Even if for some Agile and Scrum practitioners, checklists can have the bad reputations as being on the wrong side of the “Individuals and interactions over processes and tool ” Agile Manifesto preferred values, it doesn’t always mean that it contains “items you should always check”. They can be also considered as a good practice that allows to capitalize and share experience when they are used as guidelines to assess the different aspects of a situation.
This article presents various websites, articles and blog posts that suggest checklists for ScrumMasters. The main reference is scrummasterchecklist.org and many websites just reference this content. We tried to uncover different perspectives on this topic. I hope their content might help beginner or experienced ScrumMasters consider their work with a different perspective. Feel free to suggest any content that I missed and that should be featured in this article.
Updates:
* November 28 2025:
Added: Agile to Agility, ProCognita Scrum Master Checklist, ScrumDesk Scrum Master Daily Checklist
Removed: SolutionsIQ ScrumMaster Thoughtlist, Pascal Dufour Scrum Master Checklist (both are not available anymore)
* June 16 2021: added StarAgile, Ansar Kanhiroli
* Michael James’ Example Scrum Master Checklist
This site is dedicated to Michael James’ Example Scrum Master Checklist, an example list of things a Scrum Master should pay attention to in a typical organization. This list is translated in multiple languages (Chinese, Japanese, German, French, Spanish, etc.) Some of the items mentioned in this list are “Is the backlog an information radiator immediately visible to all stakeholders?” or “Are there issues/opportunities the team isn’t discussing because they’re too uncomfortable?”.
Web address: http://scrummasterchecklist.org/
* Crisp Scrum Checklist
The Scrum checklist is a simple tool created by Henrik Kniberg that provides guidelines to help you get started with Scrum or assess your current implementation of Scrum. Some of the items mentioned in this list are “Team has a sprint backlog that is updated daily” or “Velocity only includes items that are Done”.
Web address: https://www.crisp.se/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Scrum-checklist.pdf (PDF)
* Scrum Master Daily Checklist by StarAgile
This blog post proposes a list of questions that could help Scrum Masters to identify issues about its work and about the product owner, development team, engineering practices and learning organization.
Web address: https://staragile.com/blog/scrum-master-checklist
* Ansar Kanhiroli Daily Checklist
Ansar Kanhiroli proposed a list of 25 questions to assess the status of the current sprint. Some of the questions are “Is the team able to work independently, without technical dependencies?”, “Are there any conflicts/potential conflicts within the team that I should be aware of?” and “Are we having FUN?”
Web address: https://medium.com/@ansark/a-simple-daily-checklist-for-a-scrummaster-54a6c8acf513
* Agile to Agility
This PDF checklist from Agile to Agility provides on two pages on all important Scrum activities like backlog refinement, standup or retrospectives. It also includes checklists for the product owner and coaching.
Web address: https://agiletoagility.com/download/website/resources/ScrumMaster-Checklist.pdf
* ProCognita Scrum Master Checklist
This PDF checklist from Agile to Agility lists many questions that a Scrum Master could use to think about how the Product Owner, the team or the software engineering practices are going currently.
Web address: https://procognita.com/scrum-master-checklist/
* ScrumDesk Scrum Master Daily Checklist
This daily checklist provides a small list of elements that the Scrum Master should think about every day.
Web address: https://www.scrumdesk.com/portfolio-items/scrum-masters-daily-checklist/
These ScrumMaster checklists are interestng resources, but I encourage any ScrumMaster or Scrum Team to build its own version. This is like the Definition of Done (Dod), they must be the result of your own considerations about your specific context.