Learnings from Previous Scrum Master 

To the team

• What responsibilities did the Scrum Master assume for the team?
• What was the SM role in Scrum events?
• How did the SM mentor/ coach/ teach?
• Are there any recent improvements/ teachings that the SM has been implementing?

To the organisation 

• What was the SM relationship like with the wider organisation?
• What were the improvements the SM was heading up across the business? What were the recent successes/ failures?

In a scaled Scrum environment

• What is the SM relationship with other SMs and teams?
• Are there any further assumed responsibilities towards other teams?

Relationship with Your Manager

Five Conversations (1, page 93-4)

1. The situational diagnosis conversation
   1. How did the organisation reach this point?
   2. What factors make this situation a challenge?
   3. What resources within the organisation can you draw on?
2. The expectations conversation
   1. What does your new boss need you to do in the short term and in the medium term?
   2. What will contitute success?
   3. How will your performance be measured?
3. The resource conversation 
   1. What do you need to be successful?
   2. What do you need your boss to do?
   3. Not just people/ equipment, but support for change in the organisation
4. The style conversation 
   1. How you and your new boss can best interact on an ongoing basiss
   2. Medium and how often 
5. The personal development conversation (a few months into your new role)
   1. How you are doing and what your development priorities should be

What to focus on

Early wins evaluation tool (1, page 129)

Use the resulting score from the below table to compare candidates for early wins.

	Not at all	To a small extent	Somewhat	To a significant extent	To a great extent
Does the focal point offer an opportunity to make a substantial improvement in the performance of your unit?	0	1	2	3	4
Is this improvement achievable in a reasonably short time with available resources?	0	1	2	3	4
Would success also help lay the foundation for achieving agreed-to-business goals?	0	1	2	3	4
Will the process used to achieve the win help you make needed changes in behaviour in the organisation?	0	1	2	3	4

 

FOGLAMP Project Checklist (1, page 131)

Tool to help you cut through the haze and plan your critical projects

• FOCUS: What is the focus for this project?
• OVERSIGHT: How will you oversee this project? Who else should participate to help you get buy-in for implementing results?
• GOALS: What are the goals and intermediate milestones and time frames for achieving them?
• LEADERSHIP: What will lead the project? What training, if any, do they need to be successful?
• ABILITIES: What mix of skills and representation needs to be included? Who needs to be included because of their skills? 
• MEANS: What additional resources, such a facilitation, does the team need to be successful?
• PROCESS: Are there change models or structured processes you want the team to use? How will they become familiar with this approach?

Decision Making

Team decision making (1, page 193)

Consult-and-decide

• If the decision is likely to be highly devisive (creating winners and losers) you need to take the heat
• If your team are inexperienced as build consensus is unlikely to work and you risk imposing a decision anyway 
• If you need to establish your authority (do not use once you are established)

Build consensus

• If the decision requires energetic support for implementation from people whose performance you cannot adequately observe and control

Framing arguments (1, page 214 – 5)

Framing means carefully crafting your persuasive arguments on a person-by-person basis

Logos – data and reasoned arguments	What data or analysis might they find persuasive?What logic(s) might appeal to them?Are there biases to which they are falling prey and, if so, how might you demonstrate this?
Ethos – principles, policies, and other ‘rules’	Are tehre principles or policies that they could be convinced should operate here?If you are asking them to act counter to a princple or policy, can you help them justify making an exception?
Pathos – emotions and meaning	Are there emotional ‘triggers’ for example loyalty or contribution to the common good, to which you could appeal?Can you help them create a sense of meaning by supporting or opposing a cause?If they are reacting too emotionally, can you help them step back and get perspective?

Self-Reflection

Guidelines for Structures Self-reflection (1, page 223)

On a scale of high to low, do you feel:

• Excited? If not, why not? What can you do about it?
• Confident? If not, why not? What can you do about it?
• In control of your success? If not, why now? What can you do about it?

What has bothered you so far?

• With whom have you failed to connect? Why?
• Of the meetings you’ve attended, which has been the most troubling? Why?
• Of all that you’ve seen or heard, what has disturbed you most? Why?

What has gone well or poorly?

• Which interactions would you handle differently if you could? Which exceeded your expectations? Why?
• Which of your decisions have turned out particularly well? Not so well? Why?
• What missed opportunities do you regret the most? Was a better result blocked primarily by you, or by something beyond your control?

Potentially Dysfunctional Behaviours

Action imperative (1, page 48)

• when you feel too anxious or too busy to devote time to learning, and feel pressure to ‘do’ 
• Leads to a death spiral 
• Don’t learn – make a poor decision and undermine your credibility – alienate people – they don’t share info with you – start the loop again  

Undefended boundaries (1, page 224)

• Fail to establish what you are willing and not willing to do. People will take whatever you have to give
• The more you give, the less they will respect you and the more they will ask of you – another vicious cycle
• If you cannot establish boundaries for yourself, you cannot expect others to do it for you

Brittleness (1, page 224)

• Rigidity and defensiveness, resulting in overcommiting to failing courses of action
• Finding it hard to admit you were wrong

Isolation (1, page 224)

• Not taking time to make the right connections, perhaps overrelying on a few people or on official information

Work avoidance (1, page 224)

• Choosing to delay work/ decisions by burying yourself in other work or fool yourself into believing that the time isn’t ripe to make the call
• Avoiding taking the bull by the horns, resulting in the tough problems becoming even tougher

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References

1. The First 90 days by Michael D. Watkins

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New Organisation Considerations

Agile Games

Product Owner Role Overview

• MUST – One person (2)
• What happens when the Product Owner is not available or out of office?

Product Goal

• How does the Product Owner develop the Product Goal?
• How does the Product Owner communicate the Product Goal?
• How does the Product Owner align the Product Goal with the business strategy (and other teams)?

Product Backlog Management

Product Backlog Ordering

• Does the Product Owner have the knowledge to be able to order the backlog?
• On what basis does the Product Owner order the Product Backlog?
• How often does the order of the Product Backlog change? Why?

Tool

• What does the Product Owner use to store the Product Backlog?
• Is the Product Backlog visible?
• Are there any personal tools the Product Owner uses in addition to the visible Product Backlog?

Product Backlog Items

• Who constructs the Product Backlog Items?
• How are Product Backlog Items communicated?
• Check Product Backlog Items against positive and smells
• Does the Product Owner understand all of the Product Backlog Items?

Forecasting

• How does the Product Owner use the Product Backlog to forecast releases and deliveries?
• How does the Product Owner communicate these forecasts?
• How does the Product Owner handle changes to the forecasts?

Stakeholder Communication

• Who are the Product Owner’s internal stakeholders?
• What are the expectations in communication between the Product Owner and his/her/their stakeholders?
• Does the Product Owner have direct contact with the customers?

Empowerment

• Is the Product Owner’s decision respected with regards to order of the Product Backlog?
• Is the Product Owner’s decision respected with regards to the forming of the Product Goal?
• Is the Product Owner’s decision respected with regards to releasing functionality live?

Relationship with the Developers

• How available is the Product Owner to the developers?
• How do the developers and the Product Owner communicate?
• Is there mutual respect between the respective responsibilities?

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References

1. Henrik Kniberg’s checklist
2. The Scrum Guide

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User Stories

Refinement

This interview structure is adapted from the sample questions from The First 90 Days, page 176 (1).

Method

• Meet with each direct report in turn and ask the following questions  
• By asking the same questions of everyone you can see where similarities and differences lie, which will help you understand what kind of team player each person is a little more. 
• Once you have gone through all the data of the interviews, gather the whole team together and discuss what you have found out through the interviews and have an open discussion.

Questions

• What are the strengths and weaknesses of our existing use of Scrum and complementary practices?
• What are the biggest challenges and opportunities facing us in the short term? In the medium term?
  • In terms of our Product and providing our customers with value
  • In terms of our Scrum team’s processes and ways of working
• What resources could we leverage more effectively?
  • In terms of our processes
  • In terms of our tools
  • In terms of individuals in our team
  • In terms of our interactions inside and outside the team
• How could we improve the way the team works together?
• If you were in my position, what would your priorities be?

Optional Follow-up Questions

People 

• How do you think the skills and responsibilities are balanced in the team? 
• If there is a mistake/ failure within the team, is it openly discussed in team events? What about with external stakeholders?
• Is there anyone inside the team or externally who has a big influence on the way we work or what/how we develop, and why? 

Land mines 

• What was the most recent surprises that detonated and put us off track?
  • What is the most common? 
• What potentially damaging cultural or political missteps must you avoid? 

Practices

• Are there any Scrum or complementary practices that you know about that you think would benefit us as a team?
• What are the most recent improvements that were made to our practices?
  • Who lead the change?
  • Do you think it was successful/ worthwhile?
  • Was there any opposition to the change?
• What current parts of our process frustrates you the most?

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References

1. The First 90 days by Michael D. Watkins

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Scrum Roles

• MUST – One Product Owner
• MUST – One Scrum Master
• MUST – Developers

Scrum Team Size and Structure

• MUST – No sub-teams
• MUST – No hierarchies
• SUGGESTED – ‘Typically fewer than 10 people’ (3)
• Are the team members remote or co-located?
• Are all the team members committed to the team?
• Are there any unspoken hierarchies, e.g. an assumed leader?

Cross-functional

• MUST – The team has all the skills necessary to create value each Sprint (3)
• Are the skills siloed into specialisms, or are the team members multi-skilled (or T-shaped)?

Evaluating Group’s Skill Bases (2, page 162)

Four types of knowledge

• Individual expertise: gained through training, education, and experience
• Relational knowledge: An understanding of how to work together to integrate individual knowledge to achieve specified goals
• Embedded knowledge: The core technologies on which your group’s performance depends, such as customer databases or R&D technologies
• Metaknowledge: The awareness of where to go to get critical information

Self-Organising

• Do they decide what is developed?
• Do they decide who does the development?
• Do they decide how to build an increment?
• What are they responsible for in terms of product development?
• Are they held accountable for creating an increment?

Team Working Agreements

Communication

• How do they like to communicate day to day?
• Do they have any information radiators to aid their communication?
• What are the understood response times for communications internally and externally?

Team Culture

• Do they socialise away from work?
• What is the energy of the team?
• Is there overtime? Is it acceptable/ expected?

Evaluating Individuals (2, page 171)

Consider these six criteria

• Competence: Does this person have the techincal competence and experience to do the job effectively?
• Judgment: Does this person exercise good judgment, especially under pressure or when faced with making sacrifices for the greater good?
• Energy: Does this team member bring the right kind of energy to the job, or is she burned out or disengaged?
• Focus: Is this person capable of setting priorities and sticking to them, or prone to riding off in all directions?
• Relationships: Does this individual get along with others on the team and support collective decision making, or is he difficult to work with?
• Trust: Can you trust this person to keep her word and follow through on commitments?

Team Smells

Problematic behaviour patterns (2, page 120)

Lack of…	Symptoms
Focus	The group can’t clearly define its priorities, or has too many. Resources are spread too thin, leading to frequent crises and firefighting. People are rewarded for their ability to put out fires, not for devising enduring solutions.
Discipline	People exhibit great variation in their levels of performance. Employees don’t understand the negative consequences of inconsistency. People make excuses when they fail to make commitments.
Innovation	The group uses internal benchmarks to measure performance. Improvements in products and processes unfold slowly and incrementally. Employees are rewarded for maintaining stable performance, not for pushing the envelope.
Teamwork	Team members compete with one another and protect turf rather than work together to achieve collective goals. People are rewarded for creating fiefdoms.
Sense of urgency	Teams members ignore the needs of external and internal customers. Complacency reigns, revealed in beliefs such as ‘We’re the best and always have been’ and ‘It doesn’t matter if we respond immediately’

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References

1. Henrik Kniberg’s checklist
2. The First 90 days by Michael D. Watkins
3. The Scrum Guide

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