Day Today Activities
Checking on the team space
Checking if everything is going fine could be a good start. Scrum master observes the team space to check if there are any infrastructure issues, anyone not able to work because of IDs locked out or zoom ID suspended etc. Scrum Master not necessarily checks with everyone however observation technique should be enough. If people are working remotely just a message on a messaging tool such as whatsapp could be enough.
Sometimes human being related issues could affect. Resignations, unplanned leaves, sickness, demotivated team members could be some examples. It might be worthwhile for the Scrum Master to think about some suggestions that he/she might make to the developers or product owner during the day.
Observation of Burn downs, Scrum Boards, impediment boards, happiness index
Observation of day to day boards, missing updates on scrum boards, deviations etc might be some good points for the Developers to talk to each other in the daily Scrum. If the developers don’t bring it up then politely coach them to discuss the deviations and what help they may need to bring things back on track.
Facilitation of Daily scrum
Scrum Master does not run the daily scrum. However, Scrum Master must ensure that the daily scrum happens and developers know the intent.
Many of the times daily scrums become a “show-off” forum for many people. Scrum Master must get the daily scrum back on track while ensuring people don’t get upset for stopping them. Saying things like
“Hey Vinay, looks like you have done really substantial work on this aspect. Why don’t we have a coffee to discuss the same after the daily scrum. Anyone who wants to join is welcome”.
“Hey Dilip and Madhavi, it looks like you both are having a great conversation. Why don’t you do this after daily Scrum and I would also like to join the conversation if you both are ok? Anyone else wants to join the discussion, you are welcome as long as Dilip and Madhavi are ok”
Using facilitation techniques such as round-robin or tossing the ball after 30 seconds, those who have impediments first should speak etc could be good techniques.
Causing Impediment removal
There may be some impediments identified which the team may not be able to solve themselves. It might be worth contacting the right persons in the organization who may help with impediment removal.
Facilitating Product Backlog Refinements
Many times Product Owner and Developers come unprepared for Sprint Planning Events. This ends up being an understanding-of-requirements forum. Sprint Planning should be quick and should focus on any remaining clarifications. Understanding of what needs to be done over the next or next-to-next sprint should happen in a structured way in the form of product backlog refinement activity. While Scrum does not suggest any specific formats or timelines, it is worthwhile for Scrum Master to discuss it out with Product Owner and Developers on a frequency and format to understand the future. It is then worthwhile for Scrum Master to keep reminding the Product Owner and Developers on having the activity at a decided frequency to ensure that the Product Backlog is ready enough for the next couple of sprints.
Coaching, Mentoring, Teaching the Scrum Team
Scrum Team members need help on various things on a day-to-day basis. They might get stuck on a problem (technical or non-technical). Scrum Master may wear a teacher hat if he/she knows the direct solution. Scrum Master may wear a mentor hat if direct solution is not known but if Scrum Master has faced similar problems in the past and help the team solve the problem using the experience. Sometimes if the solution is neither known to Scrum Master or to the Scrum Team, then one can wear the coaching hat and ask probing questions to lead the Scrum team to answers.
Creating a safe environment and remove fear for failure
Many organizations look at failures negatively and there is a culture of punishing failures. On a day-to-day basis, removal of fear is an important activity. If there is a fear for failure then encouraging and motivating is an ongoing activity. Ensuring that team members don’t get exposed even if the failure happens is important. If the culture of punishing failures is not removed, people don’t try things and always take a safe route. This inhibits innovation and risk taking abilities.
Creating a culture of Self Management
Team members often wait for directions from seniors. Discussing and talking it out with people on self management is extremely important. On a day-to-day basis it has to be discussed with the Scrum Team on the importance of managing their own taks, allocating their own tasks, alignment of team members to goals etc. Scrum Master’s job is to get the team self managed and in fact not increase dependency on self.
Activities at a Weekly, Sprint Level, as-required or Ad-hoc basis
Facilitating Scrum Events
Scrum Master has to ensure that the Scrum Events happen and people know the essence of them. Other than the Daily Scrum (which is a daily event), Sprint Planning, Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective are events which must happen in every Sprint.
Coaching, Mentoring, Teaching the organizational players
Organizational players such as customers, management, HR, Administration may not be aware about Scrum, Agile or its benefits. For example, some management’s take adhoc decision of using some framework such as Scrum. They may not know why they are doing it. HR might take decisions on individual rewards model not knowing what are the implications of individual rewards in a collaborative environment.
Facilitating Release Planning
Workshop may have to be facilitated between stakeholders, Product Owner and Developers to plan releases. Scrum Master’s job is to make sure this happens and things don’t progress in an ad-hoc fashion.
Change Agent for the organization
Scrum requires organizational change in the way people think. Scrum master may have to teach or mentor organizational elements on what thought process change is required. For example the managers are used to pushing more work. Scrum Master may have to mentor or teach managers on why the pushing may in-fact be detrimental to the success of the team.
Facilitating communication with managers
Managers many times indulge in ad hoc requests which may cause flow problems for the teams. Evaluating, discussing, negotiating with managers might be required many of the times. Developers might not be equipped to speak up due to various issues such as cultures, customer-vendor relationships, unrealistic service levels etc.
Relationship Management
Causing Impediment removal for your team might be easier said than done. People help you because you help others. Scrum Master is a lot about relationship management. Other Scrum Masters might need help from you. Checking if you can extend help to others may be a good idea. One must ensure that you don’t go overboard on providing help. However , if you don’t do it then why would anyone extend help when you need it for your team.
Tools and techniques demonstrations
Looking at the day to day should instigate the scrum master to find out possible ways to improve productivity and reduce routine repetitive work. Finding out from other teams, other organization’s or researching may give some ideas for the Scrum Master to suggest to the Scrum Team. These tools and techniques demonstrations or presentations can be arranged for the Scrum Team.
Awareness about what is going on around
Catering to organization invites for what is happening in the organization is necessary. If you are not aware about what is going on then how would you know what to offer to your team?
Team Building activities
Scrum cadence introduces a lot of stress for people. Relieving stress via some team building activities may be a good idea to arrange for the team.
Creating and Nurturing communities
Impediment solving is easier said than done. Impediments are solved by a community of people and not by individuals. Nurturing communities and connecting people is the easiest way of solving problems. Scrum Masters of different teams should connect with each other and create communities for collaboration. This could be based on skills or cultures or regions. Many organizations call these guilds.
Preparing for attritions or career moves
Attrition, job-moves, role-changes are part and parcel of real life. As a Scrum Master one must facilitate knowledge sharing sessions, prevent formation of silo cultures, prevent the hero cultures in organizations. Honing and getting the new generation ready as team members move from one role to another has to be a well planned process. This requires facilitating with managers and Product Owner for budgets to onboard new trainees, training budgets, time for cross-skilling etc.
Floor meets
Creating the euphoria and excitement of a change is an important job of a Scrum Master. When organizational design changes happen, it is important to hold floor meetings, communicate the desire to change. While Scrum Master may not himself/herself do all this, facilitating the floor meeting with the help of HR and leadership is an important activity.
Multi-Team Activities
Facilitating Scrum of Scrums
Multi-team products require dependency resolution on a regular basis. Scrum of Scrum forum is a good way for representatives of teams to talk to each other and resolve dependencies. Scrum Master should help create a cadence for these meetings and help the teams resolve technical and inter-team dependencies.
Facilitating Meta Scrums
Multiple Products in the organization may need Meta Scrum to discuss business dependencies, release planning process, process to organize release trains etc. Scrum Masters across multiple products should organize the structure by suggesting a cadence for the multi-product releases.
Facilitation of DoD creation
Multiple teams may go out of sync on the quality criteria and may end up with a product which does not meet customer expectations. Scrum Master must facilitate discussions between various teams to discuss the DoD among themselves and agree upon the quality criteria. This should happen regularly so that the quality improves consistently.