What is a Scrum Master?
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Scrum Master, in simple words, is a role within the Scrum Framework. Scrum framework is an agile approach to build product incrementally and iteratively. Scrum is the most popular framework on the name of agile. Many people get confused between agile and scrum. Scrum is the most popular way to be agile but again, it is not the only way to be agile. The popularity of scrum reflects on its role as well and that is why scrum master training is essential.
What Does Scrum Master Do?
As said above, Scrum Masters are caretakers of the scrum, who help others to do the job better and help the team to stay focused on the goal. Here is how they do it: –
Adopt Scrum values and processes:– It is the scrum master’s responsibility to help the team understand scrum processes and values. Ensure that the team practices scrum in the right way and understand why it is important to practice the right way. They make sure artifacts such as product backlog, sprint backlog, and product increment are transparent. Also, facilitate all inspection and adapt events as needed/requested.
Facilitation: – This is a big responsibility, especially when the scrum team is autonomous. Scrum masters need various approaches for facilitating learning opportunities, conflict management, and stakeholder engagement, etc.
Coaching: Coaching is a professional skill, quite challenging to master. Yet, there are various learning paths to help you to achieve mastering in this. Scrum master coaches individual teams and practices. Hence, this goes beyond regular coaching and there’s a need to master in system coaching as well as scaling practices
Mentoring: Mentoring is an informal approach to help individuals and teams in achieving the goal. This is a continuous process as the goal keeps changing for the team as it gains maturity.
How to Become a Scrum Master?
Becoming a good scrum master requires continuous learning and that usually starts with learning scrum processes. Learning scrum processes begins with attending Scrum Master Training and the journey continues.
I suggest you follow the below simple and easy process to get Scrum Certifed:
- Enrol for 2 days Scrum Master Course
- Register for your certification exam within 90 days of training
- Take and pass the exam by getting a score at least 85%
- Update your certification
Career Path for Scrum Master
This is a tricky question. Since scrum master is a role and not a hierarchical title, explaining where or how far you will go in the role of a scrum master is a difficult task. However, many suggest that the scrum master can become an agile coach but I believe scrum master is already an agile coach. Although, there are many exciting roles available outside such as director – agile transformation, agile transformation lead, change manager and agile COE head etc.
Should I Try for a Scrum Master Job?
Again, it is more a role than a job, so be careful about it. I strongly advise everyone to make the decision based on your liking. If you love coaching and mentoring then go for it. If otherwise, learn and play this role as per demand within your organisation like Scrum Master for one product but be ready to be a part of the development team in the next product if it is motivating. You may play the role of the product owner as well if you are really passionate about the product that you are going to lead.
The Biggest Challenge For Scrum Master
Many scrum masters fail to explain what they do and what are their day to day activities. Not having a clear idea leads to part-time scrum mastery and this could be worse. The part-time role doesn’t take you anywhere so be clear about it before you take the challenge. This is not just a role transition from project manager to the scrum master. In fact, project managers are more suited for product owner roles than the scrum master role.
