Levi Jansen, Negosentro | You are not the project manager, nor are you accountable for the outcome of the project, yet you hold power enough to remove the impediments during the course of the project. Yes! Right. You are the Scrum Master of your team.
Scrum Master is, in other words, the servant leader of a team. They do not hold any positions within the group nor accountability but are an integral part of the team. Since they hold no position and at times, may not even be a team member but are yet, appointed the Scrum Master by the team or the company, one question arises many times, “what should they do to ensure the successful working of the team?”
For one to be a successful Scrum Master one has to undergo proper training and certification to understand the know-how of the project. When one wants to have a deeper and clear understanding of any industry, they have to undergo CSM certification; that is a must for being hired as a Scrum Master.
Here are 8 tips that will help you become the best and successful Scrum Master in your chosen industry.
- Have a clear definition of ‘done’.
As a Scrum Master, it is your job to see how the job is done and if every team member is clear with the meaning of the term ‘done’. Set guidelines that will help each team member to determine if all the specifications have been met and the product is ready as per the requirement. They should be clear with the quality checks and know if the work is done as expected.
- Focus should be on one project only.
A good Scrum Master can lead many teams at a time but a great Scrum Master puts his/her focus on only one project at one given point of time. The focus is on only one project so that the team members are able to make it successful without many glitches.
- Help remove impediments.
The first job of a Scrum Master is to make things easier for the team. They have to ensure that the team is not having any difficulties and are able to attend to their needs. It becomes their responsibility to remove the glitches and difficulties that the team may be facing and smoothen out any of the wrinkles in the working of the team.
- Know the team personally.
Try and know your team on a personal level. Find out their strengths and weaknesses, their interests and hobbies, little about their personal lives and so on. This will help you in developing interpersonal relations with your team and also motivate them to work better.
- Simplify things.
As a Scrum Master, it is your duty to ensure that things are simplified and clear in order to optimize the quality of the team and acquire quality work from the team members. It is better to avoid complex processes and functions. Make sure that all the processes are simplified so that the team is able to achieve high-quality work and ultimately, best end results.
- Make sure there is continuous self-improvement
The task of the Scrum Master is to ensure that the team is on the trail of continuous self-improvement process. This is done by retrospection and as the Scrum Master, it is your responsibility to see that the team is able to find ways to better the process based on their experiences. It is you who has to motivate them to reflect on the process at all times in the duration of the project.
- Communication is the key.
The more and more the Scrum Master communicates with his team, there are better chances of the success of the Scrum project and high-quality work. The Scrum Master has to have clear guidelines on the goals of the project and also, has to frequently, remind the team members of the same. He/she has to make sure that the development team, the product owners and also the stakeholders are updated on regular basis and have complete information about the on-going project.
- See if you are following the agile principles.
As a Scrum Master, it becomes your responsibility to make sure that the team is following the agile principles. Since you have coached the team to the agile principles, it is better to keep re-visiting the principles and reminding the team of the same. You have to make sure that project is moving in sync with the agile principles and guidelines.
It may look difficult to keep your team focused but that is not the case if you stay in focus and have a clear picture of the goals that need to be achieved. You need to be able to motivate your team, respect the team dynamics and create a self-organizing team.
