The previous weeks I've taken some time to re-write the white paper "The 8 Stances of a Scrum Master". Given my sessions at Scrum Day London, Scrum Day Warsaw and Scrum Day Europe I wanted to offer the participants a paper with my latest insights and lessons learned.In this blog post I'll share the changes in this2nd edition.I hope you enjoy the result!
In the first edition of the paper the main focus was describing the 8 preferred stances of a Scrum Master. These are not the ultimate truth, they're based on my personal experiences and how I prefer to fulfil the role. In the paper I describe the Scrum Master as aServant Leader, Coach, Facilitator, Teacher, Mentor, Manager, Impediment Remover and Change Agent. Every chapter contains my lessons learned acting as a Scrum Master and my findings while studying books, articles and videos.
Thethree major changesin thesecond editionof the white paper are:
- The mostcommon misunderstandingsabout the Scrum Master
- Why I've changed my title from Agile Coach to100% Scrum Master
- Visualizationsto increase the readability
Change #1: Scrum Master Misunderstandings
After being a (not so successful) Project Manager for some time I started experimenting with the Scrum Master role. Although I thought the role wasn't that difficultto understand, I surely didn't gave it the desired follow-up. I was mostly acting as aScribe, Secretary, Scrum Police Officer, Team Boss, Tooling Administrator, Chairman, Hero and Coffee Clerk. As a result theScrum team wasn'tself-organizing, didn't owned the process and seemed to getZombie-Scrumcharacteristics. I had to change the way I fulfilled the Scrum Master role drastically. By following courses, reading books, watching videos and learning from other Scrum Masters I slowly improved myself. After a couple of years I became a Scrum Master whoacted according the 8 preferred stances.
During these years I also learned I definitely wasn't the only Scrum Master fulfilling the role according to these misunderstandings. Therefore I decided to share my lessons learned and hopefully create a better understanding of the Scrum Master role.
Change #2: 100% Scrum Master
A couple of months ago I removed Agile Coach and replaced it with Scrum Master.100% Scrum Master. Although it seems a small change, it raisedquite some concern:
- “You should stick with Agile Coach. As a freelancer, that’sa far more popular job title.”
- “No, don’t change it to Scrum Master,you’ll get paid less!“
- “Allthe cool stuff is done by Agile Coaches, as a Scrum Master you’re stuck within your Scrum Team.”
But really, don’t call yourself a Scrum Master, your freelance career will be doomed!
So why did I change my title from Agile Coach into Scrum Master?In thewhite paperI've added a chapter in which I explain this change by using the values of Scrum.
Change #3: Cool Visualizations
From a visual perspective, the first edition of the white paper was pretty boring. A lot of text, hardly any pictures. Especially forthe upcoming workshops, trainings en presentations it was necessary to enrich my story visually. Luckily I've got a girlfriend with outstanding drawing skills. She created some awesome visualizations! These visuals alone are already a good reason the read the white paper!
Interested in Learning More?
Since I published the first edition of this white paper in 2016 it triggered quite some response in the Scrum community. I got asked as a trainer, workshop facilitator and public speaker. This encouraged me to improve the white paper into thisnew edition, create new training material and re-think what I wrote earlier. Together with the Scrum community, I want to share lessons learned and collaboratively create a better understanding of the Scrum Master role.
Opportunities for collaboration and learning are:
- 1 on 1 conversations(simply contact me via email,LinkedIn,Twitter)
- Presentations/talksthat trigger you to re-imagine the Scrum Master by learning of the 8 different stances and increase the chance of successful Scrum Mastery.
- 2 – 4 hour workshopsin which you really experience the potential of the Scrum Master role in a unique way
- The Scrum.orgProfessional Scrum Mastertraining. A 2-day course where you’ll learn how to use Scrum to optimize value, productivity and the total cost of ownership of software products. Tools are provided to enable you to relate to behavioural shifts, work with people and teams, coaching and facilitation techniques, and addressing the organization.
- TheScrum Master Advanced2-day training that we’ve created to discuss the Scrum Master role in more detail. By using the 8 Stances of a Scrum Master as a foundation, we’ll explore the possibilities to optimize the potential of the Scrum Master role.
If you are interested in any of these opportunities for collaboration, contact me at info@barryovereem.com. Have a great day!
