Last week, I mentioned how important clear language is to me.
It’s especially true in the role of a Scrum Master. Scrum Masters are “accountable for establishing Scrum as defined in the Scrum Guide.”
I’m all for going off the rails of Agile and Scrum. It can and should be customized to the needs of your team as long as the values of Scrum are still maintained.
However.
It’s crucial to understand the foundations of Scrum before you make those changes. And part of the foundation is the language used in Scrum. And to keep up with that language, you have to keep up with the Scrum Guide. Because it changes. Just like Scrum itself, the Guide inspects, adapts, and improves.
If Scrum Masters are accountable for establishing Scrum but they’re not reading the Scrum Guide, I can tell.
How?
Easy. I listen for these words.
Grooming
The word “grooming” can refer to the preparation of minors for sex trafficking. In an effort to promote inclusive language, especially in the international community where this meaning is more prevalent than in the US, the authors of the Scrum Guide chose to replace “grooming” with “refining” in the 2013 Scrum Guide update.
Development Team
By referring to the “development team,” we are creating a team within a Scrum team. Instead, we are all one team. Hence, in 2020, the Scrum Guide replaced it with “Developers.”
Self-organizing
The 2020 update also replaced “self-organizing” teams with “self-managing.” Not only do teams determine who does the work and how, it is also up to the team what they want to work on – hence managing their work themselves, not just organizing.
Responsible
A subtle change in the 2020 Scrum Guide was replacing the word “responsible” with “accountable” in the role descriptions of the Product Owner and Scrum Master.
You’ll find the word “responsible” a total of 7 times in the 2017 Scrum Guide; it’s in the 2020 Scrum Guide 3 times (including the variation of “responsibility”).
The 2017 Scrum Guide contains 3 instances of “accountable/accountability.” The 2020 Scrum Guide has 9.
Though there isn’t an explanation for the decrease in responsibility and increase of accountability in the revision notes, I imagine it’s something like this: responsibility implies obligation to a task. Accountability means ownership and being answerable. It’s a level up from responsibility and is a more holistic view than the single-minded focus of responsibility.
What have you done/what will you do/any blockers?
One note on Daily Scrum – if you’re calling it a Standup, I definitely know you haven’t read the Scrum Guide.
Otherwise, when I hear Daily Scrum being prescribed as these three questions, it moves the Daily Scrum away from a planning meeting and into a status update ceremony.
If I hear that it’s the Scrum Master’s job to facilitate the Daily Scrum, or even their obligation to attend (unless the Scrum Master is also a Developer), I know that the 2020 Scrum Guide updates didn’t stick.
Daily Scrum is a meeting for and by developers to inspect and adapt progress towards the Sprint goal using whatever structure and techniques they want.
There are more ways to tell if someone has an outdated understanding of Scrum. These are an easy place to start.
If it’s your job to coach the Scrum Guide, then it’s your job to keep up with it. Use the language that’s in it. And go back and read it once in a while.
And it’s our job as a Scrum community to watch our language, updating it when it’s called for.
Maybe “Scrum Master” will be next.
Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash
I’m not sure I see accountability as a step up from responsibility. Have you looked into Christopher Avery’s distinction?
I googled it immediately after seeing your comment: https://blog.crisp.se/2013/04/03/christopher-avery/guest-post-by-christopher-avery-the-difference-between-accountable-and-responsible-leadership
That is verrrry interesting. What’s your take on why the Scrum Guide would move away from “responsible” to “accountable”?