Successful Scrum Master – Tips & Tricks

A successful Scrum Master ‘s key responsibilities include creating successful scrum teams with strong skills in self-organization and cross-functionality and a drive for continuous improvement. Helping & supporting Product Owners in visualizing progress, creating a transparent Product Backlog, and maximizing the value of the product. Helping organizations in making & successfully adopting Scrum by supporting management in changing processes, procedures, culture, and behavior.

Successful Scrum master Skills

Agile Methodologies:  Need to be an expert in scrum so that you can coach the scrum team. You need to take the continuous improvement principles Scrum applies and embrace them at a very personal level. Also, it is important to know other frameworks under Agile. Get trained in Scrum & appear Professional Scrum Master (PSM-I, II, III) or a Certified Scrum Master (CSM) certificate. To read more on different certifications Click Here. 

Software Project Management: Understand how projects are handled in SDLC methodology as it will help you in understanding why scrum is needed in the current world.  It’s key to understand the differences between a “Product” and “Project” & why Scrum works and what problem it solves. Few areas to consider  Project Management, Business Analysis, Development, Quality Assurance, etc.

Scrum Requirements Analysis: Traditional project management restricts requirement change but as a scrum master you need to understand what scrum recommends and change the mindset of the team to accept this change. A good Scrum Master can help their teamwork in better collaboration with their stakeholders to understand the problems they want to be solved and deliver quickly to solve the most important problems. This gives delivery teams the flexibility to change as the needs of the customer change.

Technical Knowledge: Even though technical knowledge is not critical to be a successful scrum master but having good technical knowledge will definitely help a scrum master to be successful. It helps to understand the impediments when working with product development teams. Knowledge of Agile tools like Xray, JIRA, etc definitely helps in managing the team effectively. 

Additional Skills: Good influencer, strong network within the organization, excellent soft skills, and high emotional intelligence are necessary to be a good Scrum Master. 

• an open and curious mind
• facilitating creativity and empowerment
• Good listener, coaching, consulting, teaching, facilitating, mentoring, managing, problem-solving, conflict navigating

Don’t Do These

• Don’t Offer Solutions
  • If you’ve just started, it’s probably best not to jump to conclusions or solutions. While you may be aware of a great trick that may help your team, that comes later. For now, just collate your ideas and collect information.
• Don’t Make Snap Judgements
  • This can easily happen, especially after asking some of the questions I’ve listed above. While it’s great to see some potential improvements, give yourself time to collate as much information as possible and apply your mind to the issues

A great Scrum Master…

• Remember the values and principles of the Agile Manifesto & identify issues early on.
• Be a coach & ensures the entire team supports the chosen Scrum process.
• Manages the impediments that exceed the self-organizing capabilities of the team and it prevents them in achieving the Sprint Goal but don’t Become the Go-To Impediment Solver.
• Recognizes healthy team conflict and promotes constructive disagreement.
• Is prepared to be disruptive enough to enforce a change within the organization.
• Understands the power of self-management.
• Understands the value of a steady sprint rhythm and does everything to create and maintain it.
• Knows how to truly listen and is comfortable with silence.
• Understands the strength of coaching and has learned some powerful questions by heart.
• Teaches the Product Owner how to maximize ROI and meet objectives.
• Is also competent with XP, Kanban, and Lean.
• Confirm that the Scrum ceremonies are in place & make them more engaging.
• Push for Growth, But Make It Incremental Growth & value Feedback.
• Don’t Forget the Definition of Done!

Initial questions to be considered by a scrum master are:

• Who is/are the Product Owner(s)?
• Do we have a Product Vision?
• How many teams are working on the Product?
• How many Product(s) are the Team(s) working on?
• What time(s) are the Daily Scrum(s) ?
• Where is the Product Backlog?
• What’s our Velocity?
• Do we have a Definition of Done?
• Do we have an Impediment Backlog?
• Are we applying Scrum by the book?
• What is the biggest challenge we’re facing today?
• What is the biggest benefit we’re getting from the way we’re working today?
• Do we have any metrics we currently use?
• How can I help?

As a daily preparation a Scrum Master could consider questions like:

How is my Product Owner doing?

• Is the Product Backlog in shape?
• How is he/she managing the stakeholders?
• What about delivering business value and return-on-investment?

How is the Scrum Team doing?

• Are they working together?
• Is there conflict in the team, do they resolve that?
• Is the team making decisions?

How are our engineering practices doing?

• Is the team caring and improving them?
• How is the test automation?
• Is the team expanding their Definition of Done?

How is my organization doing?

• Is there inter-team coordination?
• What organizational impediments are in the way?
• What about the HR practices?

Books to consider to grow in scrum master role

Agile-Lean Practitioner

• Practices For Scaling Lean & Agile Development
• Scrum Shortcuts without Cutting Corners
• Scrum Mastery
• Scrum Field Guide
• Scaling Lean & Agile Development
• The Great ScrumMaster

Teaching & Mentoring

• Scrum Guide
• Scrum: A Pocket Guide: A Smart Travel Companion
• Software in 30 Days

Coaching

• Coaching Agile Teams
• Co-Active Coaching (must read for any coach)
• Coaching Questions (a practical book with lots of ready questions)

Facilitating

• Agile Retrospectives
• Gamestorming
• The Secrets of Facilitation
• Facilitator’s Guide To Participatory Decision Making

Technical Mastery

• Clean Code
• Agile Testing
• Specification by Example
• ATDD by Example

Business Mastery

• Strategize
• User Story Mapping
• The Lean Product Leanbook
• Value Proposition Design
• Business Model Generation
• Impact Mapping

Transformational Mastery

• Agile IT Organization Design
• Fifth Discipline
• Large-Scaled Scrum (LeSS)
• Lean Enterprise

Conclusion

Being a Scrum Master is a challenging, but rewarding role. Experience in this role is the key to success. Sometimes doing “nothing” is a perfect activity for a Scrum Master! The biggest pitfall for a Scrum Master is being too busy and not noticing what is really going on. It takes years of experience and training to be a good scrum master.