Scrum master role

The scrum master role is a very important part of scrum and the KSP. Although you do not stand between the team and the customer, you have a responsibility about managing expectations, tracking and reporting progress, arranging and facilitating meetings and most important of all; make sure the customer as well as the team follows the guidelines of the Kabisa Success Process.

Facilitating meetings

Planning

The scrum master is the one that arranges the planning meeting and makes sure everybody is attending. Also you have a responsibility about managing expectations, as in making sure the commitment factual and the stories that are taken into the sprint planning meet the definition of ready[1] and are actionable.

read more about sprint planning

Review

Although the scrum master is not the one facilitating this meeting, he is the one that makes sure there is a review / demo meeting. Also he should be checking with the product owner[2] which stakeholders should be present. Inviting stakeholders is part of the job of a product owner.

read more about sprint reviews

Retrospective[3]

This is your thing… We won’t say your life should evolve around scrum and the Kabisa Success Process but, in your role as a scrum master, you should always strive to make things better. You are facilitating and controlling this meeting and you are also the one that should make sure things actually get better and coach your team members, or request help from your KSP Captain.

read more about sprint retrospectives

Refinement

In the week when there is no planning, review & retro meeting there should be a refinement meeting. Besides making sure that this meeting takes place, you should also monitor and, if its needed, report or even escalate the results.

read more about backlog refinement

Daily stand-up[4]

Every day there should be a daily stand-up with the team. At least every developer that is working on the project that day should be attending, but you might also want the product owner there. The scrum master makes sure everybody follows the ground rules of the daily stand-up.

read more about daily stand-ups

Managing expectations

In the end, the whole success of a project heavily depends on the expectations of a customer versus the delivered results of a team. The scrum master has a role in managing expections during sprints. You should make sure the commitment that is given is reasonable and can actually be delivered. Also you should be the one to identify, handle and report impediments. When the commitment of a sprint is at risk, you should immediately report this to the product owner, but you should also make sure the impediment is handled (e.g. making sure it is handled is not the same are actually being the one that is handling it). At the daily stand-up, you should tell the team about the progress during the sprint and challenge the team about the commitment (e.g. is it stil realistic?) and report back to the product owner when its not!

For more information about (giving) commitment, see here.

Notes

  1. Definition of Ready - A shared understanding of expectations that the story is actionable
  2. Product Owner - The Product Owner plays a crucial role in the development of a great software product. He or she is responsilble for maintaining the Product Backlog.
  3. Retrospective - Sprint ceremony about improving the process
  4. Stand-up - Team meets 15 min about: What have you done, what are you going to do today, any blocking issues? The team reviews the progress towards the sprint goal.