What Added Value Does a Scrum Master Bring to the Organisation? — A Case Study at Nordea

Abstract

With an increasing number of companies choosing to implement Scrum, the role of the Scrum Master seems to change from how it is described in the Scrum Guide. Companies have challenges in hiring skilled Scrum Masters, and in seeing the value of this role after the agile adoption phase is over. This paper aspires to understand the value of Scrum masters by investigating the role in a case company, Nordea, while studying their experiment of assigning a single Scrum Master to multiple teams. We collected data by eleven semi-structured interviews and six observation sessions. Our findings show that the real value of a Scrum Master is based on his or her ability to understand people. The Scrum Master contributes to team dynamics and well-being, helps the team to connect and coordinate, and challenges the team to higher performance. Finally, assigning an experienced Scrum Master to two teams can lead to improved knowledge-sharing, cooperation and alignment. Assigning more than two teams to a single Scrum master may put the value this role provides at risk.