5 Key Habits for a Savvy Scrum Master
By Erin Sless - eGuide Operations Coordinator
There’s a narrative fed to us from a young age that we must always be self-sufficient, independent leaders. Being a trailblazer is an endearing professional quality, but most teams realistically need a balance of individuals with avid organizational skills to guide and encourage others throughout the duration of a project. In fact, having a sort of conductor focused purely on making sure teams communicate and depend on each other in a healthy fashion can end up separating the best teams far beyond the others. Introducing: our savvy scrum master!
If “scrum” sounds like an alien term to you, then let’s go over some basics first. For anyone else, consider it a brief refresher!
Scrum is a project management tactic used in agile methodology that works by breaking up projects into bite-sized chunks often known as sprints.
Scrum Masters are assigned per project as a sort of “eye in the sky” to help their team keep note of important deadlines, question disparities in task specifics, celebrate successes along the way, and often help out with a bit of the project work itself.
Sprints often last around 2 weeks. Daily standups are held by Scrum Masters to talk about the ongoing details of a sprint with each new day.
Agile methodology is known for its flexibility involving partners to be involved in collaboration processes all along the path toward final delivery.
Now, let’s jump into what separates the “good” from the “scrumptious”! (sorry, not sorry)
1. Do your due diligence.
Doing your due diligence sounds simple, but it is one of the most necessary to-dos a savvy Scrum Master will have. The heaviest lifting for the project has often been parceled out, but if time frames do not make sense, then budgets, deliverables, and partners will suffer the consequences. Due diligence can entail skimming through your organization’s project management platform [ie Trello, monday.com, Asana, etc.] to check for almost due or overdue items. Follow up on items team members said they would do 2 days ago but then never brought up again. Don’t be afraid to reach out and “disrupt the peace”. Sprints will often need to be watched daily or every other day, and scrutiny at a project’s start is often the most crucial point as it begins to take flight. Tag people when you complete items. Nurture the collaborative feel to create that feeling of “us” not “I”. Know your project landscape, and keep up with it as it grows and changes!
2. Keep up with consistent communication.
Do you ever put off doing something for a couple of days, then worry about it multiple times throughout these days, then end up completing the task in about 15 minutes once you finally get down to it? Could be vacuuming your living room, but it could also be project work. While one could chalk this up to a self-discipline issue, a big factor to ease the mental burden of a worrisome task is communication. Perhaps a task’s verbiage is confusing and unclear. Are you waiting for someone else to complete something and are just sitting around waiting? The longer you let time pass, the worse things will be when you finally find out that it was indeed you who needed to “do the thing”.
I’d like to think that most people have constant ongoing inner monologues going on at any given time where they are tossing and turning over the details of their day-to-day lives. I know I do, and I have found that things that can get built up internally and slow me down are often eased over when brought to the attention of others. A savvy scrum master should be aware of team members who seem quiet or a bit off when going over tasks in the morning standup. “Just checking in” can always go a long way, as a team member might need help or clarification. Trust your instincts! Also, communication is not synonymous with scrutiny. Validation should be part of the ebb and flow of consistent communication.
3. Gain comprehensive knowledge.
Some Scrum Masters may be slightly removed from the bulk of the project work, but that does not mean they have to keep themselves from knowing the “whys” behind their project. The key to this game is awareness. If you are working with a school system and they suddenly go dark for a couple of weeks, well, there could be a calendared holiday that is a blocker. Don’t press down on the team for the failures of missing deadlines without having check-ins with them first. Give them the benefit of the doubt and come from a place of understanding. One easy way to keep up with this knowledge is to hold weekly updates meetings. While morning standups quickly glaze over all projects on a docket, this meeting would be separate and focused entirely on one project. These can be 15 minutes (just like a typical standup). Now, another avenue has opened to encourage collaboration, communication, and knowledge sharing. Neat!
4. Celebrate the victories- big and small.
The easiest ways to celebrate are of course at that photo-finish, big reveal moment. Everyone has eyes on you, you did it, hooray!!
But wait.
We’re not here just for those big wins, and you, as a savvy scrum master, know that more than anyone! We often need more emotional support on a Tuesday at 2 pm versus a Saturday at 5 pm, amiright? So, it is your job as the Scrum Master to keep eye on those little wins. Celebrate all those little “yay” moments in standups, especially when one team member finally checks that box on the task that took her 4 days longer than planned due to popup project blockers. Every new sprint, new phase, and new development is a win. We may not always be able to achieve a zen-office-feel, as things can often end up a tad chaotic throughout the course of a project. However, we can provide motivation and validation wherever possible. Little moments amount to the bigger ones. Be there for your team as a source of positivity and support to keep that daily pep amidst all those project steps.
5. Seek clarity and keep questioning.
We don’t need Avril Lavigne’s “Complicated” playing on repeat in the background of our work days. If a task seems confusing, ask about it. If a process seems misaligned based on knowledge from a prior project, be open and share. Chances are, there might be a need for a deeper level of understanding across the board. Don’t skirt around a big task, dive right into it with questions and open dialogue. What does “complete” look like, and how can we get there together? Confidence going into each new day will cut down time spent wondering and increase time spent doing. Keep mantras positive: we can do everything we need to do, or we can seek the resources that will help us get where we’re going.
Hopefully, this helps you to be the Scrum Master you wish to see in the world. Happy Scrumming!
Interested in learning more about Scrum methodologies and how we apply them at eGuide? Reach out to us anytime for more information!
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