scrum master

What Makes a Great Scrum Master?

Hello, my friends. Today we’re talking about a very interesting topic, very controversial, and so a lot of Scrum Masters and Agile coaches might disagree, which I’m okay with but I’ll tell you my opinion.

What’s the difference between a great Scrum Master and an average one?

I have three criteria based on my ten years of experience, what defines a great Scrum Master.

Has cross-functional experience

First of all, a great Scrum Master needs to have a cross-functional experience. So, this person apart from being a Scrum Master should have had an experience in some different role (or roles) in the software development life cycle, whether it’s beings a developer, being a QA, being engineering manager, being a product owner, project manager, CTO, anything else apart from just being a Scrum Master because all those experiences will help you to better understand the situation from different angles. This is one of the most important things in our Scrum Master’s job.

Work ethics

A great Scrum Master should have great work ethics. You’re dealing with a lot of conflict, a lot confidential information, so you should always be able to know when to say certain things and when not to say certain things. Always have your team’s back. If something is happening, you should take responsibility and you should be able to act, you should be able to remove impediments. So, work ethics is very, very important.

Dealing with change

Thing number three – and it is for almost any profession, but for Scrum Master, it’s crucially important – is dealing with the change and learning on a fly.

You will have to do a lot of things you’re not comfortable with, that you’ve never done before – how you deal with that, that’s important.

Great Scrum Masters, they embrace the change, they do whatever is needed to be done to remove impediments, they learn on the fly, they are polyglots, they know a lot of different things and are able to support their teams in any way needed.

Those three things will be something that I think defines a great Scrum Master apart from the average Scrum Master. Sorry, average Scrum Masters if you don’t have one of those three, probably you’re not great yet but keep on doing it and keep on getting there.

If your team needs a great Scrum Master, Agile practitioners, or your team needs to be moved to Agile, please go to DefineAgile.com, schedule a free consultation with me, and let’s see how me and my team can help your business.

School of Agile

Should Scrum Master Be Technical?

Hey guys, Anatoly from Define Agile here.

Today I am answering a question from Sabah Omer. Sabah said:

“Thank you so much for recording the video. I am looking for your advice on students or professionals without an IT/software backgrounds as myself, pursuing certification and then a career in Agile Consultant/Scrum Master. I want to learn and then pursue Agile/Scrum roles as a career. Do you need an IT background to be a Scrum Master? Can individual without an IT background be successful as Scrum Master? Thank you. Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated.”

First of all, thank you, Sabah, very much for posting this question. It’s a very important question. There are lots of people who are not in the IT field who want to move to Agile and Scrum, and I think it is very important for them to know how to do that.

My opinion is it is totally possible to start be a Scrum Master without an IT background. I know a couple of great Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches that I worked with who do not have an IT background and they are very successful. However, I also think that it also depends on which teams you’re working with.

Personally, I have an IT background , I work as a Developer and I understand software lifecycle. It helps me to work with technical teams.

So if I work with teams that are doing low level programming, there is no UI, for me it is easier to talk to them then for a person who does not have a technical background. I speak their language.

However, there are lots of teams that do not require that deep technical of knowledge. For example some teams I am working with are building marketing pages – they do not require my technical expertise at all.

Moreover, please remember that not only IT companies require Agile help – there are hospitals, there are restaurants, there are clubs. Everyone right now is moving to Agile, because it works better. So, it’s not just for IT.

So, please do not stop pursuing Agile career if you don’t have an IT background. Just start with getting a certificate, start with looking for companies and for job descriptions that do not require in-depth technical knowledge – there are many of those. I’m sure you’ll do great.

School of Agile

How to Get Started with Agile and Scrum

Hey guys, what’s going on? Anatoly from Define Agile here.

I keep answering your questions and this one is: “How do I get started with Agile and Scrum?”

It’s a very, very good question. A lot of people are just starting out, a lot of teams are just starting out, and they are not sure which way should they go. There are so many options and I’m going to navigate you through a couple of them so at least you have some idea where can you start.

Option 1 if you have lots of time: Be a Self Starter, try it with your team and lean from your mistakes

First of all, how did I start with Agile and Scrum?

In 2011, I was a software engineer, when I have realized that a lot of our projects have changing requirements. Very often client would change their mind, and we would have to re-plan everything. I have realized that, doing a typical traditional Waterfall method did not work very well for us. At this time, I was reading about Agile and Scrum and I decided to ask my team to try it.

We were trying it for about five months. At first we made lots of mistake, we did not follow Scrum the way it was written, then in about five months, we were able to finally get to a good version of Scrum and Agile. It was pretty cool. We tried it. I learned a lot.

Mind you, not everyone has that amount of time or able to fail that much. You might have stakeholders, you might have executives, who won’t be happy with that, but I had this option- so I took it.

Option 2 for individual, if you don’t have much time: Get Certified

The other option would be, if you want to learn about Agile and Scrum as an individual, you might consider getting certification.

To prepare for certification and to understand what you are getting yourself into: there are two things you need to read. First one is Agile Manifesto which states all of the principles of Agile, the other thing, if you have decided to do Scrum is Scrum Guide .

Certification will give you credentials, but mind you it is not necessary. You can learn it all yourself, and for the most part you can facilitate meetings without having a certifications.

If you are looking for certifications, the one I would recommend Certified Scrum Master (CSM) from Scrum Alliance. You will learn in a class the basics of agile and scrum and will get certification upon completion. The price varies per vendor, but on average it is about $1,500 + travel expenses.

The drawback of certification course is that you will be the only one who understands Scrum and Agile, and it might be tricky to explain it all to your team. From my experience, much better approach is to transform your whole team to agile, that way everyone can be a Scrum Master.

Option 3, for team, if you don’t have much time: Transform your whole team

The third option would be is to hire a company that would onboard your whole team to be Agile. And there are many different solutions. I cannot speak for other ones but I can speak for what Define Agile recommends.

We have our own two-day Agile Introduction Course led by our two Agile Coaches. They have about 20 years of experience moving many, many teams for Agile transformation. We cover things like:

What is traditional Waterfall method?
What is Agile?
What is Agile Manifesto?
What is Agile mindset?
What is Scrum? What are the ceremonies?
What is Kanban? How can you choose between those two?
When should you use certain frameworks ?
How to persuade your boss ?
How to implement Agile with tools like Jira ?

For the team of 11 it is cheaper per person than certification.We are doing it all over the world. We have lots of happy customers. If you’re interested in that, please go to here and schedule a FREE Consultation.

School of Agile

Difference Between Project Manager and Scrum Master

Hey guys, Anatoly from Define Agile here.

The question that I got asked yesterday was: “Most often job postings are written as a Scrum Master/Project Manager. What is the main difference between Scrum Master and a Project Manager? How can you apply those two skillsets to fulfill the needs of the organization?”

That’s a great question. I see those postings up and then people say, “I need to be a Scrum Master and a Project Manager.” I’m here to tell you these are two very different roles. It’s the same as to say “I want to have QA/Developer,” you might think it’s the same but it’s definitely not.

Scrum Master is here to help and support with the process. Scrum Master supports the Development Team while Project Manager is here to manage the project, making sure the project is on time, on budget, making sure the stakeholders are informed about how the process of creating projects or completing project. Scrum Master has nothing to do with that.

Usually when a person tries to fulfill both roles, I don’t find it successful. I find that Scrum Master and Project Managers are on a different sides. They have different accountability. A Project Manager is accountable to external stakeholders or to upper management, while Scrum Master is accountable to Development Team. If one person has too many people he or she is accountable to, there’s a conflict of interest. So, I don’t recommend having a Project Manager and a Scrum Master being the same person.

As an option, which I talked about in “What is the Difference between Product Owner and Scrum Master,” I recommend having a developer to be a Scrum Master if you can’t find a dedicated Scrum Master. Because the developer is a part of the Development Team, developers have an interest of having their Development Teams happy.They are interested in having good process, because it benefits themselves.

Hope that helps!

If you want me to help your teams with Agile, please click on FREE Consultation, and lets see how I can help your business!

School of Agile

Should Scrum Master have One-on-Ones?

Hi guys, Anatoly from Define Agile here. Today we’re talking about one-on-ones. Should Scrum Master or Agile coach have one-on-ones with their peers?

First of all, I just want to make it clear, there is no word about one-on-ones in the Scrum guide. So if you’re strictly following the guide – there’s no one-on-ones there.

However, I have one-on-ones with every team that I work with. Right now I’m working with three teams. Those teams have in total about 25 people. I have one-on-ones with every single person in the team, whether it’s a product owner, QA, business analyst, content strategist, content writer, developer, designer, UX designer, visual designer, anyone. Technically, I am having one-on-ones with every single person there. Why do I do that?

First of all, why are we doing our work as an Agile practitioners? We try to remove impediments. Sometimes it’s very hard to gather the problem especially when you joined a new team or you’re a new person in the team and people sometimes are not ready to start speaking up everything on the retros. But you still need to figure out what the core problems are, so you talk to people one on one, you ask them questions, you are honest with them, you understand their problem, you help them solve their problems. This is how the trust begins to establish between you and people in the team.

It also allows you to realize what is not working on a much deeper level.It is important to help every individual on its own and make sure that all their personal things are addressed. Many, times I was able to uncover very big problems that nobody talked about in a team just by having one-on-ones with people.

I always have all my one-on-ones confidential. I never share anything that people don’t allow me to share, but I find this tool to be invaluable.

Are you having one-on-ones with your peers? Is it working or is it not working?

P.S. Do you need help moving your teams through Agile transformation ? Click on FREE CONSULTATION up top, and lets see how I can help your business!

School of Agile

3 Myths about a Scrum Master Role

Hey guys, Anatoly here from Define Agile again. Today we are talking about three myths about the Scrum Master.

Myth #1: Scrum Master is a manager.

This is a very common myth. When Scrum Masters are hired, some people think that they should do whatever a manager should do. This is totally wrong. Scrum Master is a part of the Development Team. In an organizational hierarchy, Scrum Master sits at the same level as the Development Team. Scrum Master role is not to manage anyone but to provide support to the Development Team and remove any blockers. So, Scrum Master is by no means a manager but just a part of the team that’s responsible for team health, promoting Scrum, making sure the processes are clear and well defined.

Myth #2: Scrum Master is here, that’s why the Scrum Master knows all the answers.

A lot of people hire Scrum Masters because they think that they know the answer to everything and that in the first moment they are hired they will start solving all these complicated process problems. Well, this is where very far from the truth.

Scrum Master, as I said, is here to facilitate the discussion and make sure the team themselves realize the right solutions. While Scrum Master will be supporting the team in any way he/she can to make sure that there’s a right environment for the team to come up with good solutions, often when Scrum Masters come to new organizations, they have no idea what is happening. Also most of the cases are very different, so saying that Scrum Master can know everything and come and solve all your problems right away is not true.

Myth #3: Anyone can be a Scrum Master.

It always fascinates me when people say, “Oh, I don’t need a Scrum Master because anyone can be a Scrum Master. What’s so hard in that?”

It’s the same as saying if you have legs you can be a good soccer player, or if you can type on a keyboard you can be a good software developer. We all know that this is not true. Making sure that processes are good, understanding how it will work takes lots of experience.

I know you will say that getting a Scrum Master Certificate is not that hard, but do we really say that all these people who have a certificate are good Scrum Masters? I don’t think so. I think that having deep experience is very beneficial because it gives you insight on how stuff is run and makes your decisions more educated. So, “anyone can be a Scrum Master” is not true.

These are three commons myths about Scrum Master that we debunked just now.

School of Agile

Scrum Master KPI – Agile

Hey guys, Anatoly from Define Agile here. Today I’m going to be answering a couple of questions from Sint.

What are the top three KPIs for a Scrum Master and Agile Coach during their three months at a company?

That’s a great question. Not many people talk about KPIs for Agile Coach and Scrum Masters. I think that they should have KPIs. I think that they should plan to do something cool and then make sure that our people will keep them accountable for it.

When I joined the team, that I am currently consulting, my KPI was: “I want to make you the most efficient team in the department in three months.” That was my KPI.

The reasonable KPI’s would be:

“I want to set up Agile ceremonies in one or multiple teams.”

“I want to have an Agile workshop that everyone in the company understands Agile”

“I want to make sure to meet with every team member, understand their concerns and resolve most of them.”

“I want to set up Jira in such a way that people will find it useful.”

“I want to help create a process around interaction with our stakeholders”

“I want to improve transparency and happiness” ( you can measure that by having some happiness with your exercises on your retrospectives).

The next question is:

Scrum Masters/Agile Coaches we are often givers of the team as resources, removing blockers, etc. How does one fuel himself personally with new ideas to experiment?

I fuel myself with ideas by asking my team. I ask people, what would they think would helpful? They might say: “Maybe we should do this, maybe we should do that,” I say, “Definitely, let’s try that.” This is how new ideas would work. I gather information and act on it right away.

Since I have experience working with different teams, I might recommend them some ideas.

Also, I am part of Facebook/Linkedin/Reddit groups. I read books about Agile, about Scrum. I talk to people in the industry and then we share what works, what doesn’t. I have many peers that I know who work in different companies and they have many different ideas, so we share them as well.

Thanks for reading, hope that helps!

If you want me to help your teams be Agile, please click on FREE Consultation above and lets see how I can help your business.

School of Agile

Difference Between Scrum Master and Agile Coach

Hey guys, Anatoly here from Define Agile. Today we’re talking about the difference between Agile Coach and a Scrum Master. I’m getting asked lots and lots of times, “Anatoly, what’s the difference? They sound familiar, they both deal with Agile, so what’s the deal there?” So, I’m going to explain to you just that today.

The biggest difference between Agile Coach and a Scrum Master is in the scope of their work. While Scrum Master is focused on a single team, making sure that the team processes are in place and the team operates as one single efficient unit, the Agile Coach, on the other hand, is focused on making sure that the whole organization understands Agile well.

Agile Coach is not only focused on Scrum, the good Agile Coach knows different frameworks and understands that to achieve different results, you can use different tools. So, Agile Coach is more enterprise level working with the executives, working across teams, supporting Scrum Masters, making sure they have everything they need, and making sure that the whole organization is moving to Agile transformation.

It does not mean though that Scrum Master supports the Agile Coach. Agile Coach supports Scrum Masters. Scrum Masters then support their teams. Also, Agile Coach brings to the executives all the impediments that Scrum Masters have that they cannot resolve at their level. Agile Coach should be able to help resolve those bigger issues with the help of executives.

School of Agile

Scrum Master Interview Questions: 3 Most Important Questions to Ask

Hi guys, Anatoly from Define Agile here again. Today we’re talking about three questions you can ask a Scrum Master to understand if he/she is a good fit.

Question #1: What was your worst day at work?

You will tell me, “Anatoly, how does it relates to a Scrum Master?” Okay, let me explain. First of all, Scrum Master is a person who brings Agile into an organization, usually helps organization to transform to Agile. When you work with a constant change and tasked with transformation you deal with lots of conflicts and stress. So if a person doesn’t have enough experience dealing with the high stress situation, it will be very hard for this person to be successful at the job.

I find that people who tell me that they had a really bad time at work and then they were able to overcome it and they still love this work, those are the people that I want to see next to me working as Scrum Masters. If people didn’t have any major stressful change-related experiences in their career yet, I might find that they don’t have enough experience for them to join my team.

Question #2: Tell me the difference between Kanban and Scrum, and when you should use one or the other.

You’ll tell me again, “Anatoly, why would a Scrum Master know about Kanban? Why should he/she care?” You care for the sole reason that the Scrum Master needs to be a well-rounded person who looks around and understands all the other frameworks that are there and makes sure that the Scrum Master can make an educated decision which one to choose. So if a Scrum Master always works in his/her small box of Scrum and not looking around what is happening in the industry, I don’t think he’s the right person.

Question #3: What was the change that you introduced to the team and how did you do that?

This is very important, because the Scrum Master comes to the team and often introduces lots of things that the Scrum Master thinks is right. If you don’t introduce them well, if you force something on people, it won’t work and then you won’t have any good relationship with your team. The Scrum Master is there to support the team, to advice things, and a good Scrum Master should be able to explain to you how he made sure that everyone understood that the change is good and how he rallied people around the change and made sure they implement in such a way that everyone is happy.

These are my three questions I usually ask every Scrum Master.

School of Agile

Difference Between Product Owner and Scrum Master

Hi guys, Anatoly here from Define Agile. Today we’re talking about the difference between a Product Owner and a Scrum Master. A lot of times people are confused between the roles and responsibilities of those two. Sometimes Scrum Masters are taking the role of Product Owners and Product Owners are taking the role of a Scrum Master. So, I’m here to figure out what exactly is the difference and why people confuse them so much.

Let’s start with the Product Owner. Product Owner represents the stakeholder. The role of Product Owner is to go into the field of stakeholders, figure out the requirements, make sure they are clear, and then put those requirements into stories that the Development Team or any other teams can work on. Also, the Product Owner’s job is to make sure that the backlog, which is a collection of stories, is prioritized so that the team has enough work to do and every unit of work they take has everything they need to complete it.

Let’s go to the Scrum Master now.

The role of the Scrum Master is to help the team to understand Scrum. The role of the Scrum Master is to promote Agile, facilitate meetings, make sure that the processes are good, make sure that the team is healthy, they trust each other, figure out the ways on how to make the team more efficient in terms of processes, make sure to optimize things that don’t work, and support the team in anything they need.

So as you might see, those are two very different roles, and if one person starts to do both of them, most of the time it doesn’t really work. If you don’t have a dedicated Scrum Master, my suggestion would be instead of making a Product Owner a Scrum Master, to make one of the developer Scrum Master or make a rotating Scrum Master role in your Development Team because I find it to be much more efficient than to have a Scrum Master and Product Owner in one person.

Has cross-functional experience

Work ethics

Dealing with change

Option 1 if you have lots of time: Be a Self Starter, try it with your team and lean from your mistakes

Option 2 for individual, if you don’t have much time: Get Certified

Option 3, for team, if you don’t have much time: Transform your whole team

Myth #1: Scrum Master is a manager.

Myth #2: Scrum Master is here, that’s why the Scrum Master knows all the answers.

Myth #3: Anyone can be a Scrum Master.

What are the top three KPIs for a Scrum Master and Agile Coach during their three months at a company?

Scrum Masters/Agile Coaches we are often givers of the team as resources, removing blockers, etc. How does one fuel himself personally with new ideas to experiment?

Question #1: What was your worst day at work?

Question #2: Tell me the difference between Kanban and Scrum, and when you should use one or the other.

Question #3: What was the change that you introduced to the team and how did you do that?