What Does a Scrum Master Do? Skills and When to Hire One

Updated October 2026

Scrum can give teams a structured way to manage changing priorities, deliver in shorter cycles, and continuously improve their processes. But the framework still needs someone who can keep the team aligned, remove roadblocks, and make sure Scrum practices support consistent execution.

That’s where hiring a scrum master comes in.

Whether you’re building a new agile team, improving an existing one, or deciding between a scrum master, project manager, or agile coach, understanding the role can help you determine what expertise your team needs.

What is a Scrum Master? 

A scrum master helps a team effectively apply Scrum, an agile framework built around iterative work, continuous learning, and adapting as priorities change. Scrum organizes work into short cycles, or sprints, so teams can focus on defined priorities, evaluate progress, and adjust along the way.

Unlike a traditional manager who directs the team’s work, a scrum master focuses on team collaboration and Scrum processes. They facilitate Scrum ceremonies, help remove obstacles, support communication, and coach team members on effective agile practices.

Scrum masters are common in software and product development, but Scrum principles can also be applied in research, sales, marketing, education, and other environments where teams need to respond quickly to changing priorities.

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What Does a Scrum Master Do?

The exact responsibilities vary by organization, but the role generally centers on creating an environment where the Scrum team can work efficiently and continuously improve.

Facilitate Scrum ceremonies

Scrum masters help organize and facilitate recurring activities such as:

• Daily stand-ups
• Sprint planning
• Sprint reviews
• Retrospectives
• Backlog-related discussions

Their role is to keep these processes productive and ensure the team is communicating clearly about priorities, progress, and challenges.

Remove roadblocks

When something prevents the team from moving forward, hiring a scrum master can help identify and address it.

That could involve resolving workflow issues, facilitating communication between stakeholders, or helping the team work through other barriers that affect progress. Removing blockers is a core responsibility described across the existing scrum master content.

Coach the team on Scrum

A scrum master also helps team members understand and apply Scrum principles. This can be particularly important for people who are accustomed to different development or project management approaches.

Effective coaching encourages teams to become increasingly self-sufficient while maintaining the practices that keep work moving.

Improve collaboration

Scrum depends on frequent communication. Scrum masters help create productive interactions among developers, product owners, business leaders, customers, and other stakeholders so teams can respond to new information without losing momentum.

Support continuous improvement

Because Scrum works in short cycles, teams have frequent opportunities to evaluate what’s working and what needs to change.

The scrum master helps facilitate that feedback loop so lessons from one sprint can improve the next rather than allowing the same problems to continue.

What Skills Should a Scrum Master Have?

Knowing Scrum terminology isn’t enough. A strong scrum master needs the people and problem-solving skills to help a team put the framework into practice.

Look for candidates with strengths in:

• Scrum and agile methodologies: They should understand Scrum principles, workflows, ceremonies, and the role Scrum plays within agile development.
• Facilitation: Scrum masters need to keep conversations productive without simply taking control of them.
• Communication: They regularly work across technical teams, product owners, leaders, and other stakeholders.
• Conflict resolution: Disagreements and competing priorities are inevitable. Scrum masters need to help teams work through them constructively.
• Problem-solving: They need to recognize blockers and find practical ways to address them.
• Organization: Sprint planning, meetings, priorities, and changing requirements require someone capable of keeping work organized.
• Coaching: A good scrum master helps the team develop stronger Scrum practices rather than becoming permanently dependent on the scrum master.

Certifications can also demonstrate Scrum knowledge. Common credentials referenced in the existing article include Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Advanced Certified ScrumMaster, and Certified Scrum Professional (CSP). 

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Scrum Master vs. Project Manager: What’s the Difference?

Scrum masters and project managers can both contribute to successful project delivery, but their responsibilities and ways of working are different.

A project manager typically manages the broader project lifecycle, including scope, schedules, budgets, resources, risk, deliverables, and stakeholder coordination.

A scrum master focuses specifically on helping a Scrum team operate effectively. Their work centers on sprints, Scrum ceremonies, removing impediments, improving collaboration, and helping the team follow Scrum practices.

Organizations may need one or both roles depending on how work is structured.

• Consider a scrum master when: your team works within Scrum and needs hands-on support improving its day-to-day processes.
• Consider a project manager when: the work requires broader ownership of schedules, budgets, resources, risks, and project delivery.
• Consider both when: a complex initiative requires traditional project oversight alongside teams working within Scrum.

	Project Manager	Scrum Master
Team Size	Typically afforded larger budgets to oversee entire project lifecycles spanning several teams.	Scrum teams are traditionally lean, so they can remain Agile and responsive.
Goals	Project managers follow predetermined goals to plan for risks and budgets well in advance.	All project goals should be aligned with Agile practices and adjusted regularly with daily stand-ups and sprints.
Key Responsibilities	Liaise between management and project teams to ensure goal alignment. Responsible for planning, creating budgets, and overseeing all project-related tasks. Works alongside other teams and departments to achieve project goals. Focus on processes and workflow efficiencies. Take on all aspects of risk management. Ensure project completion.	Resolve blocks or barriers to Scrum workflows. Oversee Scrum ceremonies and daily stand-ups. Plan and monitor team sprints. Facilitate working through product backlog. Monitor and identify opportunities to increase project efficiency. Motivate the scrum team, Help the team adhere to Scrum practices.
Benchmarks	Project goals are set at the beginning and changed less frequently. PMs understand the importance of quality assurance throughout a project and will hire consultants or look externally for support to stay on budget/task.	They set smaller benchmarks at each stage of product development to ensure efficiency and goal alignment.
Tools	Must be versatile and able to juggle tools from scheduling, budgeting, project tracking, managing risk, and more. They should be proficient in project management solutions with a strong ability to build schedules, diagrams, and performance reports.	Scrum masters rely on more collaborative tools such as agile boards for planning and virtual whiteboards, sprint boards, dashboards, and boards for post-mortem whiteboards.

Scrum Master vs. Agile Coach: What’s the Difference?

Another role that can be confused with a scrum master is an agile coach.

The primary difference is scope.

A scrum master generally works directly with an individual Scrum team, supporting its daily workflows and helping team members apply the framework effectively. An agile coach usually operates more broadly, helping multiple teams, leaders, or an organization adopt and improve agile practices.

Agile coaches may also work across methodologies such as Scrum, Kanban, Extreme Programming, Lean, DevOps, and scaled frameworks, while scrum masters specialize more directly in Scrum.

	Scrum Master	Agile Coach
Primary Focus	Focus on a single team and assists with day-to-day product development workflows.	Oversee an entire organization and implement agile practices for teams, leadership, or organization-wide.
Specialization	Scrum masters specialize in scrum frameworks such as sprint planning, organizing backlogs, daily stand-ups, and retrospectives.	Agile coaches will have familiarity with multiple agile practices such as Kanban, Scrum, Extreme Programming (XP), Feature-driven development (FDD), and more.
Role and Responsibilities	Primarily, scrum masters ensure projects run efficiently and smoothly while removing any blockers that arise for their team.	Agile coaches define organizational workflows and work alongside teams and stakeholders to implement them.
Role Duration	Scrum masters will typically focus on an individual project but remain at an organization once the project is complete to support new development projects.	Agile coaches are oftentimes short-term positions or contractors since their value is to coach the organization’s leadership team on agile principles and help teams adopt them. Successful agile coaches will work themselves out of the job eventually because they have sufficiently trained scrum masters and business leaders to maintain agile standards independently.
Daily Responsibilities	Help developers create high-value products efficiently and effectively. Facilitate daily stand-ups and Agile ceremonies. Train individual team members on agile practices and tools. Oversee sprint planning and backlog management. Monitor and improve the team’s product development outcomes. Encourage iterative product improvements and customer feedback loops. Have access and authority to get things done for their teams.	Equip organizations with expertise and experience on how to use agile development methods. Create guidelines and governance to guide agile-based activities within an organization. Create metrics and benchmarks that dictate the organizational agile framework. Train leadership and product managers on agile methodologies, tools, and best practices. Monitor organization progress and help remove any blockers or bottlenecks. Foster scrum master professional development.

Which one do you need?

Think about the problem you’re trying to solve.

If one Scrum team continually runs into blockers, struggles with ceremonies, or needs stronger day-to-day agile practices, a scrum master may be the better fit.

If agile adoption is a broader organizational challenge involving multiple teams, workflows, or leaders, an agile coach may be more appropriate.

When Should You Hire a Scrum Master?

A scrum master can be particularly useful when a team is adopting Scrum, struggling to apply it consistently, or finding that day-to-day process issues are getting in the way of delivery.

Potential signs include:

• Sprint goals regularly getting derailed
• Recurring roadblocks going unresolved
• Scrum ceremonies becoming unproductive
• Teams struggling to adapt as priorities change
• Communication breaking down across roles or stakeholders
• Team members needing additional coaching on Scrum practices

Consider where the problem sits—within one Scrum team, across a project, or across multiple teams. That can help you determine whether you should hire a scrum master, project manager, agile coach, or broader consulting support.

What Should You Look for When Hiring a Scrum Master?

Start with the environment the person will be entering.

A candidate may understand Scrum exceptionally well but still struggle if their experience doesn’t match your team’s challenges. Consider:

• Team maturity: Is the team new to Scrum, or does it need someone who can refine established practices?
• Project complexity: What kinds of dependencies, stakeholders, and technical challenges will the scrum master need to navigate?
• Leadership approach: Can the candidate influence a team without relying on traditional command-and-control management?
• Communication skills: Can they work effectively with technical contributors, product owners, and business stakeholders?
• Problem-solving ability: How have they handled blockers or conflicting priorities in previous Scrum environments?
• Coaching experience: Can they help a team improve its own ways of working instead of simply running meetings?

The goal is to find someone whose experience matches the actual execution challenge your team faces.

Build the Right Team Around the Work

Complex technology initiatives often require a mix of specialized expertise, strong delivery practices, and the right team structure. Hiring a scrum master can help teams stay focused, address roadblocks, and keep projects progressing as priorities change.

Insight Global helps organizations build teams with specialized talent and supports complex initiatives through consulting solutions. Whether you need an experienced scrum master to support an existing team or a consulting partner to take ownership of a defined initiative, we can tailor the approach to your goals, team structure, and delivery needs. Contact us to get started.