The Scrum Master acts as a servant-leader for the Scrum Team. Their primary contributions to productivity are not through direct management but through enablement. By facilitating team decisions (B), the Scrum Master empowers the team to self-manage, fostering ownership and improving the quality and speed of their problem-solving. By actively removing impediments (D), the Scrum Master clears the path for the Development Team, eliminating blockers and wasteful delays that hinder their progress. These two functions directly support the team's ability to focus on delivering a high-value Increment and operate at its full potential.

A. Keeping high-value features high in the Product Backlog is the primary responsibility of the Product Owner, who is accountable for maximizing product value.

C. While ensuring events are time-boxed is part of the Scrum Master's role, it is a mechanism of facilitation, not a primary driver of productivity itself compared to removing blockers.

1. Schwaber

K.

& Sutherland

J. (2020). The Scrum Guide. Scrum.org.

Page 7

"Scrum Master" section: "The Scrum Master serves the Scrum Team in several ways

including: ... Causing the removal of impediments to the Scrum Team’s progress." This directly supports option D.

Page 7

"Scrum Master" section: "The Scrum Master serves the Scrum Team in several ways

including: ... Coaching the team members in self-management and cross-functionality." Facilitating decisions (Option B) is a core technique for coaching in self-management.

2. Russo

D.

& Stol

K. J. (2021). Scrum Master's relevance in agile projects: A survey of practitioners. Journal of Systems and Software

173

110883. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2020.110883

Section 4.1

Table 3: The study identifies "Removing impediments" and "Facilitating meetings" as the two most important activities performed by Scrum Masters according to practitioners

directly supporting options D and B.