possible unsafe work environment
Morning All,
I am a newly qualified scrum master and I am looking after a squad where there is a delivery manager as well as a product owner. The delivery manager takes the lead on the daily stand up and planning and estimation sessions. And he said scrum masters take lead on the sprint retro, however, when at the end of a sprint I brought up the retro I met with a wall of silence and they said they got no time for it. But as I am going through the one on one sessions, so far all of them said they miss retros, to keep track of their progress and to bring up any issues and to create any actions to improve. Also, some of them miss having some fun sessions where it's not just work and work and work but where they can get to know each other, being that they are remote teams spread all over Europe.
So now it was suggested that I create a survey where they can reply anonymously, but I just don't know what questions to ask so it doesnt look like I keep going about the same issue around the retro, because I have done a polly vote around it too, which came back that they do want a retro every sprint. But there seems to be a deeper issue and I don't know how to ask in the survey. Me and my mentor want to use the survey to show the squad and to help them instigate a change for themselves. Maybe individuals think no one else thinks this way cause they don't know, as they have no opportunity to have a safe time and space to talk about stuff like this.
Any suggestions would be great.
The delivery manager takes the lead on the daily stand up and planning and estimation sessions. And he said scrum masters take lead on the sprint retro, however, when at the end of a sprint I brought up the retro I met with a wall of silence and they said they got no time for it.
I'm not surprised. Others are "taking the lead" on stuff, managing delivery and telling the team what to do. Team members don't get to self-manage and plan and estimate how much work they take on.
I'd suggest that's your problem right there, and perhaps you don't really need a survey or a mentor to tell you this.
Why would anyone "take the lead" on any of the Scrum events? In a team that is self-organizing, self-managing there wouldn't be a "lead". Unless the team decides that is how they want to organize and manage. As @Ian said, that is the problem that I would focus on.
I would not do what the Delivery Manager tells me to do. As Scrum Master you have no role in the actual delivery. It is your job to enable the Developers to deliver. It is your job to help the Product Owner understand how to effectively manage an agile backlog so that the Developers will know what work will provide the most benefit.
I am a newly qualified scrum master and I am looking after a squad where there is a delivery manager as well as a product owner.
You made no mention of the Product Owner. What do they do?
Also want to point out that by having a Delivery Manager "take the lead" on anything, you have already determined that what you are doing is not Scrum as described in the Scrum Guide. As the Guide states in the End Note:
The Scrum framework, as outlined herein, is immutable. While implementing only parts of Scrum is possible, the result is not Scrum. Scrum exists only in its entirety and functions well as a container for other techniques, methodologies, and practices.
Your practices show that there is not a large commitment to Scrum by the organization. Perhaps this would also be a change you can work with other Scrum Masters in the organization to champion.