Selflessness
June 4th, 2010
“Selflessness gives one center. Center creates order. When there is order, there is little to do.”
From the Tao of Leadership by John Heider, adapted from the teachings of Lao Tzu
Archive
Posts Tagged ‘Scrummaster’
Organizational Transformation Barrier: Corporate Security Policies
May 28th, 2010
Series: Barriers to Organizational Transformation
The Barrier This is the first post in the ‘Barriers to Organizational Transformation’ series and it is the Friday before Memorial Day so I thought I’d start with something lig…
Transforming a Traditional Manager Into an Agile Manager
May 24th, 2010
Series: Agile Roles and Responsibilities Series
Many pundits preach that the agile organization will not have managers – that teams will self-manage and can carry out all responsibilities of traditional functional management. This includes HR respon…
ScrumMasters are Change Agents
May 19th, 2010
Series: Agile Roles and Responsibilities Series
Anyone who knows me knows that I love ScrumMasters. My family had to get used to the idea of being second in line, but they’ll get over it. Why the love affair? Simple. They are th…
The Road from Project Manager to Agile Coach
May 12th, 2010
This is an excellent series of videos by Lyssa Adkins:
Part One of Two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvYqhYEaqMs
Part Two of Two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9tSjpqeBa4
I highly recommend taking the twenty minutes to watch these two v…
Experimentation Means it’s OK to Fail
April 2nd, 2010
Experimentation is the key to learning and continuous learning is the core of Agile and iterative methods. A wise man once told me that we know the least about our product and the optimum process to build that product when we first start. I could…
ScrumMasters are not Task Masters
March 25th, 2010
Series: Agile Roles and Responsibilities
It always bewilders me to think about the amount of teams out there who designate the ScrumMaster as a ‘Task Master’. In these teams, the ScrumMaster’s role is often seen as that of an administrator. This ScrumMaster schedules, plans and runs the meetings, including the Daily Scrum. His job is to make sure all the perceived overheads of the iteration are completed so that the team can focus on their “real” job. “Come around and get our hours every day so we don’t have to input them,” the team may say. “And while you’re at it,” they may add, “be a dear and handle any interruptions that come our way, would you?” However, this is a mistaken notion.
ScrumMasters are called what they are for one very simple reason: They own the process of Scrum. They have one of the most complex and difficult jobs in the development organization: To create and maintain the processes by which we work. In short, they need to be change agents.
I don’t mean to imply that ScrumMasters don’t work within the team. On the contrary, they work intimately as a part of the team to help create and adapt processes within the team. However, they aren’t the ones that manage the team and the team’s meetings and events – the team itself does that. It is perfectly fine for the ScrumMaster to perform those activities when working with a newly formed team but with the understanding that those are owned by the team and will be transitioned to the team as soon as possible.
What, then, should the ScrumMaster be doing once those items are transitioned? Everything else that falls under the ‘own the process of Scrum’ category. This includes working with Product Owners just as intimately as the team, to help with release planning and tracking, bridging the gap between the Product Owner and the team. This also includes working with existing management to solve deeper organizational issues that is beyond each team. Finally, they are responsible for working with other ScrumMasters to maintain a coherent process across the organization. In the end, a well balanced ScrumMaster will work in equal parts with the team, the Product Owner and the organization.
This may be a good time to mention that the role of the ScrumMaster is a full-time one, but that is another blog entry.
Comparison of OpenAgile with Scrum
February 1st, 2010
OpenAgile is similar to Scrum in many respects. Both are systems for delivering value to stakeholders. Both are agile methods. Both are frameworks that deliberately avoid giving all the answers. So why would we choose OpenAgile over Scrum?
The Role of Leaders on a Self-Organizing Team
January 7th, 2010
There is more to leading a self-organizing team than buying pizza and getting out of the way. Leaders influence teams in subtle and indirect ways.
Good Article: What Does a ScrumMaster Do?
September 25th, 2009
Many people in my CSM classes start by thinking that the ScrumMaster job is easy and can be part time. Here’s a good article that summarizes why this is not the case, and provides even more useful references.
New to Agile? What Does the ScrumMaster Do Anyway?