Advice for a Wayward Scrum Master with Jeff Howey

Explicit content warning

12/27/23 • 12 min

Agile and Project Management - DrunkenPM Radio

What do you do when your Scrum Master’s understanding of their role seems to be less about acting as a servant leader to the Scrum Team and more about making the team to work in a way that is most convenient for them? In this episode of the podcast, Jeff Howey joins me to talk through the real-life case of a Scrum Master who seems to have lost their way. Here are some of the concerns shared in the podcast: - Dev Team is offshore and holds a Daily Scrum before 8 AM in Scrum Master’s time zone. Scrum Master requires that they hold a second Daily Scrum to provide status to Scrum Master. - SM does not attend Sprint Planning. They require the PO to run it. - SM requires the PO to run the Retrospective. All topics must be submitted in advance of the meeting and must be positive comments (not negative). - Scrum Master does not like the way the Developers have set up their Task Board and requires that they change it to a format that works better for the Scrum Master. During the conversation, Jeff and I unpack these and a number of additional concerns, talk through how they are out of alignment with Scrum and the role of the Scrum Master, and discuss suggestions we'd offer to help reset the understanding of what it means to be a Scrum Master who acts as a servant leader for a Scrum Team. If you’d like to contact Jeff Howey. LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jeffhowey/ Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/the-agile-alchemist-7018992829091778560

Previous Episode

Is Agile Delivering The Business Outcomes You Are Looking For? with Jessica Wolfe

For the video version of this podcast: https://youtu.be/pnmbdAxskXo When an organization has taken the decision to switch an Agile way of working, they often get so caught up in trying to adopt the various practices and processes that they forget to stop and ask the question, “Is this providing the business outcome we need?” Remembering to keep that question top of mind is important. Knowing what to pay attention to and how to understand the answer is even more important. In this episode, Jessica Wolfe returns to the podcast so that we can discuss some of the things you might want to focus on, and how paying attention to areas that may be less obvious can give you greater insight into how agile is impacting your business and delivering the results you are looking for. As we work through the topic, Jessica shows how Lean Agile Intelligence can be used to help discover and interpret metrics you need to see so that you can understand how agile is impacting your organization. During the podcast Jessica was kind enough to offer a special 20% discount on an annual license to Lean Agile Intelligence if you purchase before the end of 2023. In order to get the discount go to https://leanagileintelligence.com/Account/Register?promoCode=DRUNKENPM6W and tell them you listened to the DrunkenPM podcast. This podcast was originally recorded using video. If you would like to check out that version so you can see the demo of Lean Agile Intelligence, click here: https://youtu.be/pnmbdAxskXo For more on Lean Agile Intelligence Web: https://tinyurl.com/2p23z556 LinkedIn: https://tinyurl.com/mspwy5r7 Instagram: https://tinyurl.com/bdcs2fnd Facebook: https://tinyurl.com/3dkjwh9t Contacting Jessica LinkedIn: https://tinyurl.com/erzxw66m

Next Episode

Fixing Your Quarterly Planning W Nigel Baker

There seems to be a current trend where organizations that say they are doing PI planning or quarterly planning are making a decision for the teams about what must be delivered in the time box. The teams just accept the commitment because they either feel they do not have the agency to push back and say no to some of it or are too busy trying to finish up their last overcommitment to look at new work. So, they begin the new time box already behind and then assess the new work only to (shockingly) learn it is too much. Then they divide it up by the number of Sprints or weeks and that is how they plan out how to get it all done. Most of the time this results in developing a habitual practice of carrying work from one sprint to the next, continually trying to recover from the last overcommitment so they can get to work on the new overcommitment. In this episode, The Agile Bear, Nigel Baker, joins me to sort through why this is happening, the harm it causes, and ways to fix it. Video Version If you'd prefer to view the video version of this interview: http://tinyurl.com/2eu5yucw Contacting Nigel Linktree: https://linktr.ee/nigelebaker