The Role of the Scrum Master in an Industry based University Course
Kashumi Madampe, Zainab Masood, Rashina Hoda

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…
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Taxonomy
TopicsSoftware Engineering Techniques and Practices · Software Engineering Research · Software Reliability and Analysis Research
