Becoming the invaluable Scrum Master

Scrum Master, are you the voice of common sense in your organization? Read further for a simple guide to making yourself invaluable to your team and stakeholders!

From Inside the Scrum Team

The Scrum Master is accountable for the Scrum Team’s effectiveness. He does this by enabling the Scrum Team to improve its practices and collaboration. He doesn’t tell people what to do, but rather coaches them to recognize, understand, and address issues as they arise.

A high-performance team is continually improving, so the Scrum Master is continually helping the Team and the organization to find better ways of doing what they do.

Of all the metaphors for the Scrum Master, I find “voice of the common sense” to be the most compelling. Common sense is often not be very common, so the Scrum Master helps the Developers, the Product Owner, and the organization to create a common understanding of how to work together effectively.

A Scrum Team is a happy team. If your team is not happy doing Scrum, that is a warning sign that something is amiss. The goal is not to cram more work into the sprint, the goal is to produce more value, sooner. Listen to your team and address at least one concern, every sprint!

Four Questions to make yourself invaluable to your team and organization

Ask the following questions to your team and key stakeholders:

• What are we trying to achieve?
• What is making it hard to achieve these objectives?
• Why is it important to fix the issue now?
• What it some “low-hanging fruit” that would help us quickly?

Make sure the answers are clear and compelling. Use the answers to create your “impediments backlog” – the list of issues your team needs your help on. 

To earn confidence of your team and stakeholders, pick some quick and easy ones to get started. Then move on to more challenging issues that will have high impact. Once people realize you make solutions happen, you will be invaluable!

For an insight into how a Scrum team is intended to function, check out “Inside the Scrum Team!” You’ll find it on my profile. It’s a great basis to start a conversation on improving your team, your organization, and your results.

What are your go-to questions, techniques, and approaches to foster “common sense” in your team? Share your thoughts on my LinkedIn post.