Introduction
Scum Master’s role is one of the three most important roles in teams following scrum while working in Agile ways of working. Scrum master is a crucial and one of the most important roles in a scrum team. A scrum master is responsible for facilitating all the scrum ceremonies in the team, ensuring all the blockers are removed for smooth and seamless functioning of the development teams and smooth collaboration within the team members and with other teams. But how to become a scrum master? What skills do one needs to acquire to excel in this role? In this blog, we will dive deep into the skills of scrum master, how one can develop them and why they are crucial for the success of an agile scrum team?
Who is a Scrum Master?
Scrum Master, is a servant leader who ensures that all the scrum practices are followed effectively by everyone within the team. Scrum master is responsible for facilitating all the scrum ceremonies and meetings/events. Also referred to as the Sankat Mochan of the team, they are responsible for solving problems and any kind of impediment that blocks the team from moving forward or achieving the sprint /project goal. They also coach and train the team members regarding their roles and responsibilities, if they find any deviation. They also work towards solving problems in the work space and aim at achieving a high performing team culture that is cross functional and self organising. Scrum masters empower the team members to deliver value to the customer at the end of each sprint.
Importance of Scrum Master Skills
Having just theoretical knowledge of scrum is not enough to implement Scrum or Agile in a team. Scrum Master bridges the gap between Agile frameworks and its practical execution. If the scrum master lacks the right skills, scrum teams may be found struggling with inefficiencies, poor collaboration and sometimes even lack of direction. If you wish to become a successful and impactful scrum master, it’s necessary to develop the necessary skills. Implementing and learning the skills of a scrum master helps a team in fostering better collaboration, improve efficiency throughout the sprint, make the communication with stakeholders better, mitigate risks and remove roadblocks.
Essential Scrum Master Skills
Being a scrum master is not just about facilitating the events and ceremonies for the team. It also requires a mix of leadership, technical and softskills. If one aims at becoming a scrum master, here is the list of skills one needs to dedicatedly learn and master.
1. Building Scrum Knowledge
To become great at the role of scrum master one must have a strong foundation in scrum principles. They should understand the 12 Agile principles and 4 values as mentioned in the Agile manifesto and all their suggestions, advice and observations should align with these values and principles.
They should also understand the responsibilities of each role well so that they can guide and coach each team member for specific roles like development team, product owner or even stakeholders, if they observe any deviation on the ground.
Not only this, they should learn and practice how to effectively and efficiently facilitate all the ceremonies in scrum viz. Sprint Planning, Daily Standups, Sprint Reviews and Retrospectives so that each ceremony solves its purpose and does not become an overhead for team members.
2. Execution of Scrum
As pointed out earlier in this blog, scrum isn’t just about knowing the theory but about its effective execution. A Scrum Master should ensure that the team follows all scrum practices without any exception. There may be some edge cases but then they should refer to the principles and values of Agile and take a call.
Scrum master should also be able to identify and remove impediments which hinder the progress of the project and stops the team from achieving the sprint goals.
3. Leadership
Since Servant Leadership is in the core of scrum master’s role, scrum master should be able to lead with authority. He/ she should work on empowering the team to take ownership of the project and not only stick to their specific tasks, encourage a culture of collaboration and transparency and resolve conflicts in a constructive manner.
4. Collaboration
Scrum is all about teamwork. All the team members should in different roles i.e. developers, product owners and stakeholders need to be aligned to the sprint goal which is derived from the project goal, which is aligned to the organizational goal. To be able to achieve this, a Scrum Master must have strong collaboration skills. He/she should be able to encourage open communication within the team so that everyone is aligned and on the goals and work towards them collectively.
5. Organization
Since scrum masters work hand in hand with all the other roles like talking to Product Owner for business requirements and prioritization, stakeholders for better understanding of their expectations and even development teams for execution of work, they need to be well organized. This helps them in managing multiple tasks and priorities, work efficiently, track the progress on development of projects and address blockers and impediments.
They also need to ensure that Scrum artifacts like product backlog and sprint backlog and the status of each task in the current sprint, dependencies and other things are up to date. So, learning organizational skills are crucial and come handy while working as a scrum master.
6. Project Management Tools Expertise
To ensure everyone in the team is on the same page with regards to the backlog and work in the current sprint, and management gets the real time and correct status of the project, it is important that a scrum master is well versed with Agile project management tools. Some of the most commonly used project management tools are Jira, Trello, Asana, Azure DevOps for backlog management, Confluence for documentation and Miro, MURAL etc. for virtual collaboration.
7. Agile and Software Development Knowledge
Though it is not mandatory for a scrum master to be a developer in a team but they should understand agile methodologies like Scrum, Kanban, SAFe etc., Software development lifecycle (SDLC) and Basic technical concepts (e.g., CI/CD, DevOps, Testing). We do not advocate that scrum master must or must not be a developer, but if he/she comes from a development background, it can be of great advantage for him/ her as well as the team specifically when talking about timelines and dependencies with the development team and product owner.
8. Listening
Apart from the roles and responsibilities discussed above in the blog, the day to day work of a Scrum master also includes understanding team challenges and concerns, addressing and resolving conflicts before they escalate. To be effective in his/her role, a Scrum Master must possess active and efficient listening skills. When the team members get the feeling that they are being heard and the project is moving in the right direction due to scrum master’s good listening skills, it creates a psychologically safe environment within the team.
9. Adaptability with Change
Being Agile is all about being adaptive to change and how smoothly and with less friction the changes are implemented even late in the project lifecycle. A good Scrum Master should help team members navigate uncertainty, and adjust Scrum practices based on evolving needs e.g. if the team is getting blockers in the middle of the sprint and they realise it is because of unclear requirements, they should start implementing mid sprint grooming sessions where they can discuss about the next sprint’s tasks well in advance to identify the blockers which they could experience in the coming sprint so that the SM can start to work on them even before the sprint has started. The Scrum master must also encourage and create an environment where the team does not hesitate in sharing suggestions which leads to experimentation and innovation.
10. Risk Management
A Scrum master should have a keen eye and observation so that he/she is able to identify and mitigate risks early. This not only helps in resolving the risks early in the project lifecycle but also prevents projects from failing. A Scrum Master must be able to recognize potential risks in sprint planning, address team capacity and plan the work accordingly. He/she must be able to work in dependencies well in advance before they become too big for the project and become a blocker. Along with this, a SM must be able to communicate risks to stakeholders as they expect to be informed about potential risks and issues, which makes it a superior way of risk mitigation.
How to Develop Scrum Master Skills?
Now that we’ve covered the essential skills of a Scrum Master, here is our take of how you can develop them:
1. Gaining Hands-on Experience in Agile Environments
The best way to learn anything is by doing it. Once you have attended the basic agile training and you think you have theoretical understanding about the role, try to become the change agent in your organization or team. Because you already have an understanding of the ceremonies and roles of Scrum and principles and values of Agile, you would automatically start noticing anti-patterns in the teams, to which you can respond by suggesting the right or different ways. You may even try to solve problems and suggest solutions to the team based on the principles and values of Agile. Express your interest in working in live projects as a scrum master, so that you can be the first option when there is a vacancy of SM’s role in the organization. You may even shadow an experienced Scrum Master or agile coach, understand what they are doing and suggest how they could do things differently and volunteer for facilitation roles in Scrum events, to kickstart.
2. Learn from Real-World Case Studies and Retrospectives
The basic work of scrum master remains the same irrespective of the industry one works in. You may explore and understand how Scrum works in different industries to enhance your problem-solving skills. You can achieve this by engaging Scrum meetups and joining the online communities of Scrum master where the problems they discuss might be different but the nature of solution can be similar and applicable to your industry as well. Alongside, you may read blogs from agile scrum consulting companies for real on-the-job insights and case studies from companies like Spotify, Google, and Atlassian and even analyze past project retrospectives.
3. Building a Mindset of Continuous Improvement
A good Scrum Master never stops learning. It’s a continuous learning journey to be a more effective and efficient scrum master. The best way is to analyse any situation and try to come up with solutions which abide by at least one of the 12 principles and 4 values of Agile. Apart from this, you can seek feedback from your teammates and continue to experiment with new facilitation techniques to improve your game as a Scrum Master.
4. Earning Scrum Certifications (CSM, PSM, SAFe)
Though earning a certification does not necessarily mean that one has become an efficient scrum master, it certainly provides a foundation of Agile ways of working and Scrum. It helps in getting clarity on the artifacts, roles and responsibilities and ceremonies of Scrum. Gaining theoretical knowledge and certification of Scrum and Agile, can definitely be a good starting point for you however, mastery of the role is an ongoing journey that requires continuous learning which comes with practicing agile and scrum. A few certifications one can go for include
Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) – Offered by Scrum Alliance
Professional Scrum Master (PSM) – From Scrum.org, with three levels of expertise
SAFe Scrum Master (SSM) – Focuses on Agile at scale
Conclusion
To become a successful Scrum Master one requires to possess a mix of technical expertise – which includes knowledge about Agile/ scrum and SDLC and other basic technical concepts, leadership skills, and ability to adapt to change. By developing essential skills, gaining hands-on experience, and ensuring that you are continuously learning, you can help the teams achieve agility so that they can deliver high-value to the customer. Whether you are just starting your journey or looking to enhance your skills, investing in Scrum Master capabilities will empower you to drive Agile success. With the right skills and mindset, a Scrum Master can empower teams, foster innovation, and drive success in the team.
With this, our blog on “Scrum Master Skills” comes to an end. We sincerely hope this has helped our readers get some clarity around it. We would be glad to discuss your unique agility adoption bottlenecks at Benzne Agile Scrum consulting and support your agile journey. Please write to us at “consult@benzne.com” for any further feedback or recommendations or in case you are looking for external coaching support.
FAQs about Scrum Master Skills
1. Is technical skill necessary for a Scrum Master?
No, it’s not necessary to have technical knowledge if you are working as a SM. While a Scrum Master doesn’t need to code, understanding software development processes, DevOps, and Agile frameworks would always give an advantage while collaborating with the development team, Product Owner and Stakeholders especially when discussing the scope of work and time required to complete it. Also, resolving the dependencies would be very easy for a scrum master if he/she has technical knowledge.
2. Can a Scrum Master work with multiple teams?
Yes, a Scrum Master can support multiple teams in an organization, but his/her effectiveness would depend on the maturity level of teams and the organizational structure. Certain scaling frameworks like SAFe or LeSS do provide guidance on handling multiple teams.
3. What are the most critical skills a Scrum Master must have?
The most critical skills would definitely include facilitation, having great communication, ability to resolve conflicts, risk management and above all an eye to details where he/ she is able to identify anti-patterns and coach team members on how to do things the right way. A SM should foster collaboration while ensuring teams adhere to Agile principles.
4. How can a Scrum Master improve their facilitation skills?
Practice makes perfect. As a scrum master, one must stay curious about how things are being done by other teams or organizations, analyse the gap, learn different ways of facilitation and try to facilitate each ceremony in a different way every time. Along with this, a Scrum Master should practice active listening, he/she can also try to use various visual collaboration tools like Miro, MURAL etc. and may even attend facilitation workshops and Agile conferences. Check materials published by Industry learning agile enablement & transformation services companies to stay up to date with latest developments and trends.
