When most people hear the word scrum master, they'll be forgiven for going huh?? In this blog post, we answer all your questions. What/who is a scrum master? What do they do? Why is their role necessary? Who can be a scrum master? How can I be a scrum master? Is is a lucrative career?
What is a Scrum Master?
A Scrum master is a professional who leads a team using Agile project management through the course of a project. A Scrum master is a professional who leads a team through a project using Agile project management techniques.
What does a Scrum Master do?
The scrum master helps the team enhance and streamline the processes by which they achieve their goals. They do so as a team member, or collaborator, ideally not as someone in control. The best scrum teams are self-organizing, and therefore don't react well to top-down management.
- Facilitation
- Teaching
- Coaching
These skills help you to leverage your existing background in helping the teams you serve. 5 point Checklist to become an Effective Scrum Master
1. Are you adept at influencing people?
2. Are you passionate to delight customers?
3. Are you driven by the motive of serving your team?
4. Do you have experience in the domain or the product that your teams are working on?
5. Do you understand Scrum well?
Depending on what background you come from, you may need to acquire new skills of Scrum Master role and you may also need to unlearn some bad behaviours that may hinder you from performing the Scrum Master's role effectively.
Example:
If you manage Finance, If you Write performance appraisals, If the Scrum team members report to you, you may have to explicitly let go of that organizational power and authority to be able to serve the team as Scrum Master.