Talk on how scrum masters can avoid becoming impediments to their agile teams. Presented at SDEC 2015.

1. Ryan Ripley
Help!!! The ScrumMaster *IS* the
Impediment
Thank you to our Sponsors

2. @ryanripley
PMI-ACP, PSM I, PSM II, PSE, PSPO I, PSD I, CSM, and CSPO

3. #SDEC15

6. “500 YARDS OF FOUL-SMELLING MUCK”
--Red “The Shawshank Redemption”
The Project Manager to ScrumMaster® pipeline…

7. What is Agile?

8. DILBERT © 2007 Scott Adams. Used By permission of UNIVERSAL UCLICK. All rights reserved.

9. We are uncovering better ways of developing
software by doing it and helping others do it.
Through this work we have come to value:
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
That is, while there is value in the items on
the right, we value the items on the left more.

10. THE 12 AGILE PRINCIPLES
www.AgileManifesto.org
Our highest priority is
to satisfy the customer
through early and
continuous delivery of
valuable software.
Welcome changing
requirements, even late in
development. Agile
processes harness change
for the customer's
competitive advantage.
Deliver working
software frequently,
from a couple of weeks
to a couple of months,
with a preference to the
shorter timescale.
Business people and
developers must work
together daily
throughout the project.
Build projects around
motivated individuals.
Give them the environment
and support they need,
and trust them to get the
job done.
The most efficient and
effective method of
conveying information to
and within a development
team is face-to-face
conversation.
Working software is the
primary measure of
progress.
Agile processes promote
sustainable development.
The sponsors, developers,
and users should be able
to maintain a constant
pace indefinitely.
Continuous attention to
technical excellence
and good design
enhances agility.
Simplicity--the art of
maximizing the amount
of work not done--is
essential.
The best architectures,
requirements, and
designs emerge from
self-organizing teams.
At regular intervals, the
team reflects on how to
become more effective,
then tunes and adjusts
its behavior accordingly.

11. SCRUM IN ONE SLIDE
Development
Sprint Planning Sprint Review
Sprint Retrospective
Sprint
ROLES: Scrum Master, Product Owner, Developer
ARTIFACTS: Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog, Product Increment

12. Where is the Project Manager?

13. “A project manager could maybe
become a tester...maybe.”
--Ken Schwaber

15. What is a Scrum Master?

16. “The Scrum Master is responsible for
ensuring Scrum is understood and
enacted. Scrum Masters do this by
ensuring that the Scrum Team adheres to
Scrum theory, practices, and rules.”
--The Scrum Guide

17. PRODUCT
OWNER
SCRUM
MASTER
STAKEHOLDERS
DEVELOPMENT
TEAM
WHAT?
WHY?
IMPEDIMENTS
SYSTEM
IMPEDIMENTS
FEEDBACK
(HOW)

18. LEADING CAUSES OF FAILED AGILE PROJECTS
From the 9th Annual VersionOne State of Agile Report
©2015 VersionOne, Inc. - State of Agile is a trademark of VersionOne, Inc. and VersionOne is a registered trademark of VersionOne, Inc.
42%
Company philosophy
or culture at odds
with core agile values
37%
External pressure to
follow traditional
waterfall processes
38%
Lack of management
support
30%
Insufficient training
33%
A broader organizational
or communications
problem
33%
Unwillingness of
team to follow agile

19. Copyright © 2015 Scrum Alliance®

20. BARRIERS TO FURTHER AGILE ADOPTION
From the 9th Annual VersionOne State of Agile Report
©2015 VersionOne, Inc. - State of Agile is a trademark of VersionOne, Inc. and VersionOne is a registered trademark of VersionOne, Inc.
22%
Concerns about a
loss of management
control
24%
Management
concerns about lack
of upfront planning
29%
Management support
44%
Ability to change
organizational culture
34%
General organizational
resistance to change
35%
Not enough personnel
with necessary agile
experience

21. Copyright © 2015 Scrum Alliance®

22. Scrum Masters have their
hands full, but not with
software development…

23. A scrum master can avoid becoming an
impediment to their team by frequently
inspecting and adapting their behaviors.

24. Common Scrum Master Impediments:
• Agile Expert – one true way to “be agile”
• Project Manager – assigning tasks
• Technical Lead – dictating solutions to the dev team

25. SUPER HERO
(SM != Super Man)

26. “I will solve all of your problems.”

28. ARE YOU A SUPER HERO?:
•Team seeks your approval before acting
•Team asks about the “right way” to do Agile
•Are you insisting on “correct” solutions?

29. THINGS TO CONSIDER:
•Resist the urge to solve the teams problems
•Get comfortable with awkward silence
•Focus on relationships

30. BEWARE LEARNED HELPLESSNESS
Helplessness can lead to overlooking
opportunities to improve

31. “A dead scrum master
is a useless scrum master.”
--Ken Schwaber

32. It’s Important to Try New Things
1

34. “Three pillars uphold every
implementation of empirical process
control: transparency, inspection, and
adaptation.”
--The Scrum Guide

35. “At regular intervals, the team reflects on how
to become more effective, then tunes and
adjusts its behavior accordingly.”
--Agile Manifesto

36. “Experimentation is at the heart of Agile”

37. Are experiments safe?

38. “Your teams velocity is worse
than the other scrums teams.
Find a way to get your velocity
up, or we may have to reassign
resources.”

39. Embrace Learning Opportunities
(Failure)
2

40. “DAD! Stop helping me!”
--My son, tired of me inflicting help

41. Happy Accidents
•Thomas Edison “failed” thousands of times
until he found the correct filament for the light
bulb.
•Post-It notes were invented to replace
bookmarks.
•Kleenex tissues were originally made to remove
make-up.
•WD40 is named after the number of attempts to
get the water displacement formula correct.
These ideas were at one point failures…

42. Not every experiment is a winner…and
not every failure is a loser.

43. SCRUM IN ONE SLIDE
Development
Sprint Planning Sprint Review
Sprint Retrospective
Sprint
ROLES: Scrum Master, Product Owner, Developer
ARTIFACTS: Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog, Product Increment

44. Is it safe to fail (learn)?

45. “That developer is slacking.
When is the scrum master
going to take care of the poor
performer?”

46. Why?
Why?
Why?
Why?
Why?
3

47. What is the 5 Why’s technique?

49. Often we push past the surface issues
and find more complex system and
relationship issues at the 5th “why”

50. People do not fail, systems do

51. Learn Gradually
4

53. “I don’t think that design will work. You
should code the story like this…”

55. THINGS TO LOOK FOR:
•Is design/architecture emergent?
•Are the developers disengaged?
•How does the team decide the best way to
do their work?
•Is pair programming, #mobprogramming, or
swarming happening?

56. ADJUSTMENTS:
•Leave the developers alone
•Step down as scrum master and resume a
coding role
•Focus on guiding rather than directing
•Ask for permission to help

57. Words Matter
5

59. Your words are winning hearts and
changing minds.

60. Be consistent.

61. Following through isn’t optional.

62. Following through isn’t optional.

63. Communication is your greatest tool. How
you frame discussions WILL make or
break your agile transformations and
projects.

64. “Teams ship working software
at the end of each sprint. That’s
why we implemented scrum.
Work the weekends if you’re
behind. The team needs to
deliver on their commitments.”

65. Sustainable Pace Is Important
6

67. “Agile processes promote sustainable
development. The sponsors, developers,
and users should be able to maintain a
constant pace indefinitely.”
--Agile Manifesto

68. Sustainable pace is a quality play
•Burned out developers deliver bad code
•They also find better jobs

69. Sustainable pace is a productivity play
•Continuous integration, automated
testing, skill building, and whole team
understanding become important when
long hours are not an option

70. Sustainable pace is predictable
•Over a period of time, the amount of
work that a scrum team - working at
a sustainable pace - can accomplish
will become consistent

71. Sustainable pace is humane

72. “Your team leaves at 5:00pm
and refuses to work weekends.
Why don’t they have a sense of
urgency?”

73. Play Well With Others
7

75. “How inclusive is your team?”

76. Temper dominant personalities

77. Draw out the introverts

78. Time Box Events
8

79. A time box is a fixed period of time to
perform an action or to achieve a
goal.

81. SCRUM IN ONE SLIDE
Development
Sprint Planning Sprint Review
Sprint Retrospective
Sprint
ROLES: Scrum Master, Product Owner, Developer
ARTIFACTS: Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog, Product Increment

82. Prevents over-investment in activities
(Risk Mitigation)

83. Promotes a focus on value
(Risk Mitigation)

84. Minimizes cost and impact of errors
(Risk Mitigation)

85. Limits WIP
(Risk Mitigation)

86. Be Kind
9

89. Make sure people are ready
to hear what you have to say.

90. ??????
AGILE IMPACTS EVERYONE
• Organizational Change
• Leadership Change
• Team Change
• Status Change
• Job Description Change
• Role Change
• Culture Change

91. “People who ask others to change may not
understand what value they are asking
people to give up. And in fact, they may not
appreciate or even notice what’s valuable
to the people they expect to change.”
--Esther Derby

92. We are telling people to
give up the tools, methods,
processes, and behaviors
that have made them
successful.

93. WARNING SIGNS:
•Arguments – “What has to be true…?”
•Emotional outbursts
•Am I talking to the team or at the team?
•Your feelings – “Am I enjoying my role?”

94. ARE YOU BEING KIND?
•Take time to reflect on difficult exchanges
•What is motivating you?
•Anxiety, fear, or frustration
•Address the “friction” in the retrospective
•Ask the team for feedback and support

95. RESPONSES TO CHANGE ARE INVALUABLE
What is the source of their resistance?
Do people know
how to do what
they are being
asked to do?
Is there a
personal conflict
that is causing
resistance?
Is someone a
champion of the
old process?
Are there
systems in place
that reward
disruptive
behavior?
Is the path to
success unclear
to them?
What does
someone lose
due to the
change?

96. Focus on Management
10

97. You are going to face a lot of
wrong premises about what
makes safety and speed
possible.

98. “What does it matter how many
times I reassign team members,
isn’t that what self-organization
is for?”

99. Self-organization does not
initially feel safe or fast.

100. SCRUM MANAGEMENT • Manage the boundaries
• Build Stable Teams
• Hire people – Grow skills
• Act transparently
• Examine systems &
correct faulty ones
• Give guidance when
asked/needed
• Reach across org charts
• Definition of Done
• Continuous improvement
• Expect working software
every sprint
Vision – Direction – Goals
“I finally have time to do my job.”

101. “A scrum teams job is to self-organize
around the challenges, and within the
boundaries and constraints, put in place
by management.”
--Mike Cohn, Succeeding with Agile

102. What must be true for a
person to ask that
question?

103. “Agile is for IT. Why are you
talking to HR and finance?"

104. What must be true for a
person to say that?

105. “You can’t coach if you’ve
never developed software. Pick
another scrum master for this
team."

106. “Managers are still needed. Not so
much for their planning and controlling
ability, but for that important job of
interfacing on the teams behalf with the
rest of the organization.”
--Diana Larsen

107. FEEDBACK

108. http://ryanripley.com
ryan@ryanripley.com
@ryanripley
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Stitcher, and ryanripley.com