Scrum Master

The Scrum Master provides organization and guidance to the team in building discipline and Agile practices into their workflow.

“Master”

The word “Master” in Scrum Master defines the Mastery of Scrum.

In contrast to the “Slave/Master” terminology for Hard Drives or “Master” for a Git branching strategy which both focused on the term’s definition of “control or superiority over someone or something”, that has caused issue and need for change, “Master” instead focuses on the term’s other definition of “comprehensive knowledge or skill in a subject or accomplishment.”

It’s important to note that this role is a form of Servant Leadership where the Scrum Master shares power, puts the needs of the developers first, and helps the team develop and perform together effectively.

Daily Responsibilties

• Ensure the Team performs daily standups.
  • Focus on Transparency and Information Sharing.
  • The three questions “What did you do yesterday?”, “What are you doing today?”, and “What’s in your way?” aren’t meant as status reports or time accounting, but rather a shared opportunity to identify task roadblocks and coordinate their resolution.
  • Note that the resolution shouldn’t occur in the Standup itself - it’s better to identify the roadblock and who can help solve it in the meeting, then attempt the resolution outside the meeting.
• Work to resolve all and any roadblocks a team member has.
  • This doesn’t mean the Scrum Master solves the roadblock (unless they can easily), but they should always find someone who can and ensure it gets done.
  • Examples:

    • My ______ broke and I need a new one today.

    • I still haven’t got the software I ordered a month ago.

    • I need help debugging a problem with ______.

    • I’m struggling to learn ______ and would like to pair with someone on it.

    • I can’t get the vendor’s tech support group to call me back.

    • Our new contractor can’t start because no one is here to sign her contract.

    • I can’t get the ______ group to give me any time and I need to meet with them.

    • The department VP has asked me to work on something else “for a day or two.”

Weekly Responsibilties

• Check in with team members.
  • Focus on what is impacting them, and how the team can help.
  • Focus on what can help them improve, and how the team can help.
• Work with team members to implement action items found in previous retrospectives.
• Ensure a learning activity occurs.
  • Don’t run it! Delegate and support the activities to help the team to grow in both learning and teaching.
• Study Agility! Always improve your understanding of Agile practices to support the team.

Sprintly Responbilities

• Ensure the Sprint Planning occurs
  • Assist the Product Owner with preplanning near the end of a Sprint so that next Sprint’s Poker session is effective and fast.
  • Facilitate the Planning Poker Session to help team collectively estimate development cost of tasks in the upcoming Sprint
• Ensure the demo occurs
  • Help the Product Owner with demos.
• Run the retrospective
  • Facilitate a retrospective to identify action items for the team to continually improve the way they work.