Why I don’t like the term ScrumMaster

Chris Roddis-Ferrari @NottAgile

The ScrumMaster role

• Popular yet ridiculed

• Simple yet misunderstood

• Common sense yet evolutionary

It’s a tough role

• Facilitator

• Coach

• Parent

• Conductor

• No power

It’s an important role

The difference between success and failure for organisations that adopt a servant-leader approach is

how effective the ScrumMaster is in their role

Good to Great

A good ScrumMaster knows the responsibilities

A great ScrumMaster embraces the skills and mindset

RETRAINED• Respected

• Enabling

• Tactful

• Resourceful

• Alternative

• Inspiring

• Nurturing

• Empathetic

• Disruptive

Respected

• Embody Scrum value and principles

• Facilitate the adoption of the process

• Guide the growth of the team

• Act as a change agent for the team

• Acknowledge your mistakes

A good ScrumMaster holds their team to account

A great Scrum Master holds the team accountable for holding their teammates to account

A good ScrumMaster helps a team survive in an organisation’s culture

A great ScrumMaster helps change the culture so Scrum teams can thrive

Enabling

• There to help people do what they need to do

• Enjoy helping their team develop

• Enjoy team taking ownership

• Remove impediments

A good ScrumMaster asks to understand

A great ScrumMaster asks so the team can understand

A good ScrumMaster helps the team develop and grow

A great ScrumMaster helps the team develop their own growth pathway

Tactful

• A dead ScrumMaster is a useless ScrumMaster

• Transforming a team or organisation takes tenacity and patience, determination and resilience

• Sensitive and considerate to the situation they face

• Provoke difficult conversations with care and respect

A good ScrumMaster will help maintain team harmony

A great ScrumMaster will guide a team through disharmony to reach a new level of teamwork

A good ScrumMaster will say what needs to be said

A great ScrumMaster knows the power of silence

Resourceful

• Be creative and think outside the box to solve impediments

• Proactive and hate monotony

• Challenge assumptions

• Look outside your organisation

A good ScrumMaster ensures team members share their status efficiently with one another in the daily scrum

A great ScrumMaster ensures the daily scrum is an energising event that teams look forward to

A good ScrumMaster creates an environment where raising impediments can occur

A great ScrumMaster creates an environment where creativity can occur

Alternative

• Servant leadership, changes the hierarchy and challenges the traditions

• Break the mould

• Pioneer new techniques and strategies in search of excellence

• Challenge the status quo

A good ScrumMaster coaches the team to success

A great ScrumMaster also allows room for failure

A good ScrumMaster helps the team identify improvements

A great ScrumMaster encourages the team to be ADAPTIVE

Inspiring

• Radical change agents

• Inspire change around them

• Encourage a new best from people

• Infectively positive and ruthless towards greatness

A good ScrumMaster encourages teams to share skills

A great ScrumMaster encourages teams to share responsibilities

A good SrcumMaster makes sure the high value items are being worked on

A great ScrumMaster helps craft an inspiring Sprint Goal

Nurturing

• The team is a continual work in progress that is never finished

• Believe the team has unlimited potential

• Protective of the team

• Encourage the team to self manage (positive intent)

A good ScrumMaster helps every member of the team grow

A great ScrumMaster fosters the team’s growth

A good ScrumMaster will be indispensable to a team

A great ScrumMaster will become both dispensable and wanted

Empathic

• Understand why people have a particular view

• Listen to understand not to reply

• Vital for effective ceremonies

A good ScrumMaster will listen carefully to what is said

A great ScrumMaster will also listen carefully to what is not said

A good ScrumMaster facilitates cooperation between people

A great ScrumMaster facilitates collaboration

Disruptive

• Sometimes you have to be a little bit naughty (don’t forget tactful)

• Being a pain in the “neck” can be a good thing if done the right way

• We cant just tolerate scrum we must support it

• Defend the team without alienating others

A good ScrumMaster will push for permission to remove impediments to team productivity

A great ScrumMaster will be prepared to ask for forgiveness

A good ScrumMaster protects the team from distractions

A great ScrumMaster finds the root cause of those distractions and eliminates them

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc

BELIEF

–Abraham Maslow

“In any given moment we have two options: to step forward into growth or to step back into safety.”