A Deeper Dive Into the ScrumMaster Role

nextupsolutions.com
#NextUpSolutions
A Deeper Dive
into the
ScrumMaster
Role
Richard Cheng
© 2020 NextUp Solutions

nextupsolutions.com | #NextUpSolutions
 Agile trainer & coach
 Agile Training, lead
 Member of PMI, Scrum Alliance, Agile
Alliance, Agile Leadership Network
 CST, CSM, CSPO, CSP, PMI-ACP,
PMP, SAFe SPC, Certified LeSS
Practitioner, CAL 1, Certified Enterprise
Scrum Trainer, Training from the Back
of the Room Certified Instructor
 Background in government,
commercial, and non-profit
transformations
 richard.cheng@nextupsolutions.com
Richard Cheng
@RichardKCheng

Richard K Cheng
richard.cheng@nextupsolutions.com
703-967-8620
https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardcheng
Twitter: @RichardKCheng
Contact Information

1. Quick review of Scrum roles
2. 5 things to look for in a ScrumMaster
3. How to improve as a ScrumMaster
4. Answer the following questions:
1. Is the SM a full time position?
2. Should I be a SM across multiple teams?
3. Should I be a SM & PO?
4. Should I be a SM & Dev Team member?
5. Can a Project Manager become a good SM?
5. How to tell if my SM is doing a good job
6. ScrumMaster progression for solving problems
7. Q&A
Agenda

The Scrum Team

The Peripheral Team

5 things to
look for in a
Scrum
Master
1. Knowledge
2. Experience
3. Coaching
4. Facilitation
5. Servant Leadership

Name Goes Here
• Relevant notes
here….
Ratings (1 low through 5 high)
Knowledge – Number - Comments
Experience – Number - Comments
Coaching – Number – Comments
Facilitation – Number – Comments
Servant Leadership – Number -
Comments

Sara the New ScrumMaster
• Sara has been with the organization
for 5 years largely in the capacity as
an analyst
• 2 years ago she joined the Portal
scrum team as a Dev team member
• She has read several books on
Scrum, gone to some user group
meetings and recently became a
Certified ScrumMaster
Ratings (1 low through 5 high)
Knowledge – 4 – While not an expert, she’s read a lot
on the concepts, soaked in a lot of information from
the user groups, and got a perfect score on her CSM
exam.
Experience – 2 – Sara has some exposure and
experience via being on a Scrum team and got to see
her ScrumMaster in action, but has no actual
ScrumMaster experience.
Coaching – 2 – Sara has good communication and
collaboration abilities, but doesn’t have any formal
coaching experience or training.
Facilitation – 3 – Sara has facilitated several
requirements gathering sessions and brainstorming
sessions, but her facilitation skills are still emerging.
Servant Leadership – 4 – Sara has a great ability to
get along with people. Sara has shown a focus on
creating and environment of success and is happy to
enable the success of those around her.

Training CSM, ACSM, Agile Coaching, Agile Facilitation, CSP-SM
Mentoring Having a skilled SM or Agile Coach work with the SM
Pairing Having SM work in pairs and provide feedback to each other
Conference Virtual Agile Summit, Agile2020, Global Scrum Gatherings,
Local Conferences and events
Books Agile Coaching, Essential Scrum, Agile Retrospectives
Websites ScrumAlliance.org, ScrumMasterChecklist.org
User Groups Find a local user group
Community of Practice Internal Community of Practice
What if we don’t have the perfect SM?

1. Knowledge
2. Experience
3. Coaching
4. Facilitation
5. Servant Leadership
“A good Scrum Master is
always on the verge of being
fired…..”
- Ken Schwaber
5 things to
look for in a
Scrum
Master

Scrum
Master
1. Is the SM a full time
position?
2. Should I be a SM
across multiple teams?

Scrum
Master
Checklist.org
1. How is the Product
Owner doing?
2. How is the Dev Team doing?
3. How is the Organization doing?
4. How are the Engineering
Practices going?

SM - How is the Product Owner doing?
• Is the Product Backlog
prioritized according to his/her
latest thinking?
• Are all the requirements from
all stakeholders for the
product captured in the
emergent backlog?
• Is the Product Backlog a
manageable size?
• Could any requirements
better implement the
INVEST principle?
• Have you educated your
Product Owner about
technical debt and how to
avoid it?
• Is the backlog an information
radiator highly visible to all
stakeholders?
• If you’re using an automated
tool for backlog management,
does everyone know how to
use it easily?
• Are you working with the tool
supplier to use it to its fullest
capacity, or to change it to
serve you better?
• Can you help radiate by
showing everyone printouts?
• Can you help radiate by
creating big visible charts?
• Have you helped your Product
Owner organize backlog items
into appropriate releases?
• Do all stakeholders
(including the team) know
whether the release plan still
matches reality?
• Did your Product Owner
adjust the release plan after
the last Sprint Review
Meeting?
*from ScrumMasterChecklist.org

SM - How is the Team doing?
• Are team members spending
time in a “state of flow”?
• Do team members seem to
like each other, goof off
together, and celebrate each
other’s success?
• Do team members hold each
other accountable to high
standards, and challenge
each other to grow?
• Are there
issues/opportunities the team
isn’t discussing because
they’re too uncomfortable?
• Have you tried a variety
of formats and locations
for Sprint Retrospective
Meetings?
• Has the team kept focus on
acceptance criteria?
• Does the Sprint Task list
reflect what the team is
actually doing?
• Are your team’s task
estimates and/or your
taskboard up to date?
• Are the team self-
management artifacts
(taskboard, Sprint Burndown
Chart, etc.) visible to the
team, convenient for the
team to use?
• Are these artifacts
adequately protected from
micromanagers?
• Do team members
volunteer for tasks?
• Are technical debt repayment
items (sapping your team’s
velocity) captured in the
backlog, or otherwise
communicated with the
Product Owner?
• Are team members checking
their job titles at the door of
the team room?
• Does the entire team
consider itself collectively
responsible for testing, user
documentation, etc.?
• Is management measuring
the team by collective
success?

SM - How is the Organization doing?
• Is the appropriate amount of inter-team
communication happening?
• Are your ScrumMasters meeting with
each other, working the organizational
impediments list?
• When appropriate, are the
organizational impediments pasted to
the wall of the development director’s
office? Can the cost be quantified in
dollars, lost time to market, lost quality,
or lost customer opportunities?
• Is your organization one of the few with
career paths compatible with the
collective goals of your teams? Answer
“no” if there’s a career incentive to do
programming or architecture work at
the expense of testing, test
automation, or user documentation.
• Has your organization been recognized
by the trade press or other
independent sources as one of the
best places to work or a leader in your
industry?
• Are you helping to create a learning
organization?

SM - How are the Engineering Practices going?
• Does your system in
development have a “push
to test” button so that
anyone (same team or
different team) can
conveniently detect when
they’ve broken it?
• Do you have an
appropriate balance
between automated end-
to-end system tests (a.k.a.
“functional tests”) and
automated unit tests?
• Is the team writing both
system “functional” tests
and unit tests in the same
language as the system
they’re developing?
• Has your team discovered
the useful gray area
between system tests and
unit tests?
• Does a continuous
integration server
automatically sound an
alarm within an hour (or
minutes) of someone
causing a regression
failure?
• Do all tests roll up into the
continuous integration
server result?
• Have team members
discovered the joy of
continuous design and
constant refactoring, as an
alternative to Big Up Front
Design?
• Does your definition of
“done” (acceptance
criteria) for each functional
Product Backlog Item
include full automated test
coverage and refactoring?
• Are team members pair
programming most of the
time?
*from
ScrumMasterChecklist.org

Scrum
Master
Short Answers
1. Is the SM a full time
position? - YES
2. Should I be a SM
across multiple teams? –
NO
Longer Answer
If you have a highly skill SM,
along with very mature Agile
teams, and well aligned
organization, you have more
options……

Scrum
Master
1. Should I be a SM & PO?
2. Should I be a SM & Dev
Team member?
3. Can a Project Manager
become a good SM?

Scrum Master
• Continuous
Improvement
Product
Owner
• Building the
right thing
Dev Team
• Building it
right

Scrum
Master
Answer
1. Should I be a SM / PO? – NO!!
2. Should I be a SM / Dev Team
member? – NO
3. Can a Project Manager
become a good SM? - Maybe

Variations
Team Members
ScrumMaster
Product Owner
Team Members
ScrumMaster
Product Owner
Team Members
ScrumMaster
Product Owner
Team Members
ScrumMaster
Product Owner
These make you
slower and increases risk

Is the
ScrumMaster
doing a
good job?
1. Are we making the
same mistakes time
and time again?
2. Are we encountering the
same issues time and
time again?
3. Are we getting better
over time or are we stuck
where we are?

SM
Progression
for Problem
Solving
1. Did we talk about it in the
Retrospective?
2. Did we discuss the impact?
3. Did we identify root causes?
4. Did we come up with a solution?
5. Have we tried the solution?
6. What were the initial results?
7. What are next steps from here?

Training Courses
– Certified ScrumMaster (CSM)
– Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO)
– Advanced Certified ScrumMaster (A-CSM)
– Advanced Certified Scrum Product Owner (A-CSPO)
– Certified Scrum Developer (CSD)
– Certified Team Kanban Practitioner (TKP)
– Certified Kanban Management Professional (KMP I and KMP II)
– Certified Agile Testing and Automation
– SAFe courses
See http://www.NextUpSolutions.com for more information
NextUp Solutions Training

A Deeper Dive Into the ScrumMaster Role

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