Which Scrum Event Best Indicates Scrum Master Effectiveness?
Scrum Masters often look to the Sprint Retrospective as the clearest sign of their impact, since it highlights team learning and continuous improvement. Others point to the Sprint Review, where the presence of stakeholders and releasable increments makes value delivery more visible. These two perspectives reflect a key tension: measuring effectiveness by process improvement versus measuring it by stakeholder value.
Metaphor
Scrum Master effectiveness is like judging a teacher—some focus on how lively the classroom discussions are, others on whether students actually pass the exam. One view emphasizes process improvement (the Retrospective as evidence of learning), while the other stresses value delivered (the Review as proof of stakeholder impact).
The tension lies in whether effectiveness is measured by how well the team sharpens its tools or by the quality of what they actually build with them.
This is an example of efficiency vs. effectiveness.
Works Consulted
In addition to any sources cited above, the following works informed my thinking: (1)