Women in Scrum Master Role: Challenges and Opportunities*

Abstract

The demand for workforce in the IT industry is increasing exponentially. Opportunities to attract human resources to this domain need to be identified. Due to the exponential development of the domain, several roles associated with software development emerged, including the role of Scrum Master. We had a series of interviews with persons in leading positions and a focus group with Scrum Masters to establish what are the desired skills for this role, both technical and soft, and the main challenges associated with this role. According to the focus group discussion, the Scrum Master role can be performed as a “single role†or can overlap with managerial or technical roles, depending on the project. We investigated the gender diversity associated with the Scrum Master role and concluded that women have good soft skills (communication, conflict management, empathy) that make them a good fit for this role.