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Scrum Master 101AND VARIATIONS THEREOF…
Agile vs Waterfall
Waterfall
Project Manager is typically responsible for: Timelines of the project from conception to production release Project Budget Managing dependencies Project Charter Risk Analysis Requirements Documentation
Agile/Scrum
Agile Coach/Scrum Master is typically responsible for Facilitating the Scrum Ceremonies Clearing Impediments Coaching the team in Agile Practices/Mindset Team Dynamics
Agile/Scrum Ceremonies
Scrum Ceremonies
Grooming/Backlog Refinement Story Pointing Sprint Planning Daily Stand-ups Sprint Demonstration Retrospective
Grooming/Backlog Refinement
The Product Owner presents stories to be worked on at some point in the future
The team asks questions and gives feedback to make sure they understand what is being asked for
The stories should be small and able to be developed and tested in a single sprint
Story Pointing (Poker Pointing)
The team looks at the stories and votes on a Point Value based on the relative complexity of the task being requested
The points are typically from a modified version of the Fibonacci sequence (1,2,3,5,8,13,20)
If the team disagrees on the “size” of the story there is a short discussion and then revote until consensus is reached
If the story is too big to be brought into a Sprint it is sent back to Grooming to be broken down further
Alternates (T-shirt sizing, Relative Mass Valuation, Magic Estimation)
Sprint Planning
The Product Owner has the backlog of stories in priority order The team looks at the stories in the backlog and adds tasks with
estimated hours to complete each task The team agrees to commit to the stories they believe they will
be able to complete during the upcoming Sprint based on the estimated task hours
Daily Standup
Typically time-boxed to 15 minutes Each developer and QA member gives an update Updates consist of three items of information
What I did yesterday What I am planning to do today Any impediments they have
Sprint Demonstration
The team demonstrates to the Stakeholders the work that was completed in the Sprint that has just ended
Sprint Retrospective
A summary of the work completed in the previous Sprint Facilitate discussion primarily around the following three areas:
What went well What could have gone better What should the team continue/start/stop doing
Record any action items from the lessons learned in this Sprint
Team Dynamics
Coaching Team Dynamics
Personality conflicts Facilitating difficult conversations Noticing individuals who may be struggling Coordinating with Functional Managers Coordinating with Product Owners
Business Clients
Questions to ask Clients
Are you looking for a pure Scrum Master role or a hybrid role? Some companies won’t realize there is a difference Scrum Master/Project Manager Scrum Master/Developer Scrum Master/Agile Coach
How much coaching do you expect the Scrum Master to give the team?
How much coaching do you expect the Scrum Master to give the organization?
Do you expect this role to be external facing?
Questions to ask Clients continued…
How many teams will the Scrum Master be working with? Scrum Master/Project Manager could work with 1-3 teams depending
on size of project Scrum Master/Developer would typically work with just one team A good ratio for a pure Scrum Master or Scrum Master/Agile Coach is
3:1 What is the typical size of your Scrum Teams?
Ideally cross-functional teams are 6-8 individuals or smaller Are the teams co-located or distributed?
There is another level of complexity working with distributed teams
Questions to ask Clients continued…
How long has your company been Agile? Agile has been around since the early 1990’s If a company is very new they probably need a more experienced
Scrum Master with a Coaching mindset Follow-up question: Why is your company using Agile?
If they don’t know, then it’s a sign that it may be trouble If the development team is wanting to implement, but the business
side isn’t on board it can be difficult If the business realizes the value of delivering quality code and
customer value quicker then it shows they are in it for the right reason
Candidates
Questions to ask Candidates
Are you looking for a pure Scrum Master role or a combination role? Are they just jumping on the bandwagon? Are they passionate about Scrum/Agile or riding the wave of popularity?
Ask them to explain the role to you Do they describe coaching? Do they mix terminology with typical Project Management terminology? Do they show a knowledge of the Ceremonies
Ask them their greatest accomplishment Do they refer to teams or coaching? (Agile Coach/Scrum Master) Do they refer to delivering a project on time and on budget? (PM)
Questions to ask Candidates continued…
How many teams are they used to working with? If working with too many teams then they probably don’t have much
time to coach or really notice the personal interactions If working with only one team they could be either a very new junior
level Scrum Master or might actually be in a hybrid PM role and not realize it
How long have they been working as a Scrum Master? Why did they get into it? What is their end goal?
Have they worked with co-located team or distributed teams?
Scrum Master Qualities
Engaging People-person Problem Solver Diplomatic Assertive/proactive Quick thinking Good meeting facilitation skills
