A New or Old Scrum Master

I was walking the dog on our usual route down toward the Emajõgi, and then came the decision point. Do we go right, as always, or turn left? That choice was probably triggered by a young runner who startled himself from behind the corner of the old Emajõgi sauna, and startled me and the dog as well. In the middle of a sunny weekend morning I was struck by a jolt. And also by the knowledge that Claude Design is now on my wishlist of tools.¹

In any case, I found myself on a new route and, by the brewery walls, formulated the sentence:

A Scrum Master is the same as a bailiff today. Out of old habit, I quickly searched Google for the definition.

A Scrum Master is a “servant leader” and coach for an Agile team, responsible for promoting and supporting the Scrum framework.

Even though I have not read Marx, the definition of revolution is roughly this: when things can no longer continue in the old way for some reason, a turn comes, a shock to the establishment and also to those who work under the old masters and are satisfied. There must be critical mass to change the framework.

Scrum is part of the Agile Manifesto², and old enough to be mocked with a line borrowed from film: It Is So 2001. I think the general idea remains the same, but the method of applying it is aging. That year also brought a shock, though on another front. Life always moves on because land is cultivated, but a little differently: fields used to be ploughed every time, yet this spring I saw plots where seed had been sown directly so as not to traumatize the soil too much (surely a method invented by some lazybones). Or by a greedy master who exhausts the land every second, and the moment even a little rest might come, seed goes on top. I am drifting off topic.

Simply put, I think I found a correction to the Scrum frame. The liturgy needs adjusting; I cannot immediately find it by googling, but if I now described it, an LLM would probably say it is almost indistinguishable from something that already exists. In slightly different wording, but the roles are still the same: bailiff, corvée worker, and so on.

Notes

1. Let it be said that equipment that is too good gets in the way of thinking.
2. The Agile Manifesto, created in 2001 by 17 software developers, is a foundational document defining 4 core values and 12 principles for faster, user-focused software development. It prioritizes individuals, working software, collaboration, and adaptability over rigid processes and documentation. This mindset shift promotes iterative, user-focused development.