Scrum Master JIRA tasks
Hi. I am first SM in my organisation. I was hired 4 months ago. We work in Scrum and naturally we have some good and bad moments. My team works on a lot of problems(a few products, support, old versions and so on). We have PO, dev team, SM and we have line manager(PO) who wants to create my tasks in JIRA. For example I remove impediment from my team and he wants to create a JIRA task for me. There is no problem when there is a task assign only to one person and only that person can finish this task. Could you help me with analysing this situtation? I do not have a problem with being transparent(I created whiteboard with improvements/impediements/topics for team) but I have a hard time with understing a role of SM who is "inside" a team, who actively participate in daily meeting like a developer, who is requiered for daily just to say what is going on with a task.
Best regards
Mario.
we have line manager(PO) who wants to create my tasks in JIRA. For example I remove impediment from my team and he wants to create a JIRA task for me.
The Product Owner is accountable for value, not for what people in a self-managing team do. Why does he see a need to create tasks for anybody?
To add on a bit to Ian's comment, why is the Product Owner the line manager of anyone, especially the Scrum Master and/or Developers? I understand the need for someone to carry out management functions, but it seems counterproductive to put this role on the Scrum Team and have it be the same person as the Product Owner.
I think this need is called "control" but he calls it "transparency". I know this situation is not perfect but I am in position to change that mindset and promote agile values. Just sometimes I have no idea how to explain more what value comes with scrum.
Unfortunately it sounds like you're in a pretty bad position.
Your role as SM is to coach the team in self management and effective scrum practice, and it sounds like right now your PO is the most significant barrier to those things.
Their understanding of Scrum is flawed, their approach is antithetical to self management, and they are a line manager, which makes them ineffective as a PO.
There is a lot of dysfunction there you need to address, so I would start thinking about how to introduce 'good' scrum practice at relevant points of reflection. How to ask open question of the PO to help them see the anti-patterns, and how to start building a protective layer around the developers from the tension this is no doubt going to introduce.
None of this will be easy, and don't expect it to change quickly. Just consider that this team actually is not doing scrum, so you need to start thinking about how you can get them there.
Not to be glib, but ask yourself "what is the least amount I can do to satisfy the bureaucracy". Maybe 1 or two lines in a task per day will be enough. Ask yourself and the boss what will be the benefit of the bureaucracy - maybe you can satisfy the smallest need with very little work and then try to dig into the why.
The SM inside of a team helps to grow the people. What do managers do in traditional work besides assign tasks? They grow people too and it's a lot of work.
Get your hands on some agile coaching books and see how you can influence people without telling. That's a good scrum master job!