They decide the definition of done and what’s included in the initial backlog. The group decides the product vison and approach. It’s the upfront planning needed to get the team moving forward with the same goals and vision. Everyone on the team, along with stakeholders, take part in this session.
Users and key stakeholders also take part in this session. She helps the Product Owner and team write user stories to create the backlog. The activities the Scrum Master might help with include scheduling the meeting and handling logistics. The Scrum Master can assist with the product backlog Creation and Grooming sessions. They also review release burndown charts to see progress so far. The team does demos of completed functionality.
The following activities are less of a leadership role. The Scrum Master responsibilities include other activities, too. She also helps incorporate these going forward. The Scrum Master facilitates this session and documents the target improvements. Team members could identify group goals or personal targets. It could be longer-term improvement goals to work toward. It could be relationships, processes, or how they’re using the tools. They inspect and adapt their process to identify several things to improve. The team identifies improvements and chooses which to incorporate into next sprint. The Scrum Master facilitates this session. She also facilitates task and sprint burndown review during these sessions so that the team can adjust as needed. She listens for roadblocks that keep the team from moving forward. She holds certain discussion topics for after the stand-up. If necessary, she brings them back on point. She makes sure the team follows the 3 Questions (link to my article on the Daily Standup) She keeps the team focused. The Scrum Master is there as a servant-leader to the team. It’s not a meeting for team members to give a status report to the Scrum Master. The scrum session is a session for the team to communicate with one-another. But with that in mind, the Scrum Master does bring value to the team. They can move forward with their scrum meetings even if the Scrum Master isn’t there. Scrum teams are self-organizing and motivated. I previously shared a list of 9 best practices for the daily scrum meeting that tells more about this daily session.