We are following scrum in our project. I see most of the times the scrum master allocates the tasks for us. However, I read from many scrum books that scrum works the other way around (the 'pull' approach) and team members pick up tasks or features. Is scrum master assigning tasks the correct approach or does it go against the agile ideology?
Can scrum master allocate tasks?
project management;agile;scrum
According to the Wikipedia Article on Scrum, Sprint tasks are not assigned by the ScrumMaster:Tasks on the sprint backlog are never assigned; rather, tasks are signed up for by the team members as needed, according to the set priority and the team member skills.  This promotes self-organization of the team, and developer buy-in.Furthermore, the definition of a ScrumMaster is that he/she is the person responsible for making sure people follow the rules of the Scrum process.ScrumMaster  The person responsible for the Scrum process, making sure it is used correctly and maximizing its benefits.The ScrumMaster does not assign tasks, plain and simple.  The team is self-organizing, and decisions of who works on what is decided by the team.This is true Scrum.  Many organizations may of course use variations of this, however.