the team is continually improving and responding to change
And more! That’s not just “team morale stuff.” That’s risk management, and it saves real money.
The Glue That Holds the Team Together
Scrum Masters are like the glue that holds a team together. Removing a Scrum Master from the team is like removing the glue from a model airplane mid-flight. It might stay together for a little while, but pretty soon things start to get flakey.
Scrum Masters smooth out friction before it slows the team down, and they prevent the squeaks of misunderstanding from turning into grinding halts.
According to the Scrum Guide, Scrum Masters:
Coach team members in self-management and cross-functionality.
Help the team focus on creating high-value Increments.
Ensure all Scrum events are productive and kept within the timebox.
Cause the removal of impediments.
These aren’t “nice to haves”—they’re the guardrails that keep your delivery process from sliding off the road.
Protecting the Return on Your Agile Investment
Adopting Scrum is an investment. Without a great Scrum Master, you risk falling into “Scrum in name only”—where the Scrum events may be happening, but the value isn’t being delivered.
A Scrum Master protects your Agile investment by making sure:
Transparency is real, not just a buzzword.
Inspection happens frequently and leads to genuine adaptation.
The Scrum Values—Commitment, Focus, Openness, Respect, and Courage—are alive in the team’s day-to-day work.
Without these, your Scrum Team is just pretending to be Agile - and the costs of that are far higher than a Scrum Master’s salary.
The ROI of a Scrum Master
When a Scrum Master does their job well, the results are measurable:
Value delivered sooner using incremental delivery.
Higher product quality.
Higher team morale.
A focus on continuous improvement
Fewer costly surprises.
In other words, a good Scrum Master more than pays for themselves—often many times over.
Bottom line: If you think you can’t afford a Scrum Master, think about what it will cost you not to have one. The math speaks for itself.
_____
To learn more about the Scrum Master accountability in Scrum, sign up for Rebel Scrum's upcoming Professional Scrum Master course. This is the training you've been looking for.