It hurts to see how some companies treat the Scrum Master position as though it were a simple exchangeable commodity. an expense that can be cut and a generic input. They are frequently considered more as scribes and bureaucrats than important enablers for producing greater economic outcomes. As a result, the Team Greatness with Agile Scrum Master position is frequently seen as a dead end with no room for advancement. Check out a good Agile Scrum master certification course to learn more about the Scrum master position.
The Commodity Attitude and Agility
This commodity mentality is terrible for the person who holds it and is economically constricting for the business. This mentality deprives the company of the Scrum Master’s and one of Agile’s core value propositions: improved financial results from our method of working.
The first statement of the Agile Manifesto, “Individuals and interactions over processes and tools,” highlights the significant impact that our methods of collaboration have on the results.
From research and study it is discovered that how individuals collaborate is a major factor in effective outcomes (from Scottish coal miners in the 1950s to NUMMI, the joint Toyota-GM venture in the 1980s, and even on nuclear submarines).
Agile as a Competitive Advantage
The Scrum Master role is typically focused on the Team Greatness with Agile method of operation in Agile frameworks. Our manner of working is not seen as a competitive advantage when we treat our scrum masters like commodities equally interchangeably and a cost to be cut.
Unfortunately, in a volatile, unpredictable, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world, commodity cultures have difficulty recognizing and reacting to opportunities and dangers. Commodity cultures struggle to use change for financial gain.
So, how do we de-commodify the Scrum Master role and recognize the value this role delivers if we think our style of working gives us a competitive advantage?
Here are five guidelines for de-commodifying the Scrum Master role and turning it into a contributor to Agile success:
1.Understanding What the Scrum Master’s Role IS NOT
Let’s start by making it quite clear that the Team Greatness with Agile Scrum Master is not an administrator who schedules meetings for people. They are not a scribe recording such meetings for a project manager to read. And without a doubt, they are not a project manager giving orders and allocating duties to the group.
2.Understanding What the Scrum Master’s Role IS
Helping the team function as a unit rather than a collection of individuals who just so happen to work together is their responsibility. Their task is to guide them in realising their potential as a team.
The Scrum Master function is largely a coaching one, and organisations must recognize this. The coaching relationship is one of closeness with the team and is greatly influenced by personality types. A person who is a rock star with one squad may not be as successful with another. Even if a team member is being considered for the position of Scrum Master, the team should be able to interview the candidate.
3.Position the Scrum Master Role as an Opportunity for Advancement
Third, the Team Greatness with Agile Scrum master position must be viewed as a chance to grow one’s career by honing excellent coaching and facilitation abilities. Whether a person sees themselves as a manager or a senior engineer, they are necessary abilities for anyone seeking a leadership position in an organisation. Leaders must understand that the goal is to make people great, not to make themselves look good.
The Scrum Master position is a fantastic starting point for acquiring those abilities. By mentoring and guiding internal Scrum Masters, contract Scrum Masters can assist an organisation to begin its Agile journey while bringing valuable new talents into the workplace. However, a Scrum Master should be someone who is motivated to further their career in order for an agile firm to actually grow.
4.Acknowledge That the Scrum Master is Not Always a Full-Time Role
Fourth, the job description for a scrum master shouldn’t be a full-time position.
For a freshly created team to move through the four stages of the Tuckman curve (forming, storming, norming, and performing) more quickly, full-time coaching may be necessary. The expectations of the Scrum Master for direct teaching will lessen when the team starts working together as a unit.
It is preferable that a qualified team member with leadership ambitions is to be granted a 50% break from their regular duties in order to carry out this function. A Scrum Master may oversee many teams in other businesses.
5.Delegate the Running of the Team to the Scrum Master and Their Team
Fifth, give the Scrum Masters and their team ownership of the team’s method of operation.
Too many businesses are overly preoccupied with “maturity,” which is frequently coded for slavish adherence to a centralised structure or technique. Constant improvement is hampered by this compliance mindset. Team Greatness with Agile is about recognizing and adapting to change, and this also applies to the method of working. Agile framework practices are an excellent place to start, but they were never meant to be a methodological prison. After all, the purpose of retrospectives is to enhance our methods of operating.
A discipline of “improvement experiments” can act as a crucial safety net for the development of the teams’ methods of operation. The team will most critically require time and space to concentrate on enhancing their way of working after they have taken ownership of it. It won’t take place “after hours”.
Conclusion
To be a Scrum master is to be respected and responsible. If you aspire to be one, check out the Scrum Master training to learn.
