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An Empirical Study on Learning Paths and Gender Dynamics in Scrum Master Roles
Manuela Petrescu, Paul Razvan Petrescu
TL;DR
The paper examines limited evidence on Scrum Master learning paths, using interviews and a focus group to study team size, career learning, and skills monitoring. It reports a six-member team-size threshold, varied learning processes, and limited standardization for soft-skills measurement and development.
Problem
Research on Scrum Master learning paths is relatively limited despite existing work on the role’s competencies, responsibilities, gender diversity, and soft skills.
Method
The study conducts two phases of interviews and a focus group, analyzing responses about team size, women’s career learning, and skills development monitoring.
Results
The study indicates that Scrum Master need depends on team size, with a threshold of six members, while soft-skills learning and measurement lack overall standardization.
Takeaways & Limitations
Scrum Master skill acquisition varies with company culture, personal motivation, and resources, and many learning initiatives are employee-driven.
Takeaways & Limitations
The findings can be generalized to Romanian IT companies, while generalization to IT companies more broadly requires caution.
Abstract
from arXiv · showhide
Context: Agile development methodology has been widely adopted by industry and the demand for experienced professionals in Agile-related roles is persistently high. Objectives: We focus on the learning path for a Scrum Master role in multicultural software companies and investigate the role in relation to team size, together with the learning process for a career path, and how companies monitor soft skills development. Method: We conducted our study in two phases, two qualitative surveys (interview studies) and performed a qualitative and quantitative data analysis of the results. Conclusions: Our results identified that the need for a Scrum Master (SM) depends on the size of the team, with our study indicating a six-member limit. There is no overall standardized process for soft skills learning or metrics to measure progress. Some companies measure soft skills based on feedback received from the client or from the team, and other companies are taking both types of feedback into consideration. Many learning initiatives, especially on soft skills for an SM role, were based on actions of the employees. The version of Record of this contribution is published in Software Engineering and Advanced Applications. SEAA 2025. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 16083. Springer, Cham. and available online at: check DOI.
1 Introduction
The study addresses the relatively limited evidence on Scrum Master learning paths while examining team size, women’s career paths, and organizational skills monitoring.
- 1 Introduction: Scrum is widely adopted, and the Scrum Master is one of three key Scrum team roles.The other roles are Product Owner and developers.
- 1 Introduction: Studies have examined Scrum Master responsibilities, gender diversity, and soft skills, but relatively few address the role’s learning path.
- 1 Introduction: The paper empirically examines Scrum Master learning paths, extending prior work on competencies, responsibilities, and gender balance.
- 1 Introduction: Its objectives are to relate team size to Scrum Master need, understand women’s career learning processes, and examine how companies monitor skills development.
2 Study Design
The study uses qualitative interviews and a focus group to examine Scrum Master needs across team sizes and learning paths in software companies.
- 2 Study Design: The study uses two phases of interviews and a focus group to investigate Scrum Master roles, learning paths, and team-size differences.Interviews were conducted online using Teams and allowed structured questions with free-text responses.
- 2 Study Design: Interview questions covered company characteristics, participant roles, IT experience, team size, Agile processes, and Scrum Master learning.
- 2 Study Design: The second interview set focused on women in Scrum Master roles and included group-selection and data-processing questions.
- 2 Study Design: The first phase included 32 experienced participants from 14 companies selected to represent varied company sizes.
- 2 Study Design: Interviews were recorded with consent, anonymized, transcribed, and independently cross-checked against recordings.
- 2 Study Design: The three-hour focus group broadened discussion from project-specific details to participants’ Scrum Master experiences and learning.
3 Empirical investigation into Scrum Master learning path - Results
The study found that Scrum Master need rises with team size, while learning paths combine varied interactive and self-directed approaches. Companies commonly lack standardized soft-skills metrics, relying instead on feedback and employee-led development.
- RQ1: Scrum Master need and team size: Teams with more than six members generally had a Scrum Master, while Agile teams without one had six or fewer members.The study observed one exception among teams larger than six members and identified six as the team-size limit in this sample.
- RQ1: Scrum Master need and team size: Scrum Master roles were performed by 29.41% women and 57.14% men, with the role most often carried out by men.
- RQ2: Learning paths: Learning included courses, certification and non-certification training, community learning, mentoring, and self-learning.The learning map included on-site and online courses, forums, and local meetups.
- RQ2: Learning paths: Courses, including online courses, and mentoring represented 50% of the identified learning forms.
- RQ2: Learning paths: Company support ranged from learning time and limited formal provision to courses, funding, certification, training, mentoring, and shadowing.Support was counted by distinct supporting activities for each respondent.
- RQ3: Soft-skills monitoring: Soft skills were measured through feedback in 53.12% of responses, while 31.25% reported informal or non-standardized evaluation.Feedback came from clients, teams, or both, and evaluation frequencies varied across companies.
4 Discussion
The discussion links Scrum Master need to team size and describes learning as varied and context-dependent. It also emphasizes that organizations lack universal methods for assessing the soft skills central to the role.
- Team size and gender: The study identifies six members as the threshold associated with Scrum Master necessity and reports that men predominantly filled the role despite women possessing relevant skills.
- Learning path: Scrum Master skill acquisition varied with company culture, personal motivation, and available resources, ranging from structured training to mentorship and hands-on experience.
- Learning path: Interactive methods such as workshops, simulations, and peer discussions were identified as particularly effective for developing facilitation abilities.
- Soft-skills assessment: Organizations had no universal standard or concrete metrics for assessing communication, meeting facilitation, negotiation, or conflict resolution.Some relied on client feedback, team feedback, or both, while the discussion proposes defined benchmarks and assessment tools as a more structured approach.
5 Threats to validity
The study addressed validity threats through expert-validated interview questions, participant diversification, anonymization, and a defined boundary on generalizability to Romanian IT companies.
- Expert Scrum Master and Product Manager review was used to calibrate the interview questions before data collection.
- The study anonymized individuals and companies by removing identifying information from the data.
- Participant selection diversified roles, positions, company sizes, and gender representation to reduce risks from the participant pool.
- The findings are considered generalizable to Romanian IT companies, but broader generalization requires caution because Romanian companies may have specific internal processes and learning methodologies.Participants came from 14 multinational or outsourcing companies and seven additional focus-group companies.
6 Conclusions and future work
The study examined Scrum Master learning paths, organizational support, and women’s training through interviews and a focus group. It found that learning varies by company culture, motivation, and resources, while soft-skills evaluation commonly relies on feedback without defined metrics.
- Scrum Master skill acquisition varies with company culture, personal motivation, and available resources.
- Organizations commonly support learning, but many learning initiatives—especially for soft skills—are created by employees.
- Companies monitor technical-skill development more readily than Scrum Master soft skills, which are difficult to monitor and evaluate.
- Soft-skills evaluations commonly use received feedback without defined metrics.
- Future work will extend the investigation of learning processes to other roles within Agile teams.