Scrum Master: Day in the Life

Are you looking for a Scrum Master role? or maybe you are already a Scrum Master and you were looking for some new tips. In this article I will share details around what a Scrum Master does daily to be successful and some tips on how to be more efficient.

Lets start with what a Scrum Master is

A Scrum Master is a specialized role on an Agile or Scrum team. They are considered the coach of the team in every sense of that word. A coach for a sports team is focused on teaching the team the skills they need to be successful in their chosen sport. Whereas a Scrum Master is doing the same thing but in a business team (Information Technology, Software Development, Gaming development, Marketing, etc.). This doesn't mean you need to be super technical in nature, but rather it means you need to understand several key components.

Key for Success - GUSTO

• Guide without authority

• Understand the unspoken

• Stand strong in the face of conflict

• Teach the team ways to improve

• Open to receiving and providing feedback

Guide without authority

As a Scrum Master you are responsible for influencing decisions and actions without having any actual authority of the team or teams. This means you need to have your facts straight and be able to present them in a manner that can influence any preconceived ideas your team may have had. When you are introducing recommendations around the way a team works, they may not be excited to adopt the suggestion without enough information as to why. You need to influential and you cannot do this without established relationships of trust with your team and peers.

Understand the unspoken

When working with a team of people who you are trying to help improve (speed, skills, communication, etc) it is critical that you are able to sense things that you aren't told. However, this is very difficult if you have no established relationship with your team. Pay attention to body language, facial expressions, tone of voice, and even if people are extremely quiet. This would be time for you to either ask them separately or on the call if they have something they want to add or if something is causing confusion for them.

Stand strong in the face of conflict

Conflict is bound to arise on any team but it is how you deal with it that matters. As the Scrum Master you need to get really good at resolving conflict. To do this you need to adopt skills around asking thoughtful questions, giving people a safe space to speak without interruption, being able to restate the concerns of all parties, and being able to remind the team of the common goal they are trying to achieve.

Teach the team ways to improve

To teach requires understanding. As a Scrum Master it is critical that you understand the basics of Scrum and you understand how to read data. Any system your team is working in to track their work will have some sort of charts to assist you (Velocity, Lead Time, Cycle Time, etc.). When you look at these charts you can see trends or impediments that allow you to coach the team into a better way of working going forward.

Open to receiving and providing feedback

A safe space is pertinent to openness. If you are someone that the team feels safe talking to, they will be able to provide you feedback around what they are seeing or experiencing and this will assist you all the more in guiding the team to success. If you notice the team doesn't feel open with you, it is critical that you resolve the lack of trust.

GUSTO? That's it?

Outside of the above mentioned topics a Scrum Master is also ensuring impediments are resolved, facilitating meetings for the team, working with the group who provides requirements for the team (typically a Product group), checking the work tracking system to be certain all work is visible and transparent so that you can see the data, continually learning to stay ahead of potential issues or changes in methodology that could assist your team, paying attention to burnout and so much more. The Scrum Master is a vital role to any team in ensuring they have continued success.

Helpful Links:

SAFe Scrum Master/Team Coach

Scrum Metrics