In SAFe, the Scrum Master is not just a Scrum Master. SAFe defines the role of the Scrum Master as a servant-leader for the agile team who helps educate the team on various frameworks and methods, including Scrum, Kanban, Extreme Programming, and SAFe, ensuring that the agreed-upon agile process is duly followed. So, by default, it implies that Scrum Master in SAFe needs to have more tools in the toolkit beyond just Scrum.
And since SAFe is a framework to scale the team’s agile practices up to the enterprise level there are other layers at higher levels like Essential SAFe, Large Solution SAFe, and Full SAFe. These different configurations can be used as per the need of the organization. The model is made in such a way so that it can cater to all sizes and complex environments. So, the SAFe Scrum Masters also plays a vital role to serve in the different layers of the organization. They will need to work with the extended Scrum Master community, including Release Train Engineers and Solution Train Engineers, to increase the effectiveness of SAFe across the enterprise Embraces SAFe Lean-Agile Principles
SAFe embraces Lean and Agile principles making them very explicit. As a result, a SAFe Scrum Master also must embrace the principles while working in the SAFe environment. The SAFe Scrum Master is supposed to enable the agile team in its SAFe adoption, and they also learn a variety of Lean techniques/tools to improve the flow of value in their agile teams.
Supports SAFe adoption
The Scrum Master supports the overall adoption of SAFe across the enterprise by coaching stakeholders and other non-agile teams on effective interactions with agile teams, participating in the Scrum Master Community of Practice, and supporting the organization’s SPCs.
Promotes SAFe quality practices
SAFe’s core value is “Built-In Quality.” As Dean Leffingwell says, you cannot scale crappy code. SAFe guides on the quality of code via many forums such as CoPs, support from System Architects/Engineers, and even an architectural runway. A SAFe Scrum Master must foster technical excellence and enable teams to have continuous attention to quality. Scrum Master may guide the team to continuously reinforce the definition of done for the team to improve the quality of the increment. The Scrum Master helps foster the culture of technical discipline and craftsmanship that is the hallmark of effective Agile teams.
To view the full blog and this blog “Role & Responsibilities of a SAFe® Scrum Master” is originally published on Agilemania website.
