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10 Things about ScrumMasters

  1. ScrumMasters need to understand they are not Project Managers
  2. A Lead Developer as ScrumMaster is a no GO!
  3. A ScrumMaster MUST NOT work as team member
  4. A ScrumMaster also needs to protect his team against senior management
  5. A ScrumMaster needs to improve the development skills of his team
  6. A ScrumMaster needs to ensure that a Team can meet its commitment
  7. A ScrumMaster also works with the Product Owner. The PO needs to be coached in his role.
  8. If the team fails in its delivery, it is the responsibility of the ScrumMaster to ensure the team will not do this again.
  9. The ScrumMaster must moderate all meetings
  10. The ScrumMaster must ensure the Product Backlog is ready for the Sprint

„Mut“ ist jener Wert von Scrum, mit dem sich Boris Gloger am stärksten identifiziert. Er hat in seinem eigenen Leben keine Angst vor radikalen Entscheidungen und vor dem Glauben an eine Idee. Für kein Geld der Welt würde er sich Regeln unterwerfen, die keinen Sinn machen. Er glaubt an Scrum, weil es nicht nur bessere Produkte, sondern auch eine bessere und menschlichere Arbeitswelt schaffen kann.
  • bartek

    Should be a Scrum Master a technical guy ? I’m trying to find the answer for question that stuck in my mind recently – do the Scrum Master have to have deep technical knowledge to perform effectively?
    I know that there are is no prescription (i.e. SM should have been an developer for at least 2 years and 1 month :o)). What is sure, is that soft skills are very important for this role, but still, is it enough? There are a lot of job offers for SM, but a huge, not to say most of them, require technical skills (Scrum Master/ Lead Developer needed…look here for example http://www.cwjobs.co.uk/JobSearch/Results.aspx?Keywords=scrum+AND+master+&Radius=5 ).

    For me pros for non-technical SMs are:
    - no temptation to be directly involved into team’s technical issues (a danger of making him resposible, or involing into, meritorical problems)
    - the one above written with capital letters :o)
    - …

    Cons:
    - easier for him to identify a potentially meritorical problem, which can be surfaced eariler
    - better meritorical discussion with environment (why the team didn’t finish all stories in sprint?)
    - problem with fulfilling your point 5
    - …

    What are your thoughts regarding this matter ?

  • bartek

    and by the way: a good summary tu put on http://www.scrumalliance.org/pages/scrum_roles :o)

  • http://justanothersoftwareengineer.blogspot.com/ Kristian Erbou

    @bartek: Being a developer and for the past 6 months filling in the vacant role as SM for our regular full-time SM who is on paternity leave, I think it depends… There are disadvantages being too deep in the details of the code because I’ve learned that your focus has to be everywhere but in the code to be a good SM. Support tickets needs to be prioritized and handled, meetings needs to be planned, ProductOwners needs to be called upon for making them show up at Daily Scrum, coaching of the team needs to be undertaken – lots of issues requires everything but technical skills. It helps being able to provide input into a technical discussion and perhaps code a few lines during support to take some pressure off the team – but I think you will in the long run be better off with a SM with little or no technical skills because it basicly isn’t part of the SM’s domain to handle technical issues. The most important aspect is IMHO that your SM knows the mechanisms in teamwork and acknowledges that developers can be proud, independent nerds who needs to be coached into sharing and communicating their specialized knowledge and work together to achieve what they’ve committed themselves to do

  • http://borisgloger.com/members/boris-gloger/ Boris Gloger

    It is very simple. 1. A ScrumMaster must be able to grow his team. A ScrumMaster must have the high level skill set to deal with all team members on their problems. But he does not solve the problems. So he needs to understand their language. 2. What technical skills he needs to have. The one of the testers, the one of the Business Analyst, the one of the DB engineer, the onces of the GUI Interface designer.

    A ScrumMaster is a person who is able to build a team, and make this team more performant. This is the skillset he needs.

    That companies still think in old technical team lead categories is a total different issue.

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