Jay Rahman

Scrum is an agile project management framework that enables teams to deliver value in 30 days or less. The two most notable roles in Scrum are the Scrum Master and Product Owners. But for those new to Scrum, question we sometimes get asked is, can the Product Owner and Scrum Master be the same person?

The Product Owner is a critical accountability in Agile and Scrum. And although the Scrum Guide doesn’t give much guidelines around great Product Ownership, the role is still absolutely necessary for great Agile and Scrum Teams.

Arguably the most famous role in Scrum is the Scrum Master. But for those new to Scrum, it’s a bit of a mystery what a Scrum Master does day to day – here are five things that Scrum Masters do.

A recent piece in the Harvard Business Review entitled ‘Have We Taken Agile Too Far?’ (penned by two former Amazon execs) claimed that “many organisations are taking [Agile] too far and using it to avoid careful planning and preparation.”

We’ve already discussed the importance of decentralised command and decision-making in an earlier blog, outlining how managers need to be able to train, mentor and teach their teams.

How to become a Scrum Master – 5 Simple Steps! So you read the blog about What is a Scrum Master and you’re ready to start your journey! Great job! The Scrum Master is probably one of the most famous Agile roles. And rightly so, because the Scrum Master pays a pivotal role in helping the team with the efficient and effective use of Scrum. Because the role is so involved there is a lot to do to get yourself up to speed. Having trained, coached and mentored a number of Scrum Masters over the last 10 years I’ve noticed a few things that great Scrum Masters do when starting their journeys Get Reading A Scrum Master is an absolute professional at what they do. They work hard in guiding and supporting their teams and organisations in the effective use of Scrum. You cant do that if you don’t know anything. Your goal therefore should be to be reading at least 1-2 books per month that help you get better at being a Scrum Master. Remember a Scrum Master should be expert at the use of Scrum as well as being able to coach, mentor the team and organisation in the effective use of Scrum. So there are at least three areas you need be reading about Scrum Coaching Organisational Change Scrum If you’re wanting to be a Scrum Master, you better know a lot about Scrum. You should have a deep understanding of the Scrum Framework, its Roles, Events, Values, the Pillars and Artefacts. Here is a solid list of books to get you started in the right direction Mastering Professional Scrum: A Practitioner’s Guide to Overcoming Challenges and Maximizing the Benefits of Agility Zombie Scrum Survival Guide Professional Scrum Team Professional Product Owner, The: Leveraging Scrum as a Competitive Advantage Agile Leadership Toolkit: Learning to Thrive with Self-Managing Teams Coaching Coaching Agile Teams: A Companion for ScrumMasters, Agile Coaches, and Project Managers in Transition Building Top-Performing Teams: A Practical Guide to Team Coaching to Improve Collaboration and Drive Organizational Success Coaching the Team at Work 2: The definitive guide to team coaching Leadership Team Coaching: Developing Collective Transformational Leadership Organisational Change The Science of Organizational Change: How Leaders Set Strategy, Change Behavior, and Create an Agile Culture: 1 IMPACT: 21st Century Change Management, Behavioral Science, Digital Transformation, and the Future of Work The above is a starter list, remember as a Scrum Master you should be continuing to grow your knowledge systematically and intentionally. Get Training You’ll never get as good as you can be without learning from others. As such I am always working on attending training classes and advancing my knowledge from experienced practitioners. As a potential Scrum Master you should be intent on doing the same thing. As a minimum you should aim to get the Scrum Master training as well as the Product Owner training. If you want to excel, you should be wanting to move onto the more advanced classes for both Scrum Master and Product Owner. In addition, its worth learning some solid facilitation skills and training skills from Liberating Structures and Sharon Bowman’s Training from the Back of the Room Although training is a great way to gain certifications, remember that certs are not the focus. You should be wanting to improve your knowledge and most importantly your practice – you have to apply what you have learned to get better. Get Community I cannot tell you how much you will improve by meeting other people on the same journey as you. Meeting folks, discussing Scrum ideas and learning through each other, really supercharges your progress. Its tough right now to get out and meet people so do what you can virtually. But as mentioned, Meet-ups are a great way to learn, laugh, share experiences and accelerate your learning. Join Meetup as a first step but there’s also Agile LinkedIn groups too. Get meeting and learning. Get Experience You need to get real experience. This can be tricky when you’re brand new. Because most companies want to hire experienced people and most can be risk averse to bringing on newbies. So you have to make it easy for them to take a shot with you. So How do you do that? Training and certifications really help, as well as having a strong CV with relevant experience highlighting that you have transferrable skills. Going for junior roles or even working for the experience are all options. Be creative, keep applying for roles, reach out to the Scrum Master/Agile community, be energetic and keep building your skills while you wait – don’t sit around, be active. Get Coaching and Mentorship Among other things, Scrum Masters ARE coaches. It’s the nature of the work and is a core skill and competency. Trying to be a coach without ever having received coaching is much like someone wanting to win a marathon but who has never put on a pair of running shoes or even gone for a gentle walk. If you want to give coaching and be proficient, find great coaches and experience coaching first hand. By the way, get relevant coaching. A tennis coach may help with your back-hand but not with your Scrum. By being on the other side, you’ll learn and experience different coaching approaches and styles. This experience helps you find your style and niche. But there is a not so hidden bonus. You will get better and improve along the way. What's not to like? Additionally, find a great mentor. Someone who will share experience and give advice. Mentorship is hugely valuable. Just having someone there to help you along the path you’re trying to tread and having proven answers to tricky problems will accelerate your learning like you wouldn’t believe. So that’s it – 5 simple steps. The journey is intense, but so very worthwhile. If you really want to level up your Scrum Master skills, why not join us on one of our Scrum Training events here: https://fractalsystems.co.uk/agile-scrum-training/ or take our practice assessments here: https://fractalsystems.co.uk/scrum-practice-assessments/ And finally, to continue learning you can find our blogs here: https://fractalsystems.co.uk/scrum-blog/ and our Thought Leadership pieces here: https://fractalsystems.co.uk/agile-scrum-blog/ Good luck in your Scrum journey!

What's the Difference Between Scrum & Agile? Agile is used to describe different approaches to software development. It focuses on incremental delivery, team collaboration, continual planning and learning. The term ‘Agile’ came about in 2001 in the Agile Manifesto. According to the 14th State of Agile Report, Scrum is the most popular Agile framework used to develop complex products and systems. The term Scrum comes from the game of rugby. Just as in a rugby team, Scrum teams work together as one. They learn through experiences, they self-organise, reflect on their successes and losses to continually improve. Scrum significantly increases productivity and reduces time to market compared to traditional ‘waterfall’ processes. Agile is a mindset and a set of principles based on the agile manifesto, there are many different methodologies to implement the Agile philosophy. Scrum is a process framework that implements agile principles. Scrum is one of the most popular Agile frameworks used in project management. It is divided into 3 main components of Roles, Artifacts and Time Boxes. “Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.” Agile prioritises customer satisfaction through early and continuous delivery of valuable product. Scrum implements this by taking regular, structured incremental feedback from end users. This is usually done by providing a demonstration of functionality after each sprint. This allows the feedback to be incorporated into the next Sprint. “Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer’s competitive advantage.” Agile encourages flexibility and welcomes requirement change during product development. One of the greatest advantages of Scrum is that it’s very flexible and adapts to changes very quickly, this is why Scrum is ideally used where requirements require rapid change. “The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.” Agile teams collaborate through face-to-face interactions on a regular basis. In scrum, communication is structured on a daily or sprint basis through daily stand-ups and sprint reviews. During the sprint and these meetings, fixed roles are assigned to scrum master, product owner and team members. “Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.” In Scrum the next sprint is planned with the scrum team and with appropriate feedback from stakeholders after the team has completed the current sprint activities. Everybody has to agree on the goals of the sprint. Thus, aligning the expectations of the whole team. “At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behaviour accordingly.” Scrum implements the agile philosophy of regular team reflection and adjustment of their work by having sprint retrospectives. During the sprint retrospective, the team discuss what went well, any impediments encountered and how they will commit to improve in the next sprint. “Simplicity–the art of maximizing the amount of work not done–is essential.” Agile execution is simple and promotes trying new and creative and ideas. In Scrum, maximum focus is applied on the sprint goals for a limited amount of time. Thus, leading to concise and smart outcomes. Whilst Scrum is structured, it’s execution can be tailored to the needs of any organization. “Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.” The Priority is to satisfy the customer by continuously delivering valuable product in Agile. During Scrum delivery, product is built to obtain client feedback after each sprint. A sprint is recommended to last two weeks; however, some teams may prefer a shorter sprint of a week or a longer sprint lasting four weeks. A sprint consists of a set of events; sprint planning at the beginning of a sprint, daily stand-up conducted throughout the sprint, sprint review and sprint retrospective held at the end of each sprint. Hopefully its clearer now that Agile is a philosophy and Scrum is one of many approaches to implement that philosophy. Jay is co-founder of Fractal Systems Consulting, an agile consultancy run by a group of Professional Scrum Trainers, change agents and agile delivery coaches who have deep experience and know-how in creating behavioural change, come and find us at Fractal Systems Additionally, if you’re interested in learning in a fun application rich environment that focuses on real world applied approaches, come along to one our training sessions – Agile Scrum Training.

52 Scrum Master Interview Questions Want to be ready for that tough Scrum Master interview? Here are 52 questions that will help you really ace the upcoming interview and give you confidence during your Scrum Master interview. The Scrum Master Questions What is the Agile Manifesto? Four values and principles behind the Agile philosophy Individuals and interactions over processes and tools Working software over comprehensive documentation Customer collaboration over contract negotiation Responding to change over following a plan That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more. What is empiricism? Decisions are made based on observation, experimentation and experience rather than on detailed upfront planning. Simply, learning by doing. What are the three pillars of Scrum and why are they important? The pillars are Transparency, Inspection and Adaptation These pillars form the basis of Scrum What are the Five events in Scrum? The Sprint Sprint Planning The Daily Scrum Sprint Review Sprint Retrospective What are the Three roles in Scrum? The Scrum Master The Product Owner Developers What are the Artefacts in Scrum? The Product Backlog The Sprint Backlog The Increment What events must the Scrum Master be present in? Sprint itself Sprint Planning Sprint Review Sprint Retrospective What events must the Product Owner be present in? Sprint itself Sprint Planning Sprint Review Sprint Retrospective What events must the Developers be present in? Sprint itself The Daily Scrum Sprint Planning Sprint Review Sprint Retrospective What is the Product Goal? The Product Goal is the objective of the Sprint and usually results in releasable value How long is a Sprint? Fixed length events of one month or less to create consistency. What is the outcome of the Sprint? A releasable increment of value How does a Sprint control risk? By limiting work, releasing value early and often and enabling frequent learning What is the purpose of the Daily Scrum? Inspect progress toward the Sprint Goal and adapt the Sprint Backlog as necessary, adjusting the upcoming planned work. What are the outcomes of the Daily Scrum? A plan for the day and a list of impediments to be resolved by either the team or the Scrum Master What is the timebox for the Daily Scrum? 15 minutes What is the purpose of Sprint Planning? Sprint Planning initiates the Sprint by laying out the work to be performed for the Sprint. This resulting plan is created by the collaborative work of the entire Scrum Team. What are the outcomes of Sprint Planning? The Sprint Goal An initial Sprint Backlog What is the timebox for Sprint Planning? Sprint Planning is timeboxed to a maximum of eight hours for a one-month Sprint. For shorter Sprints, the event is usually shorter. What is the purpose of the Sprint Review? The purpose of the Sprint Review is to inspect the outcome of the Sprint and determine future adaptations. The Scrum Team presents the results of their work to key stakeholders and progress toward the Product Goal is discussed. Who attends the Sprint Review? The Scrum Team Invited Stakeholders What is the timebox for the Sprint Review? Timeboxed to a maximum of four hours for a one-month Sprint. For shorter Sprints, the event is usually shorter. What are the outcomes of the Sprint Review? During the event, the Scrum Team and stakeholders review what was accomplished in the Sprint and what has changed in their environment. Based on this information, attendees collaborate on what to do next. The Product Backlog may also be adjusted to meet new opportunities What is the purpose of the Sprint Retrospective? The purpose of the Sprint Retrospective is to plan ways for a team to increase its quality and effectiveness. The team does this by reviewing its past performance and generating concrete actions for improvement, to be executed in the next Sprint. What is the timebox for the Sprint Retrospective? Timeboxed to a maximum of three hours for a one-month Sprint. For shorter Sprints, the event is usually shorter. What are the outcomes of the Sprint Retrospective? Actions for improvement to be executed in subsequent Sprints. Who must attend the Sprint Retrospective? The Scrum team What are the five values of Scrum? Successful use of Scrum depends on people becoming more proficient in living five values: Commitment, Focus, Openness, Respect, and Courage Who owns the Product Backlog? The Product Owner Who owns the Sprint Backlog? The Developers Who can tell the Developers how to do their work? The Developers self organise, no one tells them how to do their work What skills are needed across the Developers to do their work? They must be cross functional What is an increment? The result of a Sprints worth of work; potentially releasable value that builds on previous releases. Who decides whether an increment should be released or not? The Product Owner What is the best way to order a Product Backlog? By Value Who is accountable for delivering every Sprint? The Scrum Team Who is accountable for creating a plan for the Sprint? The Scrum Team in planning What is the Definition of Done? A checklist which details what a complete piece of work looks like Who creates the Definition of Done? The Developers or the Development Organisation Who orders the Product Backlog? The Product Owner with support from collaborators How many people manage the Product Backlog? The Product Owner manages the Sprint Backlog Who can write Product Backlog Items The Product Owner can do this themselves or delegate – the Product Owner remains accountable for clear expression of Product Backlog Items Who can cancel the Sprint? Only the Product Owner How does the Scrum Master serve the Product Owner? Helping find techniques for effective Product Goal definition and Product Backlog management; Helping the Scrum Team understand the need for clear and concise Product Backlog items; Helping establish empirical product planning for a complex environment; and, Facilitating stakeholder collaboration as requested or needed. What is a Product Backlog Item? A unit of work in that results in value What is the Product Owners responsibilities? Ensuring that Product Backlog Items are transparent and well understood by the developers Developing and explicitly communicating the Product Goal Creating and clearly communicating Product Backlog items Ordering Product Backlog items; and, Ensuring that the Product Backlog is transparent, visible and understood. What work can the Product Owner delegate? The Product Owner may do the above work (q46) or may delegate the responsibility to others. Regardless, the Product Owner remains accountable. There are multiple teams working towards delivery of ONE product, how many product owners should there be? One During the Sprint new work is discovered, when should it be added to the Sprint Backlog? As soon as its discovered What is Backlog Refinement? Product Backlog refinement is the act of breaking down and further defining Product Backlog items into smaller more precise items. This is an ongoing activity to add details, such as a description, order, and size. Attributes often vary with the domain of work. What is the timebox for Backlog Refinement? As much time as is needed What is the outcome of Backlog Refinement? A well understood, ordered Backlog So that’s it, all of the answers to these questions can be found within the Scrum Guide – reach out if you need any clarifications. Scrum Master Interviewing for Interviewers Hiring anyone can be daunting especially when the cost of a mis-hire is so high. Scrum Masters form an integral part of the team and can quite simply make or break teams. Whenever you hire, think carefully about how you’d like your Scrum Masters to manage risk, challenges and the values that are needed to thrive in your organisation. Most importantly you need your Scrum Masters to be deeply knowledgeable about the basics of Scrum – since they will be responsible and accountable for teaching, training, mentoring and coaching both the Scrum Teams they serve and the wider organisation in the effective use of Scrum. This is why we always start with a thorough set of questions to ensure that Scrum Masters have a solid grasp of the fundamentals before we move on to the more challenging coaching and scenario-based questions. Make sure you ask detailed questions to ensure that Scrum Master candidate has the experience to back the knowledge. For Interviewees These questions form the very basics of Scrum understanding. Ensure you are not only familiar with the answers but have the relevant experience to back up your understanding. As a serious Scrum Master, the Scrum Guide should be your very best friend. If you don’t know it intimately how will you be able to train, mentor and coach your teams to performance – as a minimum standard the above questions should be easy to answer. If you really want to level up your Scrum Master skills, why not join us on one of our Scrum Training events here: https://fractalsystems.co.uk/agile-scrum-training/ or take our practice assessments here: https://fractalsystems.co.uk/scrum-practice-assessments/ And finally, to continue learning you can find our blogs here: https://fractalsystems.co.uk/scrum-blog/ and our Thought Leadership pieces here: https://fractalsystems.co.uk/agile-scrum-blog/ Good luck in your Scrum journey!

What is a Scrum Master? The Scrum Master is probably one of the most famous Agile roles. And rightly so, because the Scrum Master pays a pivotal role in helping the team with the efficient and effective use of Scrum. Scrum, for those of you who are new, is an Agile framework, and started life as a way of developing and delivering complex products to market with efficiency. Scrum is the most popular Agile framework in use around the world today. As a simple framework Scrum has three roles; The Scrum Master, the Product Owner and the Development Team. All these roles work together to get great products out the door. Scrum Masters play the challenging role of Trainer, Mentor, Coach and ‘Impediment Remover’ for the Scrum Teams they serve and the Organisations they work for. What is the Scrum Master Accountable For? The Scrum Master is accountable for establishing Scrum as per the Scrum Guide. This means helping their teams and the organisation they work for to understand Scrum theory and practice. They have a strong understanding of how to apply Scrum in the most challenging projects and programmes as well as what good Scrum implementation looks like. Helping people understand and use Scrum well is the most important thing that a Scrum Master must do every day. Who does the Scrum Master Serve and How? The Scrum Master is a Servant Leader – this means that they put the continued development of their teams first. The Scrum Master serves The Product Owner Part of getting great product out the door is knowing what great looks like. That’s the Product Owners role. But, being a Product Owner isn’t easy, there is a lot to do and a lot to learn. The Scrum Master helps the Product Owner by bringing tools and techniques that support the formation of a solid and achievable Product Goals as well as creating effective Product Backlogs. The Product Goal is a long-term objective or future state of the product. It is a vital part of the Product Backlog, referred to in the Scrum Guide as a commitment. The Scrum Team uses the Product Goal to plan against and maintain focus, so its important that the crafting and creation of a Product Goal is done well. The Scrum Master helps the Product Owner in ensuring that meaningful and sensible Product Goals come to life. The Product Backlog is in essence a list of ordered items that need to be developed to create a valuable product. Scrum Masters work with the Product Owner to create great Product Backlog Items and the Development Team can understand and build. The Scrum Master is always available to help the Product Owner facilitate great Stakeholder collaboration and contribution. The Scrum Master serves the Scrum Team The Scrum Masters role is to establish and embed the effective use of Scrum within their team. Scrum is also all about getting great products out the door. So not only does the Scrum Master coach their teams in how to self-organise and build cross functional skills but they also work hand-in-hand with their teams to remove impediments that stop the team from delivering every Sprint. Scrum Masters also ensure that the Scrum Team have solid and meaningful Definition of Done. The Definition of Done guides the team in creating high value delivery increments – it helps the team stay aligned to the right standards for development and delivery. And finally, the Scrum Master ensures that all the Scrum Events take place and happen within the timebox. The Scrum Master serves the Organisation Organisations new to Scrum frequently make mistakes in the proper and effective use of Scrum. So, Scrum Masters work to lead, guide, train and coach the organisation in what Scrum is and how best to use Scrum well. Scrum Masters are frequently seen working alongside teams and stakeholders to help them understand how Scrum applies to them. When firms are rolling out a Scrum implementation, Scrum Masters are usually coaching, planning and advising side by side with managers and leaders. It was mentioned that a big part of a Scrum Masters role is to remove impediments. So Scrum Masters work on an organisational level to remove barriers between Scrum Teams and Stakeholders as an example. So there you have it. The Scum Master is a huge role and requires a lot of different skill to do the job well. If you really want to level up your Scrum Master skills, why not join us on one of our Scrum Training events here: https://fractalsystems.co.uk/agile-scrum-training/ or take our practice assesements here: https://fractalsystems.co.uk/scrum-practice-assessments/ And finally, to continue learning you can find our blogs here: https://fractalsystems.co.uk/scrum-blog/ and our Thought Leadership pieces here: https://fractalsystems.co.uk/agile-scrum-blog/ Good luck in your Scrum journey!

The Professional Scrum Master I from Scrum.org is a challenging online assessment where you’ll answer 80 multiple choice questions within an hour.