Scrum Master

Job Description

Cultivate exceptional team health / culture / environment

Do shy people voice their opinions, actively participate?

Do people consistently offer to help one another out? Ask for help?

Do uncomfortable, healthy conversations occur during retrospectives? (open, real, and safe conversations)

Do people have the freedom / motivation to work on side projects or initiatives that will benefit the team?

Are people at ease with contributing to the Product Backlog?

Does the team self-organize effectively without frequent involvement of the Scrum Master?

Is there a team captain ? (other than Scrum Master, Product Owner)

Do people feel that they report to one another equally on the team?

• Facilitate Scrum ceremonies : Sprint Planning, Daily Stand-Up, Sprint Review, Sprint & Release Retrospectives
• Help to make all work from all team members visible
• Assist the team with story effort estimation and task breakdown
• Create the team’s task board which acts as a placeholder for conversation (which is continually measured for effectiveness)
• Holds regular 1 on 1’s with all members of the team
• Help create a Definition of Done & Team Working Agreement (provide support to hold each other accountable)
• Support the team in delivering on Sprint commitments, and create relevant metrics to track progress & improvements over time
• Ensure the team operates within relevant time boxes
• Work successfully on the essential relationship with their Product Owner
• Work effectively with other Scrum Masters
• Work with Specialist Teams (Technical Services & Support)
• Liaise with the Delivery Manager, Program Managers, and other IT Sr. Management to help achieve specific goals of the department
• Liaise with the Team Sponsor
• Represent the team at the Change Approval Board
• Communicate with stakeholders, particularly with agile education (facilitate sessions with them where appropriate)
• Ensure team is represented at Scrum of Scrums wall of work
• Enable the team to progress towards being a Feature Team
• Protect & promote the team, and take pride in team accomplishments
• Shield the team from disruptions
• Eliminate obstacles diligently, both within and external to the team
• Encourage the team to find the simplest, most responsible solution that will provide value (technical or otherwise)
• Promotes volunteerism, team unity, and decisions based on consensus
• Helps the team to be courageous
• Ensure the team takes into account the customer experience and are keenly aware of the big picture
• Help the team to articulate risks, pros / cons of choosing one option vs. others
• Ensure Sprint Review content has context, relevance for all IT / Business attendees
• Be an active participant in SM Community of Practice (CoP). Pair with other SMs as appropriate
• Encourage other members of the team to be active participants in their CoP

Qualifications

• Must have practical experience with Scrum, specifically with being a servant-leader for a Scrum team
• Strong facilitator skills
• Must be able to use powerful questions to elicit new ideas & approaches
• Exceptional emotional intelligence
• Direct experience with building high performing teams
• Proficient with active listening skills (multiple levels of listening)
• Keep up to date with the latest techniques for agile software development, has a presence in the agile community
• Strong belief that defects are prioritized to the top of the Product Backlog
• Comfortable with providing honest feedback within and outside of the team
• Take to heart the Just Start! approach for software delivery
• Familiar with agile management tools, i.e. Version One, Rally
• Familiar with other agile methodologies, i.e. Kanban, XP, Lean
• Understands that agile is a learning process, structure of a learning system
• Experience with team progression. Knowledge of Tuckman’s model (Form, Storm, Norm, Perform)
• Understands goal-oriented change management models such as ADKAR, POOP, and Plan-Do-Check-Act (Deming)
• Understands the difference between single loop & double loop feedback / learning mechanisms
• Practical experience with creating a culture of continuous learning & improvement
• Familiar with various estimating techniques, i.e. T-shirt sizing, Agile Estimating 2.0
• Has experience with various story splitting & story mapping techniques
• Familiar with various software development mechanisms : continuous integration, self-service builds, automated deployments, automated unit / integration / functional tests, virtual test environments, source code health (i.

e. Sonar), test frameworks (i.e. JUnit, Selenium)

• Basic knowledge of enterprise architecture and IT governance
• Has a willingness to learn, is enthusiastic, flexible, and open-minded
• Show initiative, is respectful, tactful, and trustworthy
• Naturally curious, suspicious, and resourceful
• Relevant Bachelor’s degree or diploma (or equivalent training and experience)
30+ days ago