You Don’t Need a Full-Time Scrum Master... Until You Do

Many companies try to save money by watering down the Scrum Master.
👉 10% of someone’s time
👉 Given to the tech lead
👉 Rotated each Sprint
👉 Having the Product Owner take it on as a side hustle
👉 Split across 3–4 teams "for efficiency"
👉 Given to a business analyst because "they already run meetings"

It feels efficient.
But what it really means is: "We don’t have a clue what a Scrum Master really does."

Most organizations reduce it to:
📅 Booking meetings
🗂️ Updating Jira
🥳 Playing cheerleader
📊 Tracking velocity and other vanity metrics
📝 Taking notes in every meeting
📌 Making sure people "follow the rules of Scrum" by enforcement

Yes, the Scrum Guide never says the Scrum Master has to be full-time.
But here’s the hard truth: when you water down the accountability, you lose the impact that actually makes Scrum work.

What gets lost is the invisible stuff that actually makes Scrum work:
🔸 Coaching and mentoring that changes behaviors
🔸 Defending empiricism when it is under attack
🔸 Making space for improvement instead of excuses
🔸 Helping organizations unlearn old habits
🔸 Protecting the Definition of Done so tech debt does not bury the team later
🔸 Raising uncomfortable truths when shortcuts put delivery over craftsmanship
🔸 Keeping the Scrum values alive so teams do not slide into Zombie Scrum

⚠️ The deadliest combo? Merging Scrum Master and Product Owner.
Again, Scrum has no rule against this, but...
One maximizes value.
The other improves how the team works.
Combine them, and both suffer.

🔁 Rotations do not save you either.
Not everyone has the skill or the desire to do the job.
The result:
🤷 Blurred accountability
🤷 Surface-level improvements that change nothing
🤷 Teams left to drift

A part-time Scrum Master almost never...
🚫 Challenges the status quo
🚫 Coaches leadership
🚫 Supports the Product Owner
🚫 Surfaces organizational dysfunction

Scrum does not require a full-time Scrum Master every single day.
But when the accountability is minimized, you pay the price in slower delivery, weaker teams, and years of wasted potential.

👉 Cutting the Scrum Master is the most expensive "savings" you might ever make.
What have you seen when companies try to water down the Scrum Master?