Watts - Scrum Mastery (Geoff Watts Agile Mastery Series)

Geoff Watts

SCRUM MASTERY

From Good To Great Servant Leadership

Copyright, Inspect & Adapt Ltd 2013-2021

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Second Edition Published March 2021

First Edition Published 2013 by Inspect & Adapt Ltd

96 Redgrove Park, Cheltenham, Glos, GL51 6QZ

Edited by Rebecca Traeger

Design by Ole H. Strksen

All illustrations from Shutterstock.com

Main illustrations by and based on the works of Dan Cristo/Shutterstock.

Cover illustration Vectomart and Dan Cristo/Shutterstock.

ISBN: 9798725771053

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Dedicated to

My wife Alison, my daughter Freya and my sons Cody and Grayson

Hopefully this book will explain a little better than I have previously managed to do myself what my job has been for the last twenty years or so.

You are my inspiration

I love you guys

Table of Contents

Foreword by Mike Cohn

I first met Geoff Watts at the 2004 Scrum Gathering in Boulder. Back then Scrum Gatherings were invitation-only events for the foremost practitioners of what was starting to become the leading agile approach. Shortly after that Scrum Gathering, Geoff became the first Certified Scrum Trainer in the UK, and today he is one of the most respected in the world.

I was honored when Geoff asked me to write a foreword for this book as it covers a topic very important to me: Lots of Scrum teams and ScrumMasters are good, but very few become great. Since its publication, Scrum Mastery: From Good To Great Servant Leadership has changed that and this updated edition will further that change.

Geoff brings to this book a wealth of experiencehe was a ScrumMaster and agile coach with BT (British Telecom) during their transition to agile, one of the worlds first large-scale Scrum adoptions. Since then, as a consultant, he has worked with large and small organisations in various stages of transitioning to Scrum. Geoffs wealth of experience shows through in the advice he offers us here.

In this book, Geoff speaks to good ScrumMasters who wish to be great. He summarizes key points by saying A good ScrumMaster does this; a great ScrumMaster does that. I loved this. Not only does it keep his writing direct and on point, I found it reminiscent of the Agile Manifesto and its statements of valuing this over that.

A good book reinforces what we know;
a great book teaches us something new.

Ive been involved with Scrum projects since 1995. And, although theres always more to learn, most books rehash well-trod territory and I dont finish them any wiser. Scrum Mastery: From Good To Great Servant Leadership gave me several new ideas. For example, in writing about the sprint review, Geoff offers a set of questions that can be asked at every sprint review. These questions Have priorities changed? Have any estimates changed? are all ones Ive asked before. But I dont think Ive ever asked all of them in the same review, and Ive never thought of having a key set of questions to go over in each review. Ive since enjoyed trying this with some of the teams I work.

A good book is worth reading; a great book is worth coming back to.

In the eight years since it was released, I have referred back to this book many times and will continue to do so in the years to come. Like Scrum itself, many of the core ideas here are simpleensure teams have access to their product owners, let teams make decisions, know the power of silence. But there are nuances to these simplicities and Ive returned to the book to re-read Geoffs explanations and tips.

A good book is easy to read; a great book makes you forget youre reading at all and comes alive in our heads.

We visualize whats happening. Thats a particularly challenging goal in a technical book. Through the numerous stories throughout Scrum Mastery, Geoff pulls us in, introducing us to the ScrumMasters and team members he has encountered in his career. Just as Geoff learned from them, we learn from Geoff telling their stories.

A good book makes you think; a great book gives you new things to think about.

You will, of course, find the usual Scrum topics hereretrospectives, collaboration, sprint reviews, and the like. Along the way youll also be challenged with new ways to think about these topics, such as how a weather forecast may be better than a burndown chart and why a story pint may be better than a story point. And Geoffs British sense of humor makes learning about it all the more entertaining.

A good author is worth reading; a great author is worth reading even when you disagree with him.

Do I agree with everything in here? Of course not. Too much of being a great ScrumMaster depends on ones personal style. But even when I disagreed with a suggestion, Geoffs writing and arguments were strong enough to make me stop and reconsider my own views.

As ScrumMasters, we should all value being great over being good. Scrum Mastery: From Good To Great Servant Leadership offers us plenty of advice for achieving it.

Mike Cohn

Author of Succeeding with Agile

Boulder, Colorado

Foreword by Esther Derby

As Geoff points out in the introduction to Scrum Mastery: From Good To Great Servant-Leadership, there is no unequivocal definition of the role of ScrumMaster. In fact, theres little more than the directive, do everything possible to help the team be productive. How to do this is left up to each individual.

This ambiguity is both a blessing and a curse. It is a blessing when it allows for creative solutions and local adaptations that are appropriate to the circumstances. Its a curse when the lack of specificity allows old mental models and patterns of behaviour to persist under a new name. If you imagine the only way to increase productivity is carrots and sticks, those are the tools youll use, no matter what your title is.

Every team is alike in some ways and different in others. Agile teams are alike in that they strive to work cross-functionally to deliver working software. Many of them work in iterations. But from there, differences abound. Some teams need to learn solid engineering practices. Others need help with a specific skill such as automated unit testing. Still others need coaching to become a functioning team. Many need help making the mental shift to working in feature-slices that fit into short iterations. A ScrumMaster may need completely different skills depending on the team and the organization.

But what a ScrumMaster always needs are the qualities that Geoff describes in this book:

Resourcefulin removing impediments to productivity

Enabling,helping others be effective

Tactful,diplomacy personified

Respected,known forintegrity both within the team and in the wider organization

Alternative,prepared to promote a counter-culture

Inspiring,generating enthusiasm and energy in others

Nurturing