Tag: Agile Scrum

Developing Scrum Teams to Wipe Out Toxic Work Culture

If you are feeling repulsive every day to get back to work and to avoid the toxic work culture, you are not alone. Hostile work environment and workplace harassment exists even in Fortune 500 companies. Scrum teams and agile methodologies are a perfect solution to wipe out instability and insecurity in the teams.

Toxic Work Culture

Toxic work culture is common in organizations and definitely in all insecure teams. It is as evident as bullying in schools and ragging in colleges. You can only suck it up so much! Using your peers against you has become a norm for Human Resources and Project Managers. The insecurity and instability have led to more repulsive and reclusive teams.

You can differentiate toxic work culture in the first week itself. Everything is so rosy until you join and while you are getting acquainted with the new environment, the onset of personal attacks will begin. By the way, this has nothing to do with how well you are educated, how hard you are working, or how much you are willing to change to match the company’s expectations. It is just like that.

Scrum Teams

On the other hand, Scrum teams are proving to more empowering teams by self-organizing and cross-functional methods. All teams are agile and are welcoming input for continuous improvement. We all learn from each other and that is true for organizations as well. New hires who are Scrum certified are now becoming mandatory for teams. Even your organization is not following agile scrum, getting certified will provide new ways of working and enabling each other.

Modern organizations like NewBoCo #newboco are training the youth in both software as well as agile scrum certifications and placing them in client place. Getting certified is the best way to understand why the clients are preferring Agile Scrum trained professionals. While some may think the Scrum certifications are unnecessary and only technical certifications are needed. But, how the technical certifications are helpful if your thought process is small and basic work habits are toxic. I think more than the technical certifications, Scrum certifications will help to improve the teams. Technical skills can be learned in a short time but the time taken to modify an entire organization mindset is more. Certified Scrum Master and Certified Scrum Product Owner are the two certifications, to begin with. Even if your organization is not developing software, your teams can get benefitted by Scrum knowledge. This will help in the optimization of resources and time.

Scrum teams help each other and become high performing teams. They are continuously helping each other in technical and/or any personal issues. If one team member is having a problem, others are willing to pitch in instead of putting them further down. Helping will multiply further and foster a healthy workplace. All staffing companies must ask their consultants to get Scrum certified if the Client company is having Agile Scrum in their policy. This will help in a smooth transition and avoid unnecessary situations.

Certified Scrum Master: Say Nothing and Let the Development Team Figure it Out

Yes, in ideal development scrum teams, Scrum Master does not provide a solution but facilitates the discussions towards the solution. Certified Scrum Master is the servant leader in Agile Scrum teams to help achieve their goals. Scrum Master helps improve the business value and assists in the implementation of Scrum both at the team level as well as at the organization level.

Scrum Master

Scrum Master is one of the key roles in the Scrum team who ensures the relationships in the team are smooth for the operation of the Scrum team. Scrum Master definitely teaches, explains, shares experiences, and has a positive outlook toward the implementation of the Scrum. Whenever a difficult situation arises in the team, Scrum Master does the coaching and raises awareness so the team members are able to find the solution themselves. Scrum Master removes any external impediments the team is facing and in certain cases help the team to remove the impediments themselves.

Facilitation is one of the key responsibility of the Scrum Master. They help organize the Scrum events such as Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review, and Sprint Retrospective. Scrum Master works with the Product Owner to ensure the team has everything needed to achieve their goals.

Scaling Scrum

Scrum Master plays a key role in Scaling Scrum at an organization level. Large Scale Scrum is a challenge in the big organizations and coordinating the multiple Scrum teams is needed. Scrum Master helps the team realize the team capacity and backlog refinement. Scrum Master guides the teams in the Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing stages of the Scrum Team.

Scrum Master initially works at the team level to make them self-organizing and high-performing. Next, Scrum Master observes the team from a broader perspective. Next, Scrum Master expands the coaching at an organization level to inculcate a culture change. Working with other Scrum Masters is crucial for a Scrum Masters to understand the best practices.

At times, Scrum Master lets the team fail and understand the situation and adapt in the next Sprint. Even when the team becomes self-organized, the Scrum Master is needed for continuous improvement and performing teams. A Scrum Master is open to experimenting, asking questions, encourage conversations, and finding out better ways to get things done.

Scrum Master can introduce fun games and conduct cupcake get-togethers to encourage conversations. Offering small gifts and appreciating the team on achievements helps in team engagement.

Certification

To get Scrum Master certification, you need to attend a two-day paid workshop by a Certified Scrum Trainer. ( Only about 300 worldwide). After completing the class, you can take the test online from your home or office. The test is a 50 question multiple choice test and you have one hour to complete it. In order to receive the certification, you need to get 74%. You have 90 days to take one more time without paying fees.

The test has most questions from the Agile Manifesto and the Scrum Guide. It is an open book test and hence you can have the material by you for reference during the test. However, the time limit is crucial. Some questions on the Scrum roles may be confusing but it is okay. You have an option to get back to a skipped question if you are unsure. The test is included with the training fees for the first two attempts.

Getting the certification definitely helps boost the resume and understand the Scrum concepts. To maintain the certification, you need to keep earning the educational units. Every organization has a different way of adopting Scrum. Some Scrum Masters might perform dual roles as a developer or a tester. Scrum Masters can work on multiple teams and definitely help in backlog refinement in certain Scrum adaptations. Often developers are frustrated as to why the Scrum Masters are following up outside of the Scrum events. Ideally, Scrum Master is helping change the mindset of the organization to improve the business value.

Product Owner and Scrum Master

Agile Scrum is being in practice with many software development teams as well as teams in non-software development. How the Agile Scrum is implemented is dependent on each organization and how they adapt the Scrum principles. However, getting certification from a Certified Scrum Trainer will guide the teams in the Scrum principles and roles.

Often, we come across Scrum teams where the Scrum Master is writing user stories or the Product Owner is conducting the Scrum events. In some teams, Product Owner is also part of the development team. This may be customized according to the organization. But, certified professionals can clearly see the improper implementation of Scrum. Scrum teams are cross-functional and self-organizing. The three important roles in the Scrum teams are the Development team, Product Owner, and Scrum Master. Each has their own responsibilities.

Product Owner

In Agile Scrum teams, Product Owner becomes the business representative for the Scrum teams. Here are the responsibilities of a Product Owner:

  • Always available for the team, knowledgeable in technical and business domain, and is agile
  • Communicates the product vision and product roadmap
  • Manages the product backlog
  • Writes user stories and acceptance criteria/tests
  • Prioritize the product backlog and sprint backlog
  • Responsible for backlog grooming
  • Determines the sprint duration and estimating the user stories
  • Communicates with the business team and the development team
  • Works closely with the business to know actually what they want from the product
  • Quickly adapts to the change requests from the business
  • Partners with the Scrum Master for the overall performance of the Scrum team
  • Works only for one Scrum team
  • Attends daily scrum (optional)
  • Does not speak until spoken to 🙂
  • Lets the development team figure out how they are going to develop the product
  • Responsible for the business outcomes
  • Prepare the release plan
  • Maintains continuous feedback from the business
  • Seeks questions and answers from internal and external stakeholders
  • Uses tools to maintain the backlog, calculate sprint velocity, and maintain burndown charts

Scrum Master

Scrum Master is responsible for removing any impediments to the development team and oversees end-to-end implementation of the Scrum principles and events.

  • Monitor the Sprint events and gatherings including Sprint planning, Sprint review, Sprint retrospective, and daily scrum meetings
  • Facilitates the Scrum by being a mentor and coach
  • May monitor one or more Scrum teams
  • Approaches business to remove impediments
  • Partners with the Product Owner for Scrum implementation

Development team

  • Decides how to develop the product increment
  • Picks the user stories for the Sprint
  • Participate in all the Scrum events
  • Perform code reviews
  • Performs many functions and self-organizes to meet the Sprint goals
  • Complete the user stories vertically so the customer can start using the increment
  • Ensure the committed user stories for the Sprint are complete in all aspects
  • Works for only one Scrum team even if reporting to Project Manager from another team
  • Cannot take up any work from outside the team
  • Being agile to implement changes in future sprints
  • Looks out for each other for the success of the Scrum team
  • Complete all stages of development including testing
  • Communicate with Scrum Master and Product Owner

Self-organizing and cross-functional Scrum teams are the latest way of getting things done efficiently. Collaboration and communication are key to the success. Managing complex projects can be simplified using the Scrum principles and events. Lots of discussion and consensus is required before actually starting the work so the teams can deliver what the customer actually wants.

The Scrum has changed in 2018 and here is the 2017 Scrum guide for your reference. Getting the Scrum certification from a Certified Trainer will help the Scrum teams to know what they are doing right and what is the ideal way Scrum teams are supposed to work.

scrumguidenov2017