Every organisation has been able to accelerate its agility and digitisation journey due to the global pandemic. Everyone is talking about digital transformation. However, few people understand the importance of business agility. As they move along their agility journey, enterprises across industries and markets are looking for different roles to fill.
The ‘Scrum Master/Product Owner’ debate has been a topic of heated debate for many years. Despite the fact that both of these roles are essential in Scrum development methodology, the debate is still ongoing.
Let’s look at the differences between these job roles to see if we can resolve the issue once and for all.
What is a Scrum Master?
An organisation’s Scrum Master is responsible for establishing Scrum following the Scrum Guide guidelines. This involves educating and training everyone in the Scrum team and organization on Scrum, both theoretically as well as practically. The Scrum Master is also responsible to ensure the effectiveness of the Scrum Development team. They are responsible for improving team performance by using consistent, practical methods that conform to the Scrum framework.
What is a Product Owner?
The Product Owner is responsible to maximize the product’s value through the Scrum team’s performance. A Product Owner is an individual, and not a team. This person represents the needs and demands of multiple stakeholders within the Product Backlog. Anybody who is interested in changing the Backlog must first convince them.
Skill Differences: Product Owner vs Scrum Master:
Key Skills
Scrum Master Skills:
A Scrum Master must have a solid foundation and deep understanding about the enterprise-level Agile Methodology. They should be able communicate best practices to their team members. They should be skilled communicators and mentors to achieve this. Scrum Masters must explain the product vision and its relevance to each member of the team if they are unable to understand the purpose of a given task.
Scrum Masters need to be organized. They must be able to manage multiple people simultaneously and know how to create processes to supervise each Scrum team. They must also be able to lead and set achievable goals for employees. This helps employees and team members stay motivated, and prevents them from taking shortcuts or slacking during development.
Also read: Best Career Paths for Successful Scrum Masters in 2022
Product Owner Skills
A Product Owner is basically a master of all tasks. They are able to understand the roles of a support representative, marketer, and engineer because all of their tasks are covered by the Product Owner role. This means that Product Owners need to have a range of skills to succeed within their role.
The Debate: Scrum Master or Product Owner?
