Scrummaster Needed Desperately at LAST Conf 2016 in Melbourne, Australia

LAST Conference Melbourne

Here are 42 good reasons

why.Bernd Schiffer

30/06/2016

ScrumMaster needed

desperately!

Why do we need a

ScrumMaster?Tree-hugger?

“Never attribute to malice that

which is adequately explained by stupidity.”

Hanlon’s

see also: http://agiletrail.com/2011/12/20/hanlons-razor-comfort-in-the-assumption-of-stupidity/

Razor

1. The ScrumMaster is afull-time role!

2. The ScrumMaster isnot a developer!

3. The ScrumMaster isnot the Product Owner!

4. To have a ScrumMaster, you need to train or hire someone!

What I want you to understand

!

The Scrum Master is responsible for ensuring Scrum is understood and enacted. Scrum Masters do this by ensuring that the Scrum Team adheres to Scrum theory, practices, and rules. … [1/2]

… The Scrum Master is a servant-leader for the Scrum

Team. The Scrum Master helps those outside the Scrum Team

understand which of their interactions with the Scrum Team are helpful and which

aren’t. The Scrum Master helps everyone change these

interactions to maximize the value created by the Scrum Team.

[2/2]

But howdoes the

ScrumMaster do all this?

Explaining what a ScrumMaster does through…

Responsibilities What do I need to take care of?

Competencies What skills do I need to develop to be responsible?

Tasks What kind of things am I going to work on with these skills?

Product Owner The “Why” & “What”

Development Team The “How”

ScrumMaster The “Inbetween”



Taking care of…• How is my Product Owner doing?• How is my Development Team doing?• How are our engineering practices doing?• How is the organisation doing?

Source: ”An Example Checklist for ScrumMasters” by Michael James (02/02/2016, http://www.scrummasterchecklist.org/pdf/ScrumMaster_Checklist_12_unbranded.pdf)



ScrumMaster The “Inbetween”

Source: ”Developing Great Agile Coaches" by Michael Spayd and Lyssa Adkins (Summer 2011)

Agile Practionier

TeachingMentoring Personal Coaching

Facilitation

Technical

Expertise Business

Expertise

Transformational

Expertise


Competencies What skills do I need to develop to be responsible?

Source: 42 Tasks for a Scrum Master's Job by Bernd Schiffer (14/11/2011, http://agiletrail.com/2011/11/14/42-tasks-for-a-scrum-masters-job )

Categories• Meetings• Team Dynamics• Learning• Product• Big Picture• Change• Mirror• Miscellaneous

Tasks What kind of things am I going to work on with these skills?


Meetings•Facilitating meetings for the team. This includes:•preparing•moderation•postprocessing

•Facilitating retrospectives.

Tasks for…


Team Dynamics 1/2


•Coaching team members (e.g. with one-on-one coaching).

•Helping the team improve its social skills, especially with constructive conversations.

•Mediating through conflicts.

Tasks for…

Team Dynamics 2/2Tasks for…

•Helping the team to make decisions.•Fostering the development team’s self-organisation.•Mediating the general conflict of goals between development team (high technical quality) and product owner (more features).


Learning 1/2


•Continuing learning regarding everything Agile (e.g. visit user groups, attend conferences, read books, write blogs, etc.).

•Consulting team members regarding everything Agile.•Helping the team to create information radiators.•Giving feedback to the team.

Tasks for…


Learning 2/2Tasks for…


•Encouraging the use of Agile Engineering Practices within the development team.

•Challenge team with Agile management innovations (e.g. FedEx-Days).

•Exchanging with other ScrumMasters constantly within the organisation (e.g. through community of practice).

•Doing Gemba Walks.

Product


•Helping to tell, write, and split user stories.

•Helping to dream up and write down product visions.

•Helping to order product backlog items.

•Helping with the release planning.

•Being familiar with the team’s work, i.e. the product.

Tasks for…

SHIP IT!

Big Picture 1/3•Bringing people together who should talk to each other.

•Shield the team from bad influences from the outside.

•Keeping in touch with every stakeholder regularly.

•Helping the team to report to management.

•Helping to further the Agile community within the organisation.


Tasks for…

Big Picture 2/3


Tasks for…

•Organising exchange events like Open Spaces or World Cafés for the team, its stakeholders, and its organisation.

•Sharing insights throughout the company (micro-blogging, blogging, internal conferences, etc.).

Big Picture 3/3


Tasks for…

•Being a contact person for everyone in the team and their stakeholders regarding Agile.

•Giving learning opportunities to people in the organisation (e.g. talks or workshops) and letting them learn important Agile concepts like e.g. technical debt.

Change


•Helping the team to get rid of impediments.

•Suggesting new metrics for the team as catalysts for change.

Tasks for…

Mirror 1/2


•Reflecting Agile and Scrum values to the team.

•Helping the team to find team values.•Reminding the team of their arrangements (e.g. working agreements and policies).

•Helping the team to continuously improve their process.

Tasks for…


•Reflecting issues to the team through observation from outside of the team.

•Asking open questions.•Checking models the team uses (e.g. Sprint backlog, metrics, etc.) and show differences between model and real world.

Mirror 2/2


Tasks for…

Miscellaneous


•Helping the team to keep focus (e.g. by acting as a buffer between external distractions and the team).

•Helping the team to maintain their Scrum tools (Story board, Action board, charts, backlogs, etc.).

•Helping team and product owner to find a suitable•definition of done•definition of ready.

Tasks for…


SM Task Exercise1. For each task ask:

Do we need to take care of this task?

2. For each task that you need to take care of ask:Who’s going to do work on this task?

The ScrumMaster is a full-time* role!

*“Full-time” not as in “40-hour work week”, but as in “focussed on this role only”.

The ScrumMaster is a full-time role!

…can serve… Unexperienced Scrum Team

Somewhat experienced Scrum Team

Experienced Scrum Team

Unexperienced ScrumMaster 1:1 1:1 1:1

Somewhat experienced ScrumMaster

1:1 1:1-2 1:2

Experienced ScrumMaster 1:1-2 1:2 1:2

The ScrumMaster is not a developer*!

*”developer” not as in “does have a developer background”, but as in “does not work in the development team that she is also ScrumMaster for”.

The ScrumMaster is not the Product Owner!

To have a ScrumMaster, you need to train or hire someone*!

*as in “you need to spend money here!”

‣@berndschiffer‣@bold_mover‣ [email protected]

‣ http://slideshare.net/berndschiffer‣ http://berndschiffer.com‣ http://boldmover.com‣ http://agiletrail.com

Thank you!

LAST Conference MelbourneHere are 42 good reasons why.

30/06/2016

ScrumMaster needed desperately!

http://slideshare.net/berndschiffer

http://agiletrail.com

Scrummaster Needed Desperately at LAST Conf 2016 in Melbourne, Australia

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