Today a colleague asked me “Can the Scrum Master and Product Owner role be filled by one person?”. My initial reaction was a resounding NO. However, as we talked it over it seemed like it could be possible, assuming the right person was available to fill that role. Let’s take a look at what each role is responsible for:
Scrum Master (via Mountain Goat):
The Scrum Master is responsible for making sure a Scrum team lives by the values and practices of Scrum. The Scrum Master protects the team by making sure they do not overcommit themselves to what they can achieve during a sprint.
The Scrum Master facilitates the Daily Scrum Meeting and becomes responsible for removing any obstacles that are brought up by the team during those meetings.
The Scrum Master role is typically filled by a Project Manager or a Technical Team Leader
Product Owner (via Mountain Goat):
The Product Owner (typically someone from a Marketing role or a key user in internal development) prioritizes the Product Backlog.
The Scrum Team looks at the prioritized Product Backlog and slices off the top priority items and commits to completing them during a Sprint. These items become the Sprint Backlog.
In return for their commitment to completing the selected tasks (which, by definition, are the most important to the Product Owner), the Product Owner commits that he or she will not throw new requirements (Sprint Backlog items) at the team during the sprint. Requirements are allowed to change (and change is encouraged) but only outside the sprint. Once the team starts on a sprint it remains maniacally focused on the goal of that sprint.
Ok, so the Scrum Master is responsible for:
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Ensuring the team lives by values and practices of Scrum
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Protects the team by making sure they don’t overcommit
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Facilitates the daily scrum
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Is responsible for removing any obstacles that come out of the daily scrum
And the Product Owner is responsible for:
Assuming a single person is able to fill both of these roles by not mixing and matching it seems feasible that they could be done by a single person if absolutely required. Ideally I would still keep the roles separate since I think it’s difficult to find someone who is able to fill both roles. The Scrum Master should be focusing on the current sprint, with some visibility into what may come in future sprints, while the product owner should always be looking at the product backlog and continuously evaluating what is the highest priority. Since the Scrum Master has a lot of insight into the development cycle and has close interactions with the Sprint Team it may be difficult for the Scrum Master to switch hats and objectively evaluate what features from the backlog are the highest priority.Â
What do you think, can a single person fill the role of Product Owner AND Scrum Master?