Torrent Agile Software Development With Scrum Master
Rocki Stenger
As the title implies, the scrum master is the master of scrum, who ensures the scrum framework is followed. Scrum has a clearly defined set of roles and rituals that should be followed and the scrum master works with each member of the scrum team to guide and coach the team through the scrum framework.
A Scrum master is the facilitator of scrum, a lightweight agile framework focusing on time-boxed iterations called sprints. Scrum masters act as coaches to the rest of the team, or servant leaders, as the Scrum Guide puts it.
When starting with scrum, it can be a huge help to have someone in the role who has seen scrum work before. For this reason, scrum masters are often hired as consultants or fractional employees rather than as full-time staff members. However, every scrum team is different.
Many experienced teams handle the responsibilities listed above as a unit and take pride in sharing management duties. The scrum master role may rotate throughout the team, with different team members taking turns facilitating standups and retrospective meetings.
Having an effective scrum master in place helps balance the cost of changing course with the benefits of efficiency. A good scrum master does this by empowering the team to decide how to best accomplish goals through self-organization.
Having a scrum master in place helps balance the cost of changing course with the benefits of efficiency. A good scrum master does this by empowering the team to decide how to best accomplish goals through self-organization.
While a traditional project manager and a professional scrum master are responsible for helping their teams get work done, their approaches are vastly different. Project managers set project milestones, report on team progress, and facilitate effective communication. However, they do so from a place of control.
When hiring a scrum master, one key consideration stands out. Your company should be wholeheartedly committed to the scrum framework. A scrum master can truly excel when companies fully embrace core scrum principles.
With a scrum master assisting every team in managing their processes, entire companies can benefit. This approach ensures consistent value delivery to customers and allows team members and managers to focus on their core strengths.
Scrum is an Agile framework for developing complex projects, most often software. The Agile project management methodology uses short development cycles, called sprints, that result in the continuous improvement of a product or service. There are many Agile frameworks, and Scrum is a popular option for fast-moving projects. The methodology is highly collaborative and requires efficient processes, and the results of the process depend upon the expertise of the Scrum Master.
The fundamental difference between a Scrum Master and a project manager is in their focus. Project managers focus primarily on project outcome, including budget, timeline, resources, and communication between teams. Where a project manager focuses on the project, a Scrum Master focuses on the team, taking steps to ensure the team and individual team members achieve success.
The role of a Scrum Master is to use Agile project management to champion a project, teams, and team members. Since Scrum Masters can work in many settings, your tasks and responsibilities may vary. Depending on where you work, you may find yourself taking on the role of a facilitator, coach, or project manager. Your duties will often vary from day to day but might include:
If you're considering transitioning into a Scrum master role, you might consider learning from a leading company in the tech space. You can gain job-ready skills with IBM in just 9 hours by enrolling in Introduction to Agile Development and Scrum:
As of March 2024, Glassdoor reports that Scrum Masters in the US make an average of $114,464 a year, and LinkedIn has over 85,000 US Scrum Master job listings [1, 2]. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, overall employment in management positions such as scrum master are expected to grow faster than average [3].
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Earning an industry credential is another excellent way to validate your knowledge of the Scrum framework to potential employers. Among the most popular options for Scrum Masters is the Certified Scrum Master (CSM) from the Scrum Alliance. As you prepare for the certification exam, you can begin to build practical skills to help you successfully lead teams.
Choosing a career as a Scrum Master puts you on a path toward using your communication, business, and product development skills to help companies get their products successfully to market. Build a foundation in Agile project management, and learn how to implement Scrum events and build Scrum artifacts with IBM IT Project Manager Professional Certificate. This program covers topics like Scrum master essentials, foundations of project management, and more.
The product owner manages the product backlog, prioritizes product features, and incorporates stakeholder feedback into the development process. The development team is responsible for finishing the work set by the product owner. This team typically has three to nine members. The Scrum Master helps drive Scrum team performance through coaching and facilitating open communication.
The Scrum Master has a more focused role, ensuring that a single team (or a small number of teams) follows the scrum process. An Agile coach has a broader role, working with all teams involved with a project.
There are many paths toward becoming a Scrum master. Some Scrum Masters start out as developers, business analysts, quality assurance testers, or team leads. As you progress in your career, you may take on multiple or more complex projects, transition to product owner, or advance to become a manager, mentor, trainer, or coach.
An effective Scrum Master is a servant leader who exhibits Lean-Agile leadership where they support and help the team progress toward their goals and highest potential. They're also facilitators in team events to ensure members are productive and meet timelines.
Can someone tell me if, in software industry, most of the successful scrum masters come from technical background or is it perfectly fine to be non technical and yet be one of the effective and successful scrum masters in the IT industry?
Your question remind me of a friend of mine, very good as a developper. After several months, his Scrum Team was still totally not knowing about his technical skills. When he said "I understand everything you talk about", the Dev Team members were all surprised.
I agree with Ian, do not worry about technical things, important thing for you is the processes and where there can or be bottlenecks from your perspective. I as a former developer and current scrum master do not give any technical input as i would have to step out of my role.
Giving a technical input is a different thing. But my worry is about understanding the technicalities and thus not being able to handle the team because of it because I just dont know the project at higher level. (like the view from the top of the hill). Just wanted to know if I am alone or there are people with non technical background and yet good scrum masters.
I come from a management background and have very limited technical experience, but still receive the feedback that other people experience me as a good Scrum Master (not to boast about myself, but to provide you a little peer experience). It's not that I don't want to know about the technicalities, but I do think there are several benefits of staying clear from the technical part. I've seen quite a lot of really good dev-turned-SM's that looked more like a glorified team leader rather than Scrum Master. Not having technical knowledge leads to creative thinking if there is an impediment. Whether it's external knowledge or having training, we as a Scrum Master can enable and support their decision and help them identify potential bottlenecks, but providing them a solution from a technical perspective will limit empiricism.
+1 Sander Dur. I currently serve as Scrum Master on a team I developed with for a long time. It can really be a handicap for the team, because they tend to fall into the 'you decide' trap, whenever I voice an opinion on technical stuff. It's hard to stay out of tech discussions, but I work hard at it.
I'm at the opposite side from Olivier's friend. I come as a scrum master from several years of technical work, and most of the members of the dev teams know me and my skills, so it is common for me to be included by them in some interactions not directly related to the scrum master's role.
It is tempting to give away technical opinions and judgements, specially when you know about it deeply. I just don't. If I want to create a sense of work ownership among them, as a scrum master I must stay off of their way of solving things. I've found myself judging what I heard from a technical point of view, thinking "They're going for solution A, but the correct one is B" to end up afterwards very surprised at how wrong I really was, and viceversa. So you never know. Maybe technical assistance is needed when the case is something special or the team is totally hindered, but for the most part of it, they have to try on their own.
What to do when I am asked for my technical opinion? I find useful to say "Let me see if I've got it correctly" And I simply go over their plan all the neutral I can. Being neutral is quite important here. Sometimes they just start discussing again and sometimes by simply listening the same thing with other words is enough to make them considering other alternatives. Sometimes they just need to hear it aloud to became confident. The key to me is to keep things moving, and if they are feeling confident, then so am I. If not, let's find why.
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