@BenLinders - benlinders.com 1 Ben Linders Consulting How to Become a Better Scrum Master Ben Linders
Apr 10, 2017
@BenLinders - benlinders.com 1
Ben Linders ConsultingHow to Become a Better Scrum Master Ben Linders
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Ben Linders Consulting
THANK YOU TO OUR
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Ben Linders ConsultingTHANK YOU TO OUR
PARTNERS
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Ben Linders Consulting
Agile, Lean, Quality & Continuous Improvement
Trainer / Coach / Mentor / Writer / PresenterRecognized Expert on Agile RetrospectivesCMMI & People-CMM Assessor
Freelance Editor for InfoQ.com
Ben Linders
Co-Author Getting Value out of Agile Retrospectives English Dutch French Japanese Spanish Italian Chinese Russian Polish German Greek Turkish Vietnamese
Author: What Drives Quality & Continuous Improvement
eBook: Download from Amazon, InfoQ or LeanpubPrint: Buy on Amazon or other bookstores
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More than Scrum
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No one best way
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What is Agile?
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Being Agile (not: doing Agile)
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Agile Manifesto“We are uncovering better ways of developing
software by doing it and helping others do it”
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Agile PrinciplesNone of the twelve agile principles mentions Scrum master
Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.
The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.
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Scrum master role in Scrum GuideThe Scrum Master is responsible for ensuring Scrum is understood and enacted. Scrum Masters do this by ensuring that the Scrum Team adheres to Scrum theory, practices, and rules.
The Scrum Master is a servant-leader for the Scrum Team. The Scrum Master helps those outside the Scrum Team understand which of their interactions with the Scrum Team are helpful and which aren’t. The Scrum Master helps everyone change these interactions to maximize the value created by the Scrum Team.
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ScrumMaster in Scrum PrimerThe ScrumMaster helps the product group learn and apply Scrum to achieve business value. The ScrumMaster does whatever is in their power to help the Team, Product Owner and organization be successful.
The ScrumMaster is not the manager of the Team members, nor are they a project manager, team lead, or team representative. Instead, the ScrumMaster serves the Team; he or she helps to remove impediments, protects the Team from outside interference, and helps the Team to adopt modern development practices.
He or she educates, coaches and guides the Product Owner, Team and the rest of the organization in the skillful use of Scrum. The ScrumMaster is a coach and teacher. The ScrumMaster makes sure everyone (including the Product Owner, and those in management) understands the principles and practices of Scrum, and they help lead the organization through the often difficult change required to achieve success with agile development.
Since Scrum makes visible many impediments and threats to the Team’s and Product Owner’s effectiveness, it is important to have an engaged ScrumMaster working energetically to help resolve those issues, or the Team or Product Owner will find it difficult to succeed.
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What do you do as a Scrum master?
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Scrum master = Superman?• Assure Scrum is understood• Team adheres• Servant leader• Help stakeholders to collaborate
with team• Help people interact• Maximize value• Motivated individuals• Establish trust• Constant pace• Self-organizing team• Team adopts to change
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Are Scrum masters needed?
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Successful Scrum masters
Lead
Connect
Improve
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Lead
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Don’t manage, lead!
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Get the best out of people
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Which leadership style / approiach do you use as Scrummaster?
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Servant leadershipAs a servant leader, you're a "servant first" – you focus on the needs of others, especially team members, before you consider your own. You acknowledge other people's perspectives, give them the support they need to meet their work and personal goals, involve them in decisions where appropriate, and build a sense of community within your team. This leads to higher engagement, more trust, and stronger relationships with team members and other stakeholders. From mindtools.com
What do you look for in a servant leader?7 secrets of servant leadership
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Leadership Styles• Situational leadership• Autocratic• Paternalistic• Democratic• Intent-based• Holacracy• Sociocracy• Host leadership Effective Leadership• Servant leadership for Scrum masters• Reinventing organizations• Management 3.0 and managing for happiness
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Follow the leader?
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When the Scrum master is away …
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Connect
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Collaboration mattersTeam <–> POTeam <-> customersPO <-> customersInside TeamScrum master <-> …
Collaboration is key for succes with agile
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Decreasing distanceColocated teams• Teambuilding• Collaboration Time (stand-up, sprint review,
retrospective)• Pairing• Build relationships
Remote teamsSame as colocated, plus:• Emotional distance• Travel & meet face 2 face
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Create a culture of safetyCheck safety in retrospectives,stand-up, day-to-day work, etc. • Prime directive• Exercises:
– One Word– Constellation– Team Kudos
When safety is low
Deal with safety, make sure problems are raised!
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Effective agile meetings• Know the Why• Right audience• Focus• Time-boxing• Facilitation
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Dealing with ImpedimentsMake it visibleRaise issues earlyFeelings matterWhy over HowKnow the root causesSafe-to-fail experiments
Handling Impediments
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Improve
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Follow the rules?
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Embedded Improvement Agile values, principles, practices, and methods
support continuous improvement
• Frequently Inspect and Adapt• Scrum master, focus on process• Stand-up, deal with impediments• Agile Retrospectives• Coaching & Mentoring
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How do you coach as a Scrum master?
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This isn’t coaching
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This isn’t coaching either
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Agile CoachingHelp people to find and do improvements
Give FeedbackProvide Ideas Inspire PeopleMake it happen
Agile Needs Coaching
Develop Coaching Skills
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Change doing change
• Don’t change people• Start with “why”• Offer help• Environment for change• Be an example• Be there
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Look and Listen
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Know thy strengthsProject that succeeded• Learn from things that go well• People and team strengths• Exploit to improve
Learn from success Solution focused retro
Identify strengths, apply them to solve problems
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Agile RetrospectivesPractice for teams to reflect on their way of workingand to continuously become better in what they do.
Focus upon
• Teamworking
• Self organizing
What is an Agile Retrospectives
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No blaming or complaining
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Focus on the vital few actionsSmall but significant continuous improvements• Actions for the next iteration• Destroy actions to focus:
– Dot voting– Remove bottleneck– Devil’s and Angel’s advocate– Kill actions Vital Few Actions
• Enable teams to improve
Focus to assure that vital few actions get done!
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Experiment
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Become a Better Scrum master
Every journey for agility and continuous improvement starts with a first agile step
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And don’t forget …
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Questions?Questions?
Ben LindersIndependent Consultant Agile, Lean,Quality & Continuous Improvement
[email protected]@BenLinders.com @BenLinders www.linkedin.com/in/benlinderswww.linkedin.com/in/benlinders www.facebook.com/BenLindersAdvieswww.facebook.com/BenLindersAdvies www.benlinders.comwww.benlinders.com
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Background Information
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Assigning the Scrum master role
• Technical or organizational? Both!• Part time or full time? Depends• Fixed or rotating? Mostly fixed
Dedicated full time Scrum masters are hard to implementRotating Scrum masters in teamsLet the Scrum master come from the team
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Effective Scrum master practices
• Keep the goals in mind, why over how• Pull in actions from the retrospective• Balance between doing it yourself vs helping others• Encourage collaboration• Be an example
What is success for a Scrum master?
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Scrum master skills• Tech leading• Coaching• Communication• System view
“soft skills” for working with technical and business people
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Golden Rules for Improvement• Dare to share, early and frequently• Result depends on team, not individuals• The one who checks out a task is not necessarily
the one who has to finish it• The one’s working on a task are the right people• You may critique anything,
but never criticize anyone
BenLinders.com/GoldenRules
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Getting More out of Agile & Lean Practices for teams and stakeholders to develop the right
products, deliver faster, increase quality, and create happy high performing teams.
Full Day Workshop:Deploying practices effectively Improve CollaborationTips & Trick for Agile & Lean Improve Continuously
Increase your organization's agility!
BenLinders.com/agilelean
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Retrospectives BookGetting Value out of Agile RetrospectivesBy Luis Gonçalves & Ben Linders
Download from InfoQ or LeanpubBuy on Amazon or Lulu
amazon.com/dp/B00SWJO1DIleanpub.com/gettingvalueoutofagileretrospectives
Mailinglist: eepurl.com/Mem7H
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Retrospectives Book BundleSix successful retrospectives books• Getting Value out of Agile Retrospectives• Fun Retrospectives• Fifty Quick Ideas to Improve Your Retrospectives• The Retrospective Handbook• Retrospectives for Organizational Change• The Retrospectives Kickstarter
These books will make your agile retrospectives rock!Teams will love to do them :-).
leanpub.com/b/agileretrospectivesDiscounted price: $30,48 (excl. VAT)
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Agile Retrospectives
amazon.com/dp/B00SWJO1DI benlinders.com/exercises/
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Continuous Improvement
Become aware of importance of continuous improvement,
Explore how it’s engrained in agile software development
Suggestions that you can use in your daily work to improve continuously
Increase your organization's agility!
Leanpub.com/continuousimprovement
“Continuous Improvement is the act of continuously doing whatever helps to become better and thus more valuable”
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Assessing your AgilityOver 40 tools:• Self-Assessment checklists• Readyness checks• Maturity assessments• Agile health checks• Measurements• And much more! Agile Self-Assessments
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Articles on Effective Agile• Self-assessing how Agile you are• Sustainable Improvement through Agile Retrospectives• Working in a Sustainable Pace• Becoming Agile and Lean • Succes Factors for Using Scrum and Getting Benefits• Process Improvement: The Agile Way• Golden Rules for Agile Process Improvement• How to deal with Resistance when Implementing Agile• Managing Projects with Agile Teams• Agile Project Management• Establishing and Maintaining Stable Teams• Getting Business Value out of Agile Retrospectives• Sharing Knowledge is Power• Are your Professionals Empowered?