Role of a Scrum Master

The first thing we have to be sure when dealing with SCRUM master is whether they have a full time Scrum masters, and the second question we have to ask is if what do they do?
We usually don’t find a full time scrum master.  Scrum master is described by scrum guide as one who teaches, facilitates and removes impediments. When the team is relatively new it takes time and the team follows scrum religiously. This is when the team needs a scrum master who can teach scrum full time.
Facilitating is necessary, though it takes only 20 to 30 % of the time. The issues tend to lessen as the team learns to resolve them.
If a person puts 100% of his efforts being a scrum master, i.e. if he is training, facilitating that takes up only 20 to 25% of his time. He has to devote himself in helping the team with their work.
The first step is to train the project managers in Agile. Try to get them to be certified scrum masters, and agile project managers, preferably from Project Management Institute.
Thus the project managers become the first scrum masters.  At first the scrum master shouldn’t be assigned to one team.
Probably assign two to three teams to one project managers. Their role is to train the team in Scrum.
This has to be followed for the initial six months, until the team gets used to the concept of Scrum.
Then once you are past the first 6 to 9 months have one of the team members to be a scrum master, it would be ideal if the team was allowed to select the scrum master from their team.
Then elevate the project manager to the level of program manager. This would enable them to become accountable for cross team initiatives,
Rearrange management structure, now instead of a functional manager we have a delivery manager.
The delivery manager is now accountable for training agile.
Thus Scrum Masters was underway as a position and evolved to be a role as the team becomes more Agile mature.
The bottom line here is we have less people doing same amount of work. This is without the need of a dedicated scrum master, Along with this we need to have a contingent plan.

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Scrum fulfills wishes of IT project managers

In October of 2013, CIO.com published an article by Jennifer Schiff titled “7 Top Wishes of IT Project Managers.” Even though it is directed to IT professionals, the list—based on their research—undoubtedly meets with little or no argument from experienced project managers everywhere. From being brought into a project after important decisions that really needed their input have been made to working with unclear project objectives and requirements, the list identifies some of the most discouraging obstacles project managers face on a regular basis.
The first two of the seven things IT project managers wish for most are definitely available with Scrum. The top of CIO’s list is the wish “to be involved from project inception.” This wish comes true whenever an organization adopts the Scrum methodology. Before we demonstrate how that is done, it is important that we clarify a point about Scrum and project managers. In Scrum the responsibilities and activities of the traditional project manager are distributed to the Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Scrum Team. The majority of the project manager’s role is taken by the Product Owner and in this role Scrum grants five of the top seven wishes.
According to A Guide to the Scrum Body of Knowledge(SBOK™ Guide), “the Scrum cycle begins with a Stakeholder Meeting, during which the Project Vision is created. The Product Owner then develops a Prioritized Product Backlog which contains a prioritized list of business and project requirements written in the form of User Stories.” The Product Owner is a key player in the Stakeholder Meeting and is directly involved in turning the stakeholders’ requirements into descriptions of work that can actually be accomplished during the project. The stakeholders include customers, users, and sponsors. CIO.com quotes Chet Anderson of Trissential making the point that the wish “to be involved from project inception” means including the project manager from the very beginning to make sure that “the right resources are budgeted for, correct assumptions are made and the right questions are asked.” During the Project Vision session of the Stakeholders Meeting, the Product Owners are there to identify needed resources, ask the right questions and clarify the assumptions being made.
Clarifying project requirements continues as the stakeholders and Product Owner meet to create the Prioritized Product Backlog—the project to do list. Not only does the Product Owner learn what must be done, but also what order is most important to the customer and key players.
The second top wish on CIO’s list is the “ability to put — and keep — together the perfect team for each project.”  The first phase of a Scrum project is the Initiate phase. According to the SBOK™, an important process in this phase is to identify the Scrum Master and Stakeholders. It asserts that “identifying People Requirements is one of the initial steps in selecting the Scrum Master and the Stakeholder(s). It is important to document the roles and responsibilities of all those who would be involved in completing the tasks in the project,” and suggests using the Organizational Resource Matrix and Skills Requirement Matrix for this step. The term stakeholders is being used here to refer to the individuals who will represent the different stakeholder groups—customers and sponsors— throughout the development process. The Product Owner is directly involved in selecting the person who will be the Scrum Master and those stakeholders who will “frequently interface” with the Scrum Core Team.

The Scrum Core Team includes the Product Owner, the Scrum Master and the Scrum Team—those who develop the project and produce the project’s deliverables. Another activity in the Initiate phase is the Form Scrum Team process. In this process the two people who shoulder most of the responsibilities and activities of the traditional project manager work together to select members for the team of professionals who will do the actual development work. They will be able to select from the Organizational Resource Matrix the “perfect” team for the project at hand, thereby fulfilling wish number two.

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