Scrum Master: A How To Guide
Hello there! Welcome to our newsletter! We're here to bring about elegant Scrum Masters for a civilized age. Have we found one in you? Read on just to make sure.
Agile Matinée is a fortnightly dispatch curated by Panaxeo, one Agile topic at a time. We bribe five Agile enthusiasts with croissants and expect them to collect interesting and read-worthy content in return. This one will make you the best Scrum Master ever!
Be brutally honest – can you name your primary accountability as a Scrum Master? If you said something like “the establisher and ambassador of Scrum,” we meant the other one.
Unless “the effectiveness of the team” was your answer in under 5 seconds, you’ve either been poorly trained (not your fault!), or your understanding of the role is not yet focused enough.
Clarity comes with mastery. Yet, with so much noise, experience doesn’t always yield mastery. This is even more true in such a complex, creative, and multi-faceted role as the Scrum Master.
So, let’s cut through the noisy content mills of “scrumfluencers” and gain some clarity about what actually helps you become the excellent change agent you were always meant to be.
“If serving is beneath you, leadership is beyond you.”
— Anonymous (you may have heard of them, they’ve got tons of quotes)
01.
Bad Habits — Are You a Real or a Fake Scrum Master?
(5-min read)
Eugene Lai is not beating around any bushes here. He perfectly dissects the fake vs. the real behaviors and attitudes, providing a very explicit and accurate idea of what Scrum Masters should (not) be like.
If you feel a little hurt while reading this, don’t. Try to transform the feeling into motivation for becoming a kick-ass actual Scrum Master.
Bravo, Eugene.
02.
The Book Club — Scrum Mastery by Geoff Watts
This evergreen book by Geoff Watts is a must-read for any Scrum Master – fresh or seasoned. Geoff elegantly dances through core principles, case studies, and hints throughout the whole book.
It is packed with strong “Aha!” moments. And that’s probably why you can also purchase a deck of 50 quote cards for your daily reflections. (We love ‘em!)
03.
Trick or Treat! — Scary Scrum Stories Podcast
(36-min listen)
Spooky sounds, scary stories. It’s Halloween, and Hal Hogue and Erica Menendez sat down for a special edition of their podcast. If you are a fresh Scrum Master, this can be an eye-opening listen that will make you better prepared for your next sprint. Tune in, eh?
04.
Research’d — The Scrum Team Effectiveness Theory
(a long read)
Our all-time favorite Scrum read may be a little on the expert side, but experienced Scrum Masters will benefit a lot. This research conducted by Christiaan Verwijs and Daniel Russo focused on dynamics that happen inside (and outside) the Scrum teams, their inter-relations, and drivers.
Suppose you strive for a harmonious and effective team but lack the time or discipline to read a research paper. In that case, scroll to page 13 and get a very straightforward explanation of how to improve individual factors.
05.
Are you Missing a Hat? — Coaching habit
What is the best yet least used way to make a Scrum Team more self-managing and cross-functional? Coaching!
While this stance is often unnatural for new Scrum Masters, it is also extremely important for you to level up yourself and the team to at least learn the basics. Been there, and we want to help you!
Get your hands on a copy of Coaching Habit. This book is short, fun, and very practical. You’ll be able to get your coaching MVK (minimum viable knowledge) in less than three hours, and you’ll be ready to practice your new stance tomorrow.
06.
Subscribe — The Exceptional Scrum Master podcast
While we very much like to believe that everything we post here gets stuck in your head forever, there are some indications that it might not be entirely the case. Luckily, smart people are making great podcasts regularly, so we figured we could give you a tip for our favorite.
As you’re gazing out the train window into the rain, listening to a new load of great Scrum Mastery tips – will you think of us?
07.
Connecting the Dots — Sucessful Scrum = “Deliberate practice”
Do you still believe you need an innate talent or 10,000 hours to become a master at something? Then you probably don’t know Deliberate Practice.
When explaining Scrum to a layman, we love to use the analogy of Deliberate Practice. The more we understand and practice one or the other, the more we believe they are very close. Both conceptually and in principles.
If you’re new to DL, this might be a great opportunity to start learning like a beast. Go ahead, cozy up, contemplate the similarities, and create new neural connections you can leverage in your daily Scrum life.
Social Radar
If you really must have one, what should the number one “developer productivity” metric be? This is a hot take by Krishna Kumar, a must-read expert on SW development flow optimization.
That’s it; we’re off.
Hope you’ve basked enough in this Agile well of inspiration. Now, go about your day and put this stuff into practice! Oh, and unless you want to miss our next digest, follow us on LinkedIn or share this post with your friends and frenemies!
Hasta la Agilista, baby!