Scrum Master Skills

What does the Scrum Master do anyway?

Benjamin Day
@benday | www.benday.com
“What does the Scrum Master do anyway?”
Curling
Olympic sport. Played on ice.
Team 1 Team 2

The Curling Sheet

~148 ft / ~45 m

~15 ft / ~4.8m
Target Target
 Curling Stones
 ~40 lb. stones

 Polished granite

 It’s got a handle

 8 stones per team

 ~148 ft / ~45 m

~15 ft / ~4.8m
 Get your stones as  Each team  Team with the most
close as possible to the takes turns stones closest to the
center of the target center of the target wins

Note: that stone’s not to scale

 Throwing
 3 team members per throw

 Thrower
- Stone in hand
- Pushes off with legs

 Starts glide towards target

 Thrower has to release stone

The thrower might put some spin on it…
 …but once released,
nothing can touch the stone.
 After the release,
the Sweepers take over.
 Sweepers
 Two sweepers stay with the  Guide the stone to the target
stone
 Just to be 100% clear,
the sweepers don’t touch the stone.
“So, the brushing moves the stone?”
The brushing doesn’t move the stone.
It’s already moving.
The brushing subtly adjusts the ice
in front of it…
…and that can change the speed and
direction of the stone significantly.
 The sweepers – without touching it –
are helping to coax and guide the stone so
it lands correctly at the target.
“…and this has what to do with scrum mastering?
 Scrum Master is a Coach
 Scrum Master is not a management role

 Team members don’t report to the Scrum Master

 Scrum Master isn’t the boss

 Three Roles in Scrum

Product Scrum
Development
Owner Master
Team
 Three Roles in Scrum

 Product Owner is as close to “a boss” as you’ll get

 Provides the vision & goal

Product
Owner
Considering the inherent bossless-ness,
Scrum expects and relies on the team
to self-organize.
 To be successful,
the team needs to use their creativity to deliver
done, working software.
The team takes the Product Owner’s goal
and self-organizes to figure out how to
deliver done, working software
at the end of the Sprint.
 The basic idea:
Give the team their goal and
then get out of the way.
The Scrum Master helps the team to be
creative and productive.
You can’t command someone to be creative.
“1…2…3…BE CREATIVE!!!!”
 You can’t tell people exactly what to do
and also expect them to figure it out for themselves
at the same time.
And now back to curling…
Just like the sweepers can’t touch the stone…
…a successful Scrum Master doesn’t
command the team.
The Scrum Master guides the team and helps the team
without actually giving any instructions.
 The team is the stone

 The Product Owner is the thrower

 The Scrum Master is a sweeper,

guiding the team towards the goal
“What does the Scrum Master do anyway?”
 The Scrum Master helps the team to
be productive and to use their creativity
in order to deliver done, working software.
 The Big Lesson:
The Scrum Master leads through
influence not by command.
Scrum Overview
This is going to be fast.
 Medium-sized Overview

http://www.pluralsight.com/courses/real-world-scrum-team-foundation-server-2013
 A Complete Course on Scrum

http://www.pluralsight.com/courses/scrum-fundamentals
How well do you know Scrum?
Ok. Go check that stuff out
and I’ll wait here.
(intermission)
All set?
Scrum is an Agile methodology.
Agile software development is
a way of thinking about and
creating software.
 The Agile Manifesto
 Authored in February 2001
 4 core values

 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 doesn’t really tell you
how to do it though, huh?
 Where Agile is a mindset,
Scrum is a set of dance steps.
 Big Pieces of Scrum
 Roles

 Artifacts

 Events
 Scrum Roles
 Roles are the people

 Product Owner

 Development Team

 Scrum Master
 Scrum Artifacts
 These are the things

 Product Backlog

 Sprint Backlog

 Increment
 Scrum Events
 Meetings & timeboxes

 Sprint
 Sprint Planning Meeting
 Daily Scrum
 Sprint Review
 Sprint Retrospective
 Product Owner & the Product Backlog
 Product Owner (Role)
- Owns the Product Backlog

 Product Backlog (Artifact)

- Made up of Product Backlog Items (PBIs)
- List of every feature ever dreamed up
- Prioritized

 Product Owner decides the contents & priorities

 Product Owner is one and only one person

 Development Team (Role)
 All the people needed to do the work

 3 to 9 people

 Developers
 Testers
 Business analysts
 DBAs
 Etc. etc. etc.
 Scrum Master (Role)
 One person
 Anyone but the Product Owner

 Facilitator
 Coach

 Helps the team to be productive

 Sworn, mortal enemy of impediments

 Sprint (Event)
 Container in which everything happens
- Timebox

 30 day or less

 Output: the Increment (Artifact)

 Increment is the done, working software

 Sprint Planning Meeting (Event)
 First thing that happens in the Sprint

 Choose the items from the Product Backlog that the team things are do-able

 Create a plan for turning selected PBIs into the Increment

 Output: the Sprint Backlog (Artifact)

 Daily Scrum (Event)
 Daily meeting for and by the Development Team

 15 minutes

 Create situational awareness

 Review progress towards increment
 Create plan for the day

 Discuss any impediments

 Sprint Review (Event)
 Second-to-last thing that happens in Sprint

 Everyone is invited

 Show off the Increment

- (Reminder: Increment = done, working software)

 Gather feedback
 Sprint Retrospective (Event)
 Last thing that happens in the Sprint

 Product Owner, Development Team, & Scrum Master

 Discuss the Sprint

- What went well?
- What didn’t go well?
- Improvements for next time?

 Limit mistakes to a single Sprint

 Big Pieces of Scrum
 Roles  Events
- Product Owner - Sprint
- Scrum Master - Sprint Planning Meeting
- Development Team - Daily Scrum
- Sprint Review
 Artifacts - Sprint Retrospective
- Product Backlog
- Sprint Backlog
- Increment
 Next up:
Suggestions on how to
tighten up your existing
Scrum practices