As someone who spends a majority of his time working with Scrum teams and Scrum Masters, one of the most common questions that I'm asked is “how many teams can a Scrum Master work with?”.

However, despite how common this question is, there is no simple answer. The Scrum Guide, often our first stop in our journey for questions about the Scrum framework, is silent on this matter. And while a quick internet search will turn up plenty of opinions on the subject, those opinions are usually based on the commenter's unique experience in their specific situation rather than applicable to a wide range of situations.

The fact is that there is no universal answer to this question. The right answer for your organization is going to depend on many factors, such as the skill of your Scrum Master, whether or not that Scrum Master is focused on the Scrum Master role full-time, the maturity of the team that the Scrum Master is assigned to, and of course, the maturity of the overall organization.

However, despite the uniqueness of each situation, there are some rules of thumb that seem to apply in the majority of situations. We can use these rules as a starting point, and then adapt our approach based on what we discover about our specific environment.

Laying the Ground Rules

As a general rule, a skilled Scrum Master can work effectively with 2 to 3 teams. However, there are a few caveats with this generalization.

The first caveat is that I'm assuming that this individual is focused on the Scrum Master role full-time. This means that the individual is not splitting their attention between the Scrum Master role and another role on the Development Team, such as coding or testing. Individuals described by the latter statement can only work with one team at a time: their own.

The second caveat is that I'm assuming that the Scrum Master has a reasonable level of experience and has grown their skills while acquiring that experience. While I'm hesitant to recommend a specific amount of experience, 2 to 3 years of experience across various teams seems to give Scrum Masters the opportunity to grow the skills they need to be successful in a majority of situations. In any case, you should be wary of assigning more than one team to a first time Scrum Master.

The Dangers of the Extremes

Let's dive a bit deeper into the recommendation of 2 to 3 teams to understand better from where this idea comes. First, let's look at the extremes.

For a full-time Scrum Master who is reasonably skilled, working with only a single team is often not enough to keep that individual from becoming bored with their role.

In some cases, this will simply lead to the Scrum Master becoming disengaged and neglecting their responsibilities to the team and their organization. However, in other cases, the Scrum Master may try to invent responsibilities to fill their excess time, often creating low-value work for themselves and, by extension, their teams. The number of metrics that a Scrum Master has conceived of for their teams is often a good indicator of this situation. While some metrics can provide value to the overall planning and tuning of a Scrum team, metrics covering every square inch of available wall space are often a sign of a Scrum Master with too much time on their hands.

Now let's take a look at the other extreme. Generally speaking, when a Scrum Master is asked to work with more than 3 teams they often find themselves spread too thin to add value to any of those teams.

To be truly effective with their teams a Scrum Master must be embedded in those teams. This embedding not only gives the Scrum Master the opportunity to spot friction points or opportunities for improvement, but it also helps the Scrum Master build empathy for those teams by experiencing first-hand the trials and tribulations that the rest of the team experiences on a daily basis.

If a Scrum Master is spread between any more than 3 teams, then it's highly unlikely that they will spend enough time with those teams for those things will happen.

Finding the Sweet Spot

As a result, the sweet spot for Scrum Masters who work with multiple teams is usually between 2 and 3 teams.

Giving a Scrum Master the opportunity to work with multiple teams helps that Scrum Master grow in their craft more quickly, as they have the opportunity to deal with a wider range of challenges as well as see different perspectives on how each team implements the Scrum framework.

But there's also another, more subtle benefit. When a Scrum Master works with multiple teams, they're also more likely to shift their perspective from that of an individual team towards a more holistic view of their entire organization. As a result, the Scrum Master is better able to seek out opportunities to apply the Scrum framework in their broader organization, therefore improving the lives of more teams than simply their own.

Diving Deeper Into a 2 to 3 Team Scenario

Now that we have a better understanding of why 2 to 3 teams may be the sweet spot for a Scrum Master working with multiple teams let's unpack of the details of each of these scenarios to understand better how each may work.

More often than not, a Scrum Master working with 2 teams is the sweetest of the sweet spots. In this scenario, the Scrum Master can spend significant time with each team and truly immerse themselves into the challenges those teams are facing.

Ideally, in this scenario one of the teams will be more mature than the other, which allows the more mature team to operate with more independence giving the Scrum Master more time to focus on the team that's more likely to struggle. In addition, this also provides the Scrum Master the opportunity to consider the juxtaposition of the two teams which can inspire new lines of thought or experimentation.

Expanding on the concept of working with teams of different skill levels, in a 3 team scenario ideally one, if not two, of those teams, are already mature and relatively independent. This allows the Scrum Master to serve in more of a support role for the two maturing teams which frees them to focus on the immature team. However, as the move from 2 teams to 3 teams can be more challenging than you might originally expect, having a highly-skilled Scrum Master in the mix is even important in this scenario.

Note that in both the 2 and 3 team scenarios, the Scrum Master is intentionally electing to spend less time with their more mature teams. While at first, this might surprise you, remember that at all times a Scrum Master should be preparing their teams to operate more and more independently, therefore, lessening their dependence on their Scrum Master. Intentionally lessening their involvement with their teams, while still remaining available to provide support where necessary, is a great first step in this direction.

Finding Your Own Sweet Spot

Remember that above all, the scenarios that I've outlined above are nothing more than guidelines. Every organization is different, every team is different, and most importantly, every Scrum Master is different.

While I'm hopeful that this guidance may be of some help in your own planning for the Scrum Master role remember that, as with all things agile, the only sure path to success is through constant experimentation and learning. You'll need to experiment in your own organization to find the optimal arrangement for your teams as well as expect the most optimal arrangement to shift over time as your teams evolve.

The guidance above should be considered nothing more than a starting point. Only your teams can tell you which approach will work the best in your organization.

Are you looking for a Scrum Master for your team? Check out my Scrum Master Assessment on Kand.io, the leading tech-talent assessment platform. This assessment will help you find the perfect Scrum Master to help your team get to the next level.

Getting started as a Scrum Master can be pretty easy. Take some time to read the Scrum Guide to learn the mechanics of the framework, watch a few videos to go deeper into the role, and then perhaps attend a certification course to learn how to apply these principles in practice.

But even though getting started as a Scrum Master can be relatively easy, the next steps in your journey to becoming a great Scrum Master often aren’t so clear. How do you learn to handle the tough situations that will inevitably arise day-to-day? Or how do you learn to step out of your daily responsibilities and see the bigger picture of how your team is evolving? And finally, how do you ensure that you are growing as a Scrum Master so that you’re continually improving in your quest to help your team become more effective?

Achieving these more advanced goals often isn’t as easy as getting started, but lucky there are some simple practices that can help you take those next steps.

Find Your Tribe

One of single the most effective things you can do to become a more effective Scrum Master is simply to interact with other Scrum Masters. Spending time with other Scrum Masters can reveal a wealth of information, practices, and resources that you may not have been aware of. You’ll be exposed to new perspectives on how to handle common problems faced by Scrum teams and you might even gain insights into how your own practices and behaviors are perceived.

But how do you do this? The easiest way is to simply invite other Scrum Masters in your organization to a regular session in which everyone can meet and share their experiences with their own Scrum teams. A morning coffee chat or even a Friday afternoon session to unwind at the end of the week once per month both work well for this. The only rule is to make it a regular occurrence at a time when everyone can attend without feeling rushed.

Once your group is together, take the opportunity to share recent experiences and developments that have affected your team as well as how you handled them. Then ask if anyone in attendance has encountered similar situations and, if so, how they handled them. You might learn some new approaches to handling the situation should you encounter it again. In addition, if there are others in attendance who haven’t encountered the same situation then they will not only be better prepared to recognize the same situation but they will also have a few tools in their toolbox to handle it when it occurs.

But what if you’re the only Scrum Master in your organization? Maybe you work for a small organization or maybe your organization has just begun its Scrum journey and yours is the first Scrum team on the ground. What do you do then?

In that case, try to find other Scrum Masters in your local area with which you can establish the same standing meeting. Perhaps this is a coffee chat early one morning or lunch at a convenient location one day per month.

While it’s true that Scrum Masters from outside of your organization may not have the same insights into your organization’s unique culture and dynamics, you may find that these same Scrum Masters bring a fresh perspective to your problems simply because of different approaches that they've tried in their own organizations. Simply becoming aware of the challenges and experiences of Scrum teams in another organization can open your mind to perspectives and practices that you may not have even considered.

Start a Scrum Master’s Journal

The next practice is even simpler. Go to your favorite bookstore and buy a nice journal and pen. Then every day, at the end of the day, take 10 minutes to write down the day's experiences.

A great model for this is the Sprint Retrospective that you’re already engaging in with your own team, but from the perspective of your own daily interactions.

Record what you did in your role that day that seemed to have a positive effect on your team and what that effect was. Then record anything that occurred that didn’t go as well as you would have liked. And finally, consider whether there is anything that you’d like to try differently tomorrow.

I would also suggest that you make a note of any major events that occurred during that day, such as key developments that occurred with your team or important events that occurred within your organization. This will help you better understand the context of your notes as well as any external dynamics that may have been affecting your team when you revisit your notes in the future.

Taking a mere 10 minutes at the end of each day to perform a bit of introspection can be incredibly powerful. Not only will this help improve your awareness of your own actions and what effects they have on your team, but it will also help you start to better identify patterns that seem to be affecting your team and better equip you to intervene when you spot those patterns occurring.

Find a Mentor

Interacting with other Scrum Masters will expose you to new perspectives that you may not have previously considered. And starting a regular habit of journaling will help improve your self-awareness of your own behaviors and how those behaviors may be affecting your team. But what about the truly tough problems that you’ll face as a Scrum Master? What about those challenges that are not only facing your team, but also your own growth as a Scrum Master? For that, you’ll need the one-on-one interaction of a mentor.

A great mentor can help illuminate the path on your journey to self-development, act as a sounding board as you work through some of your toughest challenges, and even help you spot possible pitfalls that may lie in wait on the path ahead.

Many Scrum Masters have found that regularly participating in a structured mentoring session on a weekly or monthly basis has been one of the most impactful experiences of their career. But where do you find someone to fill the mentorship role for you?

Many senior Scrum Masters are often willing to serve as a mentor to those who are more junior not only because it can be so personally rewarding, but also because serving as mentor can often be an incredibly illuminating experience, as well.

However, if a more senior Scrum Master is not available then many agile coaches are often more than happy to serve this role. Or, if you’ve taken part in a formal Scrum Master training course then consider reaching out to your Scrum trainer as many trainers are happy to continue their relationships with their students beyond the classroom in this same capacity.

But, barring that, many coaches and Scrum Masters are also happy to engage in virtual mentoring arrangements. In these arrangements, a mentor will regularly engage with you in a virtual setting, often working through a very structured and productive mentoring relationship using video conferencing and other collaboration software.

Putting This Into Practice

Regardless of how you start, regularly interacting with other Scrum Masters and engaging in a broader practice of introspection and increased self-awareness will pay tremendous dividends for your growth as a Scrum Master.

You owe it to not only yourself but also your team to begin investing in improving your craft as a Scrum Master by putting these ideas into practice today.

Are you new to the Scrum Master role and are just trying to find your way? Or, are you an experienced Scrum Master who has your feet wet but now you're ready to take your craft to the next level? Check out my course series, Using the Scrum Framework, to learn how to set yourself apart as a Scrum Master and help your team reach their highest potential.

Don't have a Pluralsight membership yet? Try the entire Pluralsight course catalog free for 10 days here.

So you’ve found yourself in the Scrum Master role with your first team and are wondering where to start. Or, maybe you have a certification or two under your belt, have already worked with a few teams, but are looking for ways to sharpen your skills even further.

Luckily for you, there have been some great books written for Scrum Masters over the past few years. Nearly all of these books are good, but there have been a few that will really help you take your skills to the next level. These books are listed in a specific order that tracks the milestones most Scrum Masters progress through on their journey to becoming a great Scrum Master. To get the most out of these books, I suggest that you work through them in this same order.

Let’s get started…

The Scrum Guide

Surprised? Many people are often taken aback when I recommend such a basic reference book. However, I’m often caught off guard at how many practicing Scrum Masters haven’t actually read the Scrum Guide.

The Scrum Guide is the main touchstone for the rules of the Scrum Framework which you, as the Scrum Master, are responsible for ensuring your team is following. At only 17 pages long, the Scrum Guide can easily be read in an evening, but fully internalizing its content may take much longer.

However, the brief and succinct format of the Scrum Guide can be quite helpful. The Scrum Framework is often accompanied by many complementary practices, such as user stories or planning poker. However, while helpful, did you know that these practices are not actually part of the Scrum Framework?

This is because the creators of Scrum so erred on the side of a lightweight and non-prescriptive framework that many of the practices at are now synonymous with Scrum were explicitly omitted from the Scrum Framework. Reading the Scrum Guide will help you better understand what is part of the Scrum Framework and what isn’t so you can help your team cut through the noise to what actually matters.

Scrum Mastery by Geoff Watts

Once you’ve reacquainted yourself with the rules and values of the Scrum Framework you’ll be better equipped to understand how those values can play out in your organization.

This is where Scrum Mastery comes in. Scrum Mastery uses a scenario-driven format to illustrate specific approaches that a Scrum Master can use to be more effective in their role. It also demonstrates many of the most common challenges a Scrum Master may encounter in their role and then shows possible solutions to work through those challenges in the most productive way.

If you’ve built a good understanding of the basics of the Scrum Framework and your role within it, then Scrum Mastery will help you put those skills into practice.

The Great Scrum Master: #ScrumMasterWay by Zuzana Sochova

Once you’re ready to add some more advanced tools to your Scrum Master toolbox, The Great Scrum Master is a great place to start.

This book is full of practical advice and practices that can help any Scrum Master become more effective in their day-to-day role. Whether you need help getting to the root cause of a pesky problem that continues to afflict your team, understand why certain group dynamics seem to be emerging in your team time and time again, or just start to identify what types of tools might be appropriate for the problem at hand, The Great Scrum Master is full of a wealth of concrete practices that you can start putting to work with your team immediately.

Becoming a Catalyst: Scrum Master Edition: Using Everyday Interactions to Accelerate Cultural Change by Len Lagestee

We’ve talked a lot about the fundamentals of the Scrum Framework as well as what practices you can use as a Scrum Master to help your team. But, we haven’t talked about how to think about your daily interactions as a Scrum Master. This is where Becoming a Catalyst comes in.

This books gives you the tools to make the most of each of your day-to-day interactions both with your team and your broader organization. It provides guidance on how you can build support for your goals for your team, strengthen your relationships with your co-workers, or even gain insights into where trouble may be brewing ahead.

We frequently talk about the “softer side” of becoming a Scrum Master and how useful strong communication skills can be, but there’s often a gap of resources specifically designed to help grow those skills. Becoming a Catalyst fills that gap.

Coaching Agile Teams by Lyssa Adkins

The inclusion of a book so obviously focused on agile coaching may surprise you. But, effective Scrum Masters know that one of the most important ingredients to their team’s success is their own coaching skills. Whether you’re helping your team better understand the practices and values of the Scrum Framework, improve in a specific area of delivery, or even just work together more effectively great Scrum Masters are also great coaches.

But what’s that you say, you’ve never been trained as a coach? Don’t worry Coaching Agile Teams will give you the tools you need to help you coach more effectively both at the team level as well as within your broader organization. If you’re ready to take the next step in your Scrum Master journey and begin actively coaching your team, then this book will help show you the path.

Putting These Books to Use

While these are my favorites, they’re just a taste of the wealth of information available today for Scrum Masters. But getting value out of these books takes more than simply reading them and moving on. To truly get value out of this material you need to carefully read these books, identify and internalize the practices they espouse, and then look for opportunities to put these practices to work with your team. This is because only by actively applying what you’ve learned can you move your team, and yourself, forward.

Are you new to the Scrum Master role and are just trying to find your way? Or, are you an experienced Scrum Master who has your feet wet but now you're ready to take your craft to the next level? Check out my course series, Using the Scrum Framework, to learn how to set yourself apart as a Scrum Master and help your team reach their highest potential.

Don't have a Pluralsight membership yet? Try the entire Pluralsight course catalog free for 10 days here.

If you work in the tech industry then you’ve no doubt noticed the recent explosion in demand for qualified Scrum Masters. But, what’s more interesting is the surge in interest from individuals hoping to fill these positions who are coming from outside of the tech industry. In fact, in the last month alone I’ve received several questions from individuals without a technical background who are interested in becoming a Scrum Master. While the background of each individual is different, all of the emails end with a common question: “Can someone who doesn’t have a technical background find success as a non-technical Scrum Master?”. While opinions on this may certainly differ, I’m thrilled to say that in my experience the answer to this question has been a resounding “Yes!”.

Learning The Skills To Be A Great Scrum Master

While there’s no question that having a strong technical background can be advantageous to becoming a successful Scrum Master, it’s in no way a requirement. In fact, some of the best Scrum Masters that I’ve ever worked with have come from completely non-technical backgrounds.

So, if a technical background isn’t a requirement for becoming an effective Scrum Master, then what is?

The Scrum Master role is all about fostering collaboration across your team. And to do this effectively you need to be able to build connections with others and communicate with them in a way that makes sense to them. Therefore, great Scrum Masters need to be great communicators and understand how to adapt their communication style to a variety of situations and individual preferences.

Teams who are new to the Scrum framework are often skeptical of the number of ceremonies and artifacts that are required to adhere to the rules of the framework. It’s your responsibility as a Scrum Master to communicate the value of each of these ceremonies and artifacts in a way that resonates with each member of your team so that everyone is on board with fully participating in the framework.

In addition, great Scrum Master have a knack for setting short-term goals with their teams and then visualizing the steps necessary to reach those goals. In this way, the Scrum Master helps their team understand the value of each of their sprint goals and helps them build a plan to reach those goals.

But What About Technical Skills?

Both of the skills mentioned above are non-technical in nature, meaning that anyone from any background could be capable of employing these skills successfully. But, does this mean that there are no technical skills required for becoming a great Scrum Master?

Not exactly.

Truly effective Scrum Masters also possess a deep understanding of how their organization delivers software. However, this is not the same thing as being a skilled software developer. Great Scrum Masters have a clear mental picture of all of the steps their organization takes to deliver an increment of product to market and how each of those steps fit together. This doesn’t mean that the Scrum Master understands every line of code used to bring a product to life, or the specific nuances of each step of the product’s deployment pipeline, but they do understand how each step of that process fits together and how changes to one step can affect other steps.

In addition, while they may have a deep understanding of their organization’s software development process, they also understand that their organization’s process is almost guaranteed to differ from another organization’s process…and that this difference is ok.

The goal of understanding their process is to better position them to spot impediments that could be affecting their team, especially those impediments that their team may not even see themselves. And another goal is to help them to spot opportunities to improve and optimize that process so their team can deliver software more effectively.

So while some level of technical understanding is necessary, the good news is that this level of understanding can be learned on the job by anyone willing to invest the effort to do so.

Finding Success As A Non-Technical Scrum Master

But despite the skills above, a large part of your success as a non-technical Scrum Master will depend on how willing your team is to accept a Scrum Master from a non-technical background.

For some teams, this won’t be an issue. They’ll be happy to have the aide of a great Scrum Master and won’t care about your level of technical chops…or lack thereof. For others, however, this may be more of an issue.

For some teams, a Scrum Master from a non-technical background may need to work a little harder to gain their team’s trust. This can be particularly true for teams who are new to the Scrum framework and are already a bit skeptical of the Scrum Master’s role to begin with. But don’t despair, if you find yourself in this situation all hope is not lost.

When working with a team whose trust you may have to work harder than usual to earn, your first order of business should be to invest in building strong relationships with each individual on the team. This can pay huge dividends since people whom you have strong relationships with will be more likely to support and follow you as you begin to drive change in your role. Or, even if they don’t always agree with you, they’ll at least be less likely to publicly detract from you when they disagree.

But beyond this, you must also work to really learn the skills and responsibilities that are expected of a Scrum Master. And then, make a visible effort to put these same skills to work bettering the lives of your team.

As mentioned above, it’s not unusual for teams are who are new to the Scrum framework to also be skeptical of the Scrum Master role in general. Often this skepticism is rooted in a general lack of understanding of purpose of the Scrum Master role as well as the value that this role can bring to their team.

But, by working to truly develop the skills of an effective Scrum Master you’ll not only start to show your team how you can add value to their work but you’ll also demonstrate that the Scrum Master role is a craft of it’s own that requires a commitment to mastery comparable to their own roles and therefore worthy of their respect.

Beginning Your Journey To Becoming A Great Scrum Master

So, you’re confident that you can become a truly effective Scrum Master even without a technical background but you don’t know where to start? Luckily, getting started is easier than you think.

First, there are a wealth of books and online courses available to help you deepen your knowledge of your craft and to teach you the specific skills you’ll need to be successful. Becoming an effective Scrum Master is a career-long pursuit and there’s always more to learn, but luckily you’ll never be at a loss for inspiration.

Second, finding an experienced Scrum Master who can serve as a mentor can be an incredibly effective way to accelerate your own growth as a Scrum Master. A great mentor can give guidance as to what materials or learning would be most appropriate for where you are in your journey, provide insight and advice to problems that you may be facing based on their own experience with similar problems in the past, or just act as a sounding board and listen encouragingly as you reason out the best approach for yourself. If you’re looking for a mentor, a great place to start are the more experienced Scrum Masters in your own organization, Scrum Masters from outside organizations that you may encounter at local user groups or conferences, or even those Scrum Masters who can provide coaching and mentoring remotely via the internet.

And finally, jumping into your role with both feet is the most effective way to quickly find success as a Scrum Master. Truly effective Scrum Masters are great communicators and great facilitators, but above all, truly effective Scrum Masters are great problem solvers. This is because every situation you’ll face will be different and therefore the problems you’ll face with one team will differ from the problems you’ll face with another team. Great Scrum Masters don’t have all the answers, but they excel at putting their problem solving skills to work to find those answers. And there’s no better way to do this, then to dive headfirst into your first team and start solving these problems for yourself.

Are you looking for a Scrum Master for your team? Check out my Scrum Master Assessment on Kand.io, the leading tech-talent assessment platform. This assessment will help you find the perfect Scrum Master to help your team get to the next level.