Scrum Master

• Accountabilities
  • Establishing Scrum as defined in the Scrum Guide: by helping everyone understand Scrum theory and practice, both within the Scrum Team and the organization
  • The Scrum Team’s effectiveness: by enabling the Scrum Team to improve its practices
  • responsible for ensuring Scrum is understood and enacted: by ensuring that the Scrum Team adheres to Scrum theory, practices, and rules
  • serves the Scrum Team
    • Coaching the team members in self-management and cross-functionality
    • Helping the Scrum Team focus on creating high-value Increments that meet the Definition of Done
    • Causing the removal of impediments to the Scrum Team’s progress
    • FACILITATION: Ensuring that all Scrum events take place and are positive, productive, and kept within the timebox
  • serves the Product Owner
    • Helping find techniques for effective Product Goal definition and Product Backlog management
    • Helping establish empirical product planning for a complex environment
    • Helping the Scrum Team understand the need for clear and concise Product Backlog items;
    • Facilitating stakeholder collaboration as requested or needed
  • serves the organization
    • Leading, training, and coaching the organization in its Scrum adoption
    • Planning and advising Scrum implementations within the organization
    • Helping employees and stakeholders understand and enact an empirical approach for complex work
    • Removing barriers between stakeholders and Scrum Teams
• responsibilities
  • helping individuals, teams and organizations improve their ability to deliver valuable products
  • servant-leader for the Scrum Team
  • helps those outside the Scrum Team understand which of their interactions with the Scrum Team are helpful and which aren’t: helps everyone change these interactions to maximize the value created by the Scrum Team
• The evolution of the Scrum Master
  • For a lot of, the Scrum implementation takes a long time or they never reach the real benefits
  • There is a close relationship between the speed & success of the Scrum implementation and the maturity of the Scrum Master role
  • The pattern
    • who is the perfect person for this role? The answer to these questions is not simple
    • The more mature the Scrum Master becomes, the higher the expected benefits
    • The pattern is incremental, at each step the benefits grow
    • Each version/stage is an upgrade of its predecessor and incorporates all qualities of the previous version
  • The Clerk
    • As a first attempt often start with one of the members of the Scrum Team (maybe he used to be the 'team leader') good at organizing stuff, easily pick up some extra tasks
    • main responsibility is operational work on the Sprint Backlog
    • being a Scrum Master is something they do in their spare time
    • On a day-to-day basis removes a lot of administrative duties from the Developers (like updating the Sprint Backlog, burndown graphs, preparing the Sprint Planning, etc)
    • limited benefits since mostly focused on themselves & the inferior values of the Agile manifesto (tools, processes, documentation, etc)
  • The Puppet Master
    • is aware of the manifesto values (working software, collaboration, interaction & embracing change)
    • they understand how the mechanisms in Scrum can help
    • try to pull different strings to make team members move in the right direction: everyone follow the Scrum rules by the book, mechanical Scrum implementation, people do all the events, roles & artifacts in Scrum, but not really live them
    • still supports the team in doing technical work, focus on their own Scrum Team
  • The Organizer
    • has managed to make their team aware of the Scrum Values
    • They have realized that by doing all the complex technical work themselves, they actually prevent the team from learning
    • they step aside. facilitates that the team can do it themselves ('We don't need strings to make the puppets move!')
    • focus on teaching people about Scrum
    • They make sure they actually live the values
    • focused on making sure that all Scrum events have an optimal result
    • make time to provide data, so people can start acting on facts instead of gut feeling
    • their team is still learning. The team still needs the Scrum Master's full attention
  • The Coach
    • Scrum Team run Scrum themselves
    • the Scrum Master has enough room to also focus on the Product Owner and the environment around the team (stakeholders, management, etc)
    • The Coach is able to impact others, are able to empathically listen to others, able to make people connect to their passion and take action towards that goal. He/she helps people to find new viewpoints & evolve
    • The focus gradually shifts from the team towards the organization
    • they still struggle to find solid ground with management & other parts of the organization (marketing, sales, operations, you name it...)
  • The Advisor
    • They succeeded in creating\enabling empowered Scrum Team
    • their focus has now shifted towards the organization
    • They fixe impediments on the organizational level
    • helps new Scrum Masters with a lower evolution level to grow
    • In an organization with complex, large products, the Advisor is typically the Scrum Master for a number of scaled Scrum teams (in a Nexus they might also be the Scrum Master for the Nexus Integration Team)
    • they learn a lot about the organizational dynamics
    • still struggles in making organizations more responsive as a whole
  • The Expert
    • highly competent & committed
    • has a connection with all parts of the organization
    • They give advice to managers and HR professionals
    • They lead the organization towards agility
    • The Expert helps in creating new rules & standards
    • Some of the Experts are still part of a Scrum Team. These teams are often high performing, skilled, and an example for the other teams
    • Unfortunately, many organizations do not recognize these Experts or don't understand how to keep them motivated. If they eventually leave, it will be a hard job to fill the vacuum they leave behind
• The 8 Stances of a Scrum Master
  • The role of a Scrum Master is one of many stances and great diversity
  • Great SM is aware of them and knows when and how to apply them, depending on situation and context
  • The 8 Misunderstood stances of a Scrum Master
    • Scribe
      • Taking notes during Scrum events. Writing down the entire Sprint plan, daily plan, refinement discussions and Retrospective commitments
    • Secretary
      • Planning all the Scrum events in everyone’s agenda. Responsible for keeping the teams’ schedule with holidays and days off up-to-date
    • The Scrum Police
      • Rigorously following the rules of Scrum without any empathy for the team’s current situation and context. If you’re not acting according to the Scrum Guide you’re doing it wrong. Period
    • The Team Boss
      • The so-called “servant-leader”, but actually just the boss of the team. The boss who hires and fires. The boss who decides if someone deserves a salary increase
    • The Admin
      • If you need a change in JIRA, TFS or any other tool: the Scrum Master is your friend. He (or she) knows every workflow by heart
    • The Chairman
      • Every morning the team provides a status update to the chairman of the Daily Scrum. This offers the SM the necessary information to write the daily status report to his/her superiors
    • A Super Hero
      • Solving impediments before it actually even was an impediment. The hero is addicted to the adrenaline of solving “problems. Not about the team, it’s about increasing his status as a hero
    • The Coffee Clerk
  • From 50% Agile Coach to 100% SM
    • Create a better understanding of the SM role, lead by example
    • Why change title from Agile Coach to SM? explain it by using the values of Scrum
      • Commitment: lead by example
      • Focus: on helping people understand the spirit of Scrum
      • Courage: Courage to say ‘no.’ Courage to say ‘no.’ everything I do is Scrum
      • Respect: For Customer: I can offer them an average Agile Coach or a good Scrum Master
      • Openness: being transparent and sharing all
  • 8 Stances:
  • A great SM is aware of them and knows when and how to apply them, depending on situation and context
  • Servant-Leader
    • The backbone of the Scrum Master role
    • Focus on the needs of the team members and the people they provide value to (the customer) with the goal of achieving results in line with the organization’s values, principles, and business objectives
    • philosophy and practices increase teamwork and create an environment in which individual growth can flourish and endure, and the team realize their full potential
    • objective: enhance and increase teamwork and personal involvement. Create a participative environment, empowering ‘employees’ by sharing power and decision-making
    • master at encouraging, enabling, and energizing people to gel as a team and realize their full potential
  • Teacher
    • ensure Scrum and other relevant methods are understood and enacted
    • ensuring the Scrum Team adheres to Scrum theory, practices and rules
    • the primary focus is the Scrum Team. But should also ensure Scrum is understood by everyone else involved with the Scrum Team
  • Coach
    • Coaching the:
      • individual with a focus on mindset and behavior
      • team in continuous improvement
      • organization in truly collaborating with the Scrum team
    • Coaching is unblocking a person’s potential to maximize their own performance. It is helping people to learn rather than teach them
    • Coaching is not about giving advice, but about supporting people to come up with their own solutions. If you ask the right questions, they always will
    • For coaching, being a subject matter expert isn't necessary
  • Mentor
  • Facilitator – events and collaboration
  • Manager
  • Impediment Remover
  • Change Agent
• Characteristics of a great Scrum Master
• (Article writer tells) A Day in the Life of a Scrum Master