Role Spotlight – Scrum Master

For a Scrum Master, there are never two identical days. The Scrum Master will go through all of the highs and lows of the team, its members, and finished products as part of their role as the Scrum spirit and Team guardian.

While failures, as well as successes, are shared, the key function of assisting and supporting the scrum team is carried out by the scrum master. They are a leader who encourages a secure setting for development and quick learning. Naturally, a well-functioning team will require considerably less instruction from a Scrum Master about agile ideals and principles than a new team.

This article provides an illustration of how a Scrum Master’s day may look near the conclusion of a Sprint. In this particular scenario, the Product Owner has finished and approved the Sprint Planning. The team has begun working on its committed Sprint Backlog and agreed-upon Sprint Goal. The Sprint Review is only a couple of days away. The burndown chart has some obstacles despite initially showing promise.

8:30 am – Start off the Day Right with Some Personal Focus

As a scrum master, you want to be accessible to people and be there for them when they need you, but you also need to care for yourself. It’s critical to get out to a strong start in order to sustain yourself so that you can later make room for others. Dealing with your anxieties and problems first is a simple way to release them. To be focused and ready for the day ahead with a clean inbox and a clear mind, review your calendar for appointments, respond to emails, and handle any pending requests.

9:00 am – Team Spirit and Daily Spirit

It is time to gather for the daily stand up meeting. This is a crucial everyday activity where you will see a lot of nonverbal cues and evaluate the Scrum Team’s level of cooperation. The team is supposed to own this occasion, and the scrum master is supposed to keep it safe. Therefore, you want to reward acceptable behavior while formally criticizing inappropriate behavior. The scrum master actively hears each person’s updates and considers how they might assist the team in resolving any blocking or time-consuming problems.

9:15 am – Impediment Removal and Sprint Focus

People are regrouped during the Daily Scrum, thus a scrum master can naturally take advantage of this. After the Daily Scrum, they may work with the team to go a little deeper into blocks to identify their causes or potential solutions. The group’s collective brain may then be used to develop innovative and encouraging ideas to move things along. In order to assist the team to narrow their focus on their objectives, the scrum master provides input and raises questions about actions that go beyond the scope of the sprint goals.

10:30 am – Catch-up with the Product Owner for Visibility and Clarity

For the Scrum Team to have a cohesive and sound leadership toward market and product success, the Scrum Master and the Product Owner relationship is essential. This relationship needs time and intentional work to grow. An excellent way is to get together and discuss upcoming tasks, the product’s focus, and how to make this clear to the scrum team. It entails working closely on the Product Backlog items while combining the knowledge and customer information of the Product Owner, and the Scrum Master’s familiarity with the developers. This might be as simple as evaluating the Sprint priorities. Consequently, the team will be better able to align their goals and operate more effectively together.

12:00 pm – Improving Facilitation Skills and Sharing Knowledge

It’s usually a good idea to shake up your daily routine over lunch, whether it’s through meeting new people or by simply being around familiar ones. Talking to peers can allow Scrum Masters to receive feedback or fresh concepts, such as how to manage regular Scrum Events. It’s crucial to keep them interesting and varied. Share your information, suggestions, and opinions with others when you have the opportunity to do so during breaks or meals. Don’t be scared to let others hear your views. Additionally, you might utilize the time to try facilitation methods with which you’re not yet familiar.

2:00 pm – Get Rid of Obstacles to Ensure Operational Ease

To make decision-making, alignment, and approval processes easier for team members confronting obstacles outside of the Scrum team, it is a good idea to connect and cultivate connections. The Scrum Master can then devote their own time to building relationships and advocating others the priorities and good intentions of their team. Attending a “Scrum of Scrums” is one way to do this while listening to other teams’ dependencies and goals while sharing obstacles and burdens. Alternatively, it could only entail seeing someone who is in charge of the supporting platform’s general design or infrastructure for coffee. This might make the road to production easier and bring continuous delivery closer.

3:00pm – Team Bonding

A productive team is a fantastic thing, but we frequently overlook opportunities to interact personally outside of work. Team-building exercises will effectively combine purposeful learning with gaming, which the Scrum Master understands. It could be just a little friendly game to lighten the mood and strengthen current and new bonds amongst team members. Additionally, the group might get invaluable knowledge about how to collaborate. In fact, your team will act organically in the same way they always do, but maybe in an enhanced fashion. So during the debriefing, pinpoint behaviors to allow them to learn as a team.

4:00 pm – Journaling

An essential task for a Scrum Master is journaling. It has numerous advantages, including helping the Scrum Master gain perspective, facilitating data collection for reporting or follow-up retrospectives, and maintaining a qualitative record of the team’s and product’s growth. By reading over your diary, you could discover that you’ve already tried to address a similar problem or look at how you’ve run an event before, allowing you to draw on your prior successes to make the next one even better. Every Scrum Master is urged to engage in this practice since it fosters resilience and awareness. If done regularly, it may become quite natural to take notes and photos to document how any scenario is changing. One such habit is to photograph the Scrum board daily.

5:00pm – Community Focus

A Scrum Master’s learning is deepened by giving back. Additionally, it is a real strategy for strengthening any organization’s community of practice, both inside and outside. As a professional Scrum Master, setting up a time to attend to, interact with others, and contribute is crucial. If you do not have a community, you can create one from scratch or join an existing one. Keep your passion in the foreground and your ego in the background. Don’t be afraid to share your ideas, challenges, and complaints. Someone is undoubtedly going through the same thing or can reveal their route. It is a simple approach to get suggestions for improving the way you operate. Let Ambient Consulting help in finding your next Scrum Master position. Visit our career portal to find current opportunities or submit your resume to start a relationship with our recruiting team today.