When it comes to the role of a Scrum Master, I often find myself reflecting on the dynamics within a team. Recently, I was asked whether I would recommend an Agile Process Simulation (APS) workshop or an agile consultant if a Scrum Master was struggling with their team. My immediate thought was, “Perhaps we need to consider a new Scrum Master.” After all, if a Scrum Master is battling with their team, it raises some serious questions about their effectiveness and understanding of their role.
The Role of the Scrum Master
The Scrum Master is there to facilitate and support the team, not to engage in conflict. If the entire team is at odds with the Scrum Master, it’s a clear indication that something is amiss. Here are a few points to consider:
- Collaboration is Key: The Scrum Master should be a part of the team, working collaboratively to enhance effectiveness.
- Understanding the Conflict: It’s essential to understand what the Scrum Master is battling the team over. Is it a misunderstanding of Scrum principles, or is it a deeper issue within the team dynamics?
When to Consider an APS Workshop
If the Scrum Master is facing resistance from the team regarding practices that could benefit them, it’s crucial to remember that Scrum is meant to be a democratised process. Here’s how I would approach the situation:
- Empower the Team: The team should have the autonomy to decide whether to adopt Scrum practices. If they feel forced into it, resistance is inevitable.
- Facilitate Understanding: An APS workshop can be a great way to help the team understand the value of Scrum. It’s not just about teaching them the framework; it’s about engaging them in a way that resonates with their specific context.
A Hybrid Approach
In my experience as an agile consultant, I often adopt a coaching role. Here’s how I would structure a hybrid APS workshop:
Observation and Coaching: I would start by observing the team dynamics and then focus on coaching the Scrum Master. If they’re struggling, it’s essential to address that first.
Engaging the Team: During the workshop, I would encourage the team to express their concerns about Scrum. This dialogue is vital for understanding their perspective.
Tailored Learning: Whether it’s a public APS class or a private session, I ensure that we address the specific issues the team faces. This is where the real value lies.
Key Questions to Explore
At the end of the APS workshop, I facilitate a session where we dive into critical questions:
- Should We Use Scrum?: What are the reasons for and against using Scrum in their context?
- Current Effectiveness: Is their current way of working delivering value to the customer? If not, what changes are necessary?
- Exploring Tools: After discussing various tools and practices, will they try any of these, or do they prefer to explore other options?
These questions are not for me to answer but for the team to reflect upon. It’s about fostering a culture of self-discovery and empowerment.
Conclusion
In conclusion, if a Scrum Master is battling with their team, it’s a signal that we need to reassess the situation. An APS workshop can be a valuable tool, but it should be approached as a collaborative effort rather than a top-down imposition. By engaging the team in meaningful conversations and encouraging them to explore their own processes, we can help them make informed decisions that lead to better outcomes.
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Oh, so if a Scrum Master was battling with their team, would you recommend an APS workshop or an agile consultant? I may recommend a new Scrum Master, right? Because if the Scrum Master is battling with the team, that doesn’t even make sense. They’re there to help the team be effective; they’re part of the team. If a whole team is battling with them, then that makes them the [ __ ]. Right? I think it does. I guess it would be circumstantial, but that’s how I feel.
With an APS workshop or an agile consultant, be better. What I tend to do as an agile consultant is more of a coach, the coach, right? So I’m happy to be there, observe the team, maybe give the whole team advice if that’s what’s asked for. But I would tend to focus on observing and then coaching the Scrum Master. If the Scrum Master is battling the team, maybe that’s not going to be effective, right?
So probably it depends on what the Scrum Master is battling the team over. So if the Scrum Master is battling the team, like the team, I, we, the team are objecting to doing things that could potentially benefit them, it’s kind of let the team decide. It’s meant to be a democratised process, not a dictatorship. So the Scrum Master can’t dictate anything, but perhaps there’s some value in helping the team understand more about what Scrum, for example, has to offer so that they have more ammunition to make a determination, and perhaps they’ll make a different determination, right? Because if the team decides not to do Scrum, they probably shouldn’t be doing Scrum, right? Because if you enforce it, they’re not going to like it, they’re going to push back against it, and you’re not going to have a good time. It needs to be a chosen thing.
So what I might suggest is yes, an APS workshop, and treat it as a workshop, treat it as having fun, right, from their perspective. But also from my perspective, they’re all going to bring the things, the reasons why Scrum can’t work for them. So it’s almost like a hybrid. That would, for me, be a hybrid situation where I’m going to run an APS, where I may run an APS workshop, but I’m going to treat it very much as a consulting gig that they do want some answers, right? They don’t necessarily just want to understand APS; they want to understand EPS within the context of their company and their problems and their issues. Because there’s no point in just teaching them Scrum if they’re vehemently opposed to the idea of anything like that or anything being imposed upon them.
So probably approach it from that perspective, that we’re going to use the APS curriculum as a way to shape the conversation and hit all of the things that we need to hit. But even at the end, at the end of the APS, I’ve mentioned this a couple of times because I just love this feature of the APS. After we’ve had those conversations, right, whether it’s a standard APS where I’ve got a bunch of public students and we teach the class, they learn a bunch of stuff about Scrum, but we don’t necessarily dive too much into their individual context, or if it’s a private gig like the one that we’re describing here, where we’re able to spend as much time as we need on their stuff as well and understanding that link because it matters to everybody in the room.
At the end of the class, we have this session where we dive into what should you do, right? There’s a number of little workshops that I can run with the group that’s in the room that depends on what the group is. One of those is a kind of getting started with Scrum workshop. One of those is a tune-up, right? We’re already doing Scrum, and we need to tune up our process. What should we look at? But we also first have a kind of set of questions to set them up, and one of those is should we use Scrum? One of the questions is what are the reasons we shouldn’t use Scrum? What are the reasons we should? What will happen if we don’t change what we’re doing? Because those are important questions, not for me to answer, but for them to answer for themselves.
Do they feel their current way of working is actually working? Is it actually providing value to the customer? If not, what are they going to do to change? We’ve just talked for four half days about a bunch of tools that they could use to help them change. Are they going to try some of those tools, or do they want to try something else? If you think those tools won’t work, what needs to change in your organisation in order for that to be effective? And I think that’s probably the way I would approach it, a kind of hybrid APS with some agile consulting in order to help the team make better decisions. And you know when to have a long chat with the Scrum Master if they’re battling the team, right?
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