Offshore Scrum Master - a good idea? 3 tips

As a trained psychologist and Scrum Master, I understand the challenges you face as an agile manager. One question that sometimes comes up is: Is it a good idea to hire an offshore Scrum Master? Let’s explore this question together and find out what the pros and cons of this decision are.

Cost savings: Agile project management values efficiency and economy. Hiring an offshore Scrum Master can significantly reduce costs without compromising the quality of work - if implemented correctly. This is arguably the biggest advantage of an offshore Scrum Master.

Flexibility: One possible advantage of hiring an offshore Scrum Master is the flexibility in terms of time. It may be possible to better support distributed teams working in India and Germany, for example.

Diversity: Diversity in the team correlates with innovative ability. Why? Because different perspectives can be brought in, maximizing the likelihood of tackling challenges and ideas creatively. Of course, this can also be promoted with an offshore Scrum Master, who may come from a different culture. 

Those were the advantages of an offshore Scrum Master - but what are the disadvantages?

Communication challenges: The Agile Manifesto emphasizes the importance of personal interaction. With an offshore Scrum Master, communication barriers can arise that affect the exchange of information. It would be important to establish clear lines of communication and schedule regular meetings to prevent this challenge.

Physical distance: Obviously, you can build a better relationship with people if you know each other personally. This is much more difficult with an offshore Scrum Master. At best, there should at least be regular meetings.

Cultural differences: The advantage mentioned above also has a disadvantage: different locations often mean different cultural contexts. These differences can lead to misunderstandings or conflicts. An example of this would be when direct communication is seen as disrespectful in one culture, while it is considered efficient in another. Team leads should take these aspects into account and promote cross-cultural collaboration.

Of course, there are other advantages and disadvantages to this role, but from my point of view, we have summarized the most important points. From which you can also draw some tips that should be considered in this topic. Speaking of tips, there is one more point to mention…

"Many team members are afraid to speak up!"

Solve this challenge

"We discover too many unexpected issues & bugs at a late stage!"

Solve this challenge

"Why does it sometimes take me hours to prepare a simple retrospective?"

Solve this challenge

Are you considering hiring an offshore Scrum Master mainly for cost reasons? Then Echometer could also be an interesting alternative for you.

Echometer is like a digital agile coach. We help agile team leads or team members to grow into a productive “Servant Leadership” role in a time-efficient manner with the help of psychologically sound retrospectives and health checks. 

Of course, a Scrum Master cannot be replaced. But if it is not financially possible, then Echometer can be a great alternative. You can read more about exactly how this works on our main website.

In a nutshell: Offshore Scrum Masters or even an offshore Agile Coach (basically the same points apply here) offer flexibility and cost efficiency, but require careful communication and cultural integration. In line with the agile manifesto, a conscious, human-centered approach to the question posed in this text is crucial for success.

Lastly, one more note: If you would like to try out how it feels to develop your team with our tool: You can start an agile retrospective without logging in below, in this case the “Keep, Stop, Start” workshop. 

Alternatively, simply forward our website to the responsible colleagues: www.echometerapp.com.

How to

Keep stop start retro: How the retro works

1. Random Icebreaker (2-5 minutes)

   Echometer provides you with a generator for random check-in questions.

2. Review of open actions (2-5 minutes)

   Before starting with new topics, you should talk about what has become of the measures from past retrospectives to check their effectiveness. Echometer automatically lists all open action items from past retros.

3. Discuss retro topics

   Use the following open questions to collect your most important findings. First, everyone does it themselves, covered. Echometer allows you to reveal each column of the retro board individually in order to then present and group the feedback.

   • Continue: What should we keep?
   • Stop: What should we stop doing?
   • Start: What should we start doing?

4. Catch-all question (Recommended)

   So that other topics also have a place:

   • What else would you like to talk about in the retro?

5. Prioritization / Voting (5 minutes)

   On the retro board in Echometer, you can easily prioritize the feedback with voting. The voting is of course anonymous.

6. Define actions (10-20 minutes)

   You can create a linked action via the plus symbol on a feedback. Not sure which measure would be the right one? Then open a whiteboard on the topic via the plus symbol instead to brainstorm root causes and possible measures.

7. Checkout / Closing (5 minutes)

   Echometer enables you to collect anonymous feedback from the team on how helpful the retro was. This creates the ROTI score ("Return On Time Invested"), which you can track over time.

Keep stop start retro

Continue: What should we keep?

Stop: What should we stop doing?

Start: What should we start doing?

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