Scrum Master vs Product Owner

The most common confusion in the 2 roles of Agile-SCRUM is between Scrum Master & Product Owner.

The Scrum Master is in charge of making sure the Scrum process is followed. The Product Owner (PO) is the person in charge of making sure the product succeeds in the direction the company wants to go.

The PO does this by setting priorities of product backlog items, making sure all needed parties are there for both the sprint planning and sprint review (both are very important). If something occurs and either the scope explodes or decisions need to be made, the PO is the person who gives the answers to the decisions (whether they are the person making the decision or not). I like to think of the product owner as the prioritizer and proxy between IT and the business/customer. Although another common term for that person is "single wringable neck" because if the company isn't succeeding with that product, it's probably a prioritization issue...and who is in charge of that :-).

The Scrum Master is making sure the process gets followed and working through the adaptation of Scrum to your organization. By doing this, they help to create a high performance team or teams. There are many "styles" to achieving this, but the goal is the same.

Ta,
~SA