One day, an organization decides they’re going to be Agile. They put their work in Jira. They throw some meetings on the calendar like Retro, Stand-Up, and Backlog Grooming. And so now they’re doing Scrum.
How did the organization prepare their teams for this? They didn’t.
“Oh, we’ll hire some Scrum Masters. They’ll take care of it.”
Sound familiar?
The #1 piece of advice I give to organizations – and one of the highest predictors of successfully adopting scrum I’ve seen – is to get your teams trained. Together. The whole team. The whole organization if you can. Managers, team members, everyone. Set aside a good chunk of time, say, two days, just to get trained.
Not by a scrum master.
By a scrum trainer.
Here’s what it takes to become a Certified Scrum Trainer from Scrum Alliance:
- an active CSP®-SM certification
- 10 qualifying training events within the last 60 months totaling at least 100 students
- minimum of 60 months, within the last 84 months, either actively working on a Scrum Team, actively working as an agile coach, or actively leading an agile transformation, all of which must have been gained in at least three different areas (companies, business units, product lines, contexts)
- clear explanation of at least one compelling personal reason to want to deliver Certified ScrumMaster® or Certified Scrum Product Owner courses, including their key personal motivation and also what they feel will be their unique contribution to the Scrum Alliance Guides community
- demonstrate and explain their personal approach to train ScrumMasters or Product Owners
- create their own CSM or CSPO training materials, which validate the most recent version of the Scrum Alliance Scrum Foundations and CSM® or CSPO learning objectives and keep them up to date
- provide at least five letters of recommendation that validate their expertise in training and their breadth and depth of Scrum Knowledge
- demonstrate and describe how their materials and delivery methods have evolved through their experience of delivering the training, both through the use of student feedback and from self-reflection
- must have participated in at least one Scrum Alliance event within the last 24 months
- must have been an active and engaged member of the national and international agile/Scrum community
Here’s what it takes to become a Certified Scrum Master from Scrum Alliance:
- two day class
- online quiz
I’m not knocking the knowledge or abilities of all scrum masters. I am one. And if I had to teach a class on scrum, I could. It would take me a long time to put together the training. It would be an OK training. And I would be exhausted by the end of it.
It’s true that the Scrum Guide says the scrum master serves an organization by, “leading, training, and coaching the organization in its Scrum adoption.”
It’s also true that training is one small bullet point among 12 listed scrum master accountabilities, most of which focus on coaching, helping, and facilitating the team, product owner, and organization.
I find that the real value of a scrum master is in participating as a full-time member of the team, helping them achieve cross-functionality, self-organization, trust, reliable planning, increments of value for their customers, and removing what’s getting in their way.
I don’t think a scrum master should spend a significant amount of their time developing training plans and conducting training for an organization.
With the amount of time it takes for a scrum master to prepare for and conduct training, and the amount of time it takes them away from helping the teams, in the long run it ends up costing less to just hire a scrum trainer for a 2-day class.
Having teams come together and dedicate time to developing a shared understanding of the values, practices, and mindset of scrum and agile from an experienced and effective trainer is the quickest jump-start you can get. Your scrum masters can pick it up from there with continued coaching and improvement. (Selfishly, trained teams make our lives and jobs much easier.)
So, do you want a scrum master?
Or a scrum trainer?
Photo by Changbok Ko on Unsplash