Out & About – How to be a Scrum Master

Each team member at 93digital has a personal development budget each year. In our ‘Out & About’ series, we catch up with the team following their adventures at conferences, events, and development courses.

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1. What is your role at 93digital?

I’m one of the Project Managers here at 93digital.

2. What have you attended recently where and why?

I attended the two-day Certified Scrum Master training course with Scrum Alliance. I wanted to gain a better knowledge of Agile principles, improve my own management skills, and find ways to improve the way we work here at 93digital.

It was also on my to-do list for 2018, so getting it ticked off in May is pretty good progress!

3. We agree! What’s the premise behind the course?

The course was a two day, intensive introduction to Scrum Mastery, intending to provide attendee’s with the knowledge and skills to be able to pass their Scrum Master Certification test.

That’s the basic premise.  But the way which Scrum Alliance approaches it made it really interactive and enjoyable.  We started by running our own sprint cycles altogether and then moved onto the principles/ artefacts/roles involved in delivering an Agile project.

4. What did you learn that you can take into your work day-to-day?

We did so many exercises!  Some more involved than others, but they all really illustrated how effective the principles of scrum really well.  I don’t want to bore you with them here, but if you ever want some ideas on how to demonstrate the power of a self-organising team, the time wasted in cognitive load, or even how a full sprint can work then give me a shout!  I’d be happy to evangelize about these exercises to anyone who cares to listen!

So, in my day to day life, I am managing my own to-do list like a Progress board, I’m going to get the whole team to sign up to an agreed definition of done, and start considering what other Agile elements I can get implemented.

I am really itching to try to deliver a fully agile project as soon as possible though, so watch this space!

5. What did you learn from a more long-term perspective?

First of all, It gave me a real desire to start delivering projects in an Agile way.  It’s really helped me consider more in-depth where I can see my career progressing and what elements of the traditional ‘Project Manager’ that I enjoy most and how I can carve myself out a niche which really focuses on that in the future as 93digital continues to grow.

6. What other qualifications that reflect your role in the agency would you like to develop in?

I’ll probably look at becoming an Advanced Scrum Master, a qualification which will help my facilitation, confidence and help me implement Agile values more strongly.  Though, that’s a bit of a way off!

7. What made you decide to go to this event?

I’ve had an interest in more Agile practices for a while.  My last work conference was to the DeliverCon project management conference, and attending that made me think more about delivering in a more Agile way.  So, becoming a CSM was the first step in getting there!

I was also thinking about approaching the Product Owner qualification.  But, what I really like is the over-arching role of a scrum master who is there to facilitate rather than dictate. So maybe, Product Owner isn’t really the role for me.  I guess I am conflicted!

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Below is one of the videos that Scrum Master students were shown to communicate how motivation is driven by purpose.