The Role of the Scrum Master in an Industry based University Course

TL;DR

This study explores the role of Scrum Masters in an industry-based university course, combining practical experience with analysis of student reflections to identify key responsibilities, challenges, and strategies, providing educational recommendations.

Contribution

It offers new insights into teaching Scrum Master roles through experiential learning and mixed-methods analysis, bridging academic and real-world Scrum practices.

Findings

Identified key responsibilities of Scrum Masters.

Highlighted common challenges faced in Scrum roles.

Provided strategies to overcome Scrum-related challenges.

Abstract

Background: Scrum is the most commonly used agile software development method, and the role of the Scrum Master (SM) in a Scrum environment is vital. Therefore, through an industry based university course for final year undergraduate and masters students, we aimed to give students both theoretical and practical understanding of the role of SM via hands-on experience on playing the role in real-world Scrum contexts. Method: We asked them (92 students) to share their experiences and learnings on the role of SM through reflective surveys and essays. Students participated in reflective surveys (311 survey responses) over 5 weeks in the course, and they submitted essays (92 essays) at the end of the course. We used a mixed-methods approach using Socio-Technical Grounded Theory analysis techniques and trend and regression based statistical analysis to analyse the survey responses and the essays. Findings: We identified the key responsibilities and duties of the SM, common challenges faced by the SM and the team due to the role of the SM, root causes of the challenges, strategies used by the SM and the team to overcome the challenges, and the overall experience of the students. Based on the results, we present recommendations for educators.