Scrum Roles

Purpose of the game
To facilitate a discussion about the team roles or to teach people what the different roles on high level mean and to explain the stances of a Scrum Master. 
Especially the Scrum Master role is easily misunderstood. Sometimes even by Scrum Masters :)

 

How to play
Put the Scrum Master, Product Owner and Development team cards next to each other on a table or on the floor.
Shuffle the statement cards and hand them over to the attendees (if you have a large group you could split them in smaller groups with a smaller stack of cards).
Let the group(s) discuss on to which role the statement on a card belongs “if you HAVE to choose and nobody else would do it”.

 

Optional addition
In the end, when all statements are on the table, you can also invite the team to dot-vote where they think the current real-life situation differs from what the cards say. Take the card (or top three cards) with the most dots and  discuss what the first step to improve could be.

Cheat sheet

Development Team Product Owner Scrum Master
Measures and improves quality Can act on all levels Impediment remover
Practices backlog refinement Is familiar with the market Servant Leader
Decides how work is done Is well informed Change Agent
Decides how much work a story is Thinks in functionalities Coach
Decides who does what Is available Facilitator
Prevents technical debt Represents product vision Teacher
Cross functional Shares Experiences
Selects work for the sprint Acts as an entrepreneur
Is transparent about progress Masters User Story Mapping
Has mandate
Prioritizes backlog
Can say ‘no’
Prefers personal communication

Trick questions
Having the discussion about these trick questions is more important than the outcome, but here are a few suggestions on possible outcomes.

Statement Role
Team Boss Not applicable
Daily Scrum Boss If any, it would be the Dev Team since they are the only ones that must attend
Scrum Police Not applicable
System Admin (Jira/TFS/Jenkins...) Not applicable, or 'everybody who feels like it'
Super Hero Nobody or everybody
Manager Nobody, or if you look at it from the focus on personal growth perspective and mentoring: the Scrum Master
Secretary/Scribe Everybody when needed
Delighting customers Everybody but if you have to choose, Product owner