{"id":31,"date":"2019-01-31T13:29:15","date_gmt":"2019-01-31T13:29:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.agilesense.co.za\/discussion\/blog\/?p=31"},"modified":"2025-01-30T19:21:25","modified_gmt":"2025-01-30T19:21:25","slug":"scrum-master-role-and-capacity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.agilesense.co.za\/discussion\/blog\/2019\/01\/31\/scrum-master-role-and-capacity\/","title":{"rendered":"Scrum-Master Role and Capacity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I have been contemplating the role and\ncapacity of the ScrumMaster for some time now and wanted to pen something down\nbefore my elusive memory fails me again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It seems that there are a lot of confusion\nand misconceptions on the activities and capacity of this specific and important Scrum role in the industry. This\npaper will try to alleviate some of these concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Typical Scrum Team<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In my current position as ScrumMaster at Fundamo, I am the \u201cservant leader\u201d for over 2 development teams. There are about 7 developers per team of which one is a tester, and one is an architect specialization. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Where it comes to Agile maturity these\nteams score quite high (8 out of 10) as they have been exposed to a true Agile\nenvironment, mostly due to our Agile evangelist and Development Manager, Karen\nGreaves. When it comes to technical maturity,\nwe do not score that high as we have been employing some new graduates and junior developers for our teams.&nbsp; The product that we develop is on face value\nnot that complex, but when it comes to implementation and architecture it is\nquite complicated, and it takes some time\nbefore new people gain sufficient domain knowledge to be truly productive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Questions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Given this information and looking at my\nattached mind-map image of the activities of a ScrumMaster, would you say that my days are fully occupied by these activities?\nHopefully\u2026 yes!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The questions I like to put about the ScrumMaster\nrole, and his capacity is more related to\nan idealistic environment where Scrum knowledge and implementation in the teams\nare closer to a 10 out of 10 and where\nyou deal with technically very mature teams as well.&nbsp;\nI have 2 questions on the image\nsketched above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Is this utopian ideal a fa\u00e7ade or can it be achieved?<\/li><li>If achievable, will it make the work or function of the ScrumMaster redundant?<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s take the first question and have a\ncloser look at it and see if we can make it stick. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Scenario:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Let\u2019s\nsay I am Mr Bill Ionaire and my resources are unlimited, and I have this super-duper product that I want\nto develop in an Agile fashion. Firstly I can recruit and head-hunt the cream\nof the crop with fantastic Agile and technical skills to develop this product for me. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>As\nthese teams are so well organised they\ndecide that they do not need a ScrumMaster, but\nthey will adhere to all other Scum rules, practices and events. They have\nagreed among themselves that they will make bookings in their calendars when\nthe necessary meetings are held, and they will take it from there. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>After\na month and 2 sprints in the pocket, they have their second retrospective.\nThe findings are:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<table class=\"wp-block-table aligncenter\"><tbody><tr><td>\n  <strong>Good Stuff<\/strong>\n  <\/td><td>\n  <strong>Improvements<\/strong>\n  <\/td><\/tr><tr><td>\n  Delivered all committed stories\n  <\/td><td>\n  All Good\n  <\/td><\/tr><tr><td>\n  Establishing a good velocity\n  <\/td><td>\n  &nbsp;\n  <\/td><\/tr><tr><td>\n  Getting to know one another well\u2026\n  <\/td><td>\n  &nbsp;\n  <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n<p>What did they not say? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Chris\nwho was a star at his previous company is now being\noutshone by some other senior developers and is not getting all the\nattention now that he was used to and is, therefore, losing his motivation.\nMike is a bit of an introvert and is not speaking up easily and is, therefore, finding himself picking up tasks that he believes are\ninferior to his capabilities and he feels not as useful as he did before. Evan\nis the most outspoken and secretly thinks\nhe is the star in the team, and he does\nnot realise that other team members are becoming a bit irritated with his\nknow-it-all attitude. Susan the developer who specializes\nin testing and love quality assurance, is, in fact, a genius and is also very\nfrustrated as she believes the\narchitecture is poorly designed, but she\nis afraid to speak up as she does not specialize in architecture and as a\nsoft-spoken woman she feels a bit out of place to challenge the architecture.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Scenario Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This scenario above is already a shaken nest\nof hornets waiting to erupt. So looking more closely at the situation and also taking cognisance of the\nfact that the generation X and Y developers have a much higher tendency to\nleave companies than the baby boomers, we see that churn in Mr Bill Ionaire\u2019s\nutopian company will also be unavoidable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Where does it leave us with our questions\nregarding the ScrumMaster? All of the above issues were human related. The cost\nof gaining domain knowledge again, because of churn is human related. The\nresult of not taking action on the scenario above will be devastating for the\nteam. Either the team will magically resolve these human issues (very unlikely), or\nit will be bottled up and result in unpowered working conditions (demotivated\nteam members) or resignations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Besides the human factor, all sorts of other failings start to manifest in these\nteams. As the team starts getting less motivated,\nthey lose their grip on the somewhat 36 Scrum rules. The biggest Scrum practice of self-organisation also begins to suffer. With all of this happening Bill starts nosing in\nthe business of the teams to see what is going on, and why they are not\ndelivering according to the previous\nvelocity anymore. This in itself, disempowers the teams\neven further, and the negativity\ncontinues to escalate. What does this translate to for Mr Bill Ionaire? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Less motivated team with\n      serious issues.\n   <\/li><li>\n      A high churn in employees. \n      <ul>\n         <li>High training and up-skilling costs in domain knowledge for new\n            employees.\n         <\/li>\n      <\/ul>\n   <\/li><li>Lower quality of software.<\/li><li>\n      Divided work responsibility as\n      some members will inevitably have to do some of the ScrumMaster functions.\n      <ul>\n         <li>Divided attention leads to less\n            motivation.\n         <\/li>\n      <\/ul>\n   <\/li><li>\n      Potential of unhappy customers.\n      <ul>\n         <li>Loss of credibility and income.<\/li>\n      <\/ul>\n   <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ScrumMaster&#8217;s so called capacity<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Truthfully, the ScrumMaster has the\npotential to hide behind process and not be effective as he can be, but true Agile teams will quickly expose these\nfrauds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;A\ngood ScrumMaster should run at full capacity. He is always endeavouring and\nlooking for ways to make the team better. If it is not the case, it could mean:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol>\n   <li>The ScrumMaster does not\n      understand his role correctly and needs to get training.\n   <\/li>\n   <li>\n      The wrong person is in the\n      position. \n      <ul>\n         <li>Only Delivery Focus \u2013 This is a\n            most dangerous position, as a person who is only\n            focused on delivery and not the individual, will seriously harm the\n            Scrum team. \n         <\/li>\n      <\/ul>\n      <ul>\n         <li>Does not like people \u2013 A\n            ScrumMaster must \u201cLOVE\u201d working with people and get involved, if applicable, in\n            team members\u2019 lives. \n         <\/li>\n      <\/ul>\n      <ul>\n         <li>Laziness \u2013 The ScrumMaster role\n            is a <em>proactive<\/em> role. Apathy could be a sign of not understanding the\n            position, which might indicate further training or it could mean that this\n            person is\u2026 lazy. J In\n            this case, serious action should be considered.\n         <\/li>\n      <\/ul>\n   <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Other reasons why SMs are need in mature teams<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The ScrumMaster is the valid instrument to encourage change; inspect\nand adapt.<\/li><li>The SM\/Agile coach creates\nvalue by just by being available. In the absence\nof SM, the team does not have a\ngo-to person to sort out obstacles.<\/li><li>Somebody outside the team is\nrequired to remove impediments. Team members cannot take on other soft and\ndiverse tasks, which are not related to development. It is distracting, and they will lose focus.<\/li><li>The SM is responsible for\ncomplete transparency in the team and facilitating all meetings and events.<\/li><li>The SM needs to protect the\nteam from unnecessary interruptions from\nPOs and other stakeholders.<\/li><li>The SM needs to motivate self-organisation at all times so that\nthe team can become even more productive.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"563\" height=\"334\" src=\"http:\/\/www.agilesense.co.za\/discussion\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/ag3.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-49\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.agilesense.co.za\/discussion\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/ag3.png 563w, https:\/\/www.agilesense.co.za\/discussion\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/ag3-300x178.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 563px) 100vw, 563px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The picture above depicts a team that has achieved a good level of Agile maturity over time. This team has three directions to go. Either they can continue bettering themselves; they can flat-line or go on the downward curve and decrease productivity. No company would want to jeopardise a good development team; therefore it is clear that to extract the SM (who had helped the team to get to this point) will undoubtedly lead to a downward spiral in productivity.<\/li><li>In mature agile teams, the role and function of the SM are all the more important not only from keeping the team from regressing but also to further push for higher productivity.<\/li><li>Another very important fact is that the SM needs to be involved in a continuous learning process, especially when the team becomes mature, as it becomes more difficult to achieve a higher productivity rate at point X. Therefore SM continuous improvement needs to be in line with the team\u2019s improvement<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So to answer the first question: \u201cIs this\nutopian ideal of a perfect Scrum team a fa\u00e7ade or can it actually be achieved?\u201d The answer is \u201cNO\u201d. If\none is saying \u201cyes\u201d, that person is also likely to say there are perfect people roaming the globe currently. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The SCRUM ideal is for one, a philosophy,\nas it pertains more to people than the actual technology developed. Moreover, if things can go wrong with people\nwho develop this technology, you will never have that perfect Scrum team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Moreover, to answer the second question\u2026\nAs we said this perfect Scrum Team is not\nattainable, it, therefore, follows logically, that a ScrumMaster will always be\nneeded. Even if this Utopia was attainable; the amount of activities that the\nScrumMaster gets involved in, scream out for a separate role. Developers will\nget hugely frustrated dividing and interrupting their workload with activities\nless technical belonging in the ScrumMaster space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If any company, who has bought into Agile\nand Scrum, tries to run Scrum without a ScrumMaster, they are setting\nthemselves up for potential failure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Introduction I have been contemplating the role and capacity of the ScrumMaster for some time now and wanted to pen &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.agilesense.co.za\/discussion\/blog\/2019\/01\/31\/scrum-master-role-and-capacity\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Scrum-Master Role and Capacity&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":79,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.agilesense.co.za\/discussion\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.agilesense.co.za\/discussion\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.agilesense.co.za\/discussion\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.agilesense.co.za\/discussion\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.agilesense.co.za\/discussion\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.agilesense.co.za\/discussion\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51,"href":"https:\/\/www.agilesense.co.za\/discussion\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions\/51"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.agilesense.co.za\/discussion\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.agilesense.co.za\/discussion\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.agilesense.co.za\/discussion\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.agilesense.co.za\/discussion\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}