Scrum Master

The Scrum Masters job is to deliver maximum value to the customer. Scrum Masters facilitate daily stand-ups and coach/ support the team in following the Scrum framework. The Scrum Master may also handle some more traditional project management duties including: scope definition, staffing, communication of status to clients and partners, budget oversight and risk/issue management.

Essential Duties:

• Strongly serving and supporting the Product Owner and Development Team

– Servant Leadership -Providing all support to the team using a servant leadership style and leading by example. This person should personify Scrum and Agile.

• Guiding and Coaching the Scrum Team and organization on how to use Agile/Scrum practices & values
• Guiding and Coaching both the Scrum Team and the Development team on how to get the most out of self-organization
• Guiding and Coaching both the Scrum Team and the Development team on self-organizing to fill in the intentional gaps left in the Agile/Scrum frameworks
• Assessing the Scrum Maturity of the team and organization and coaching the team to higher levels of maturity, at a pace that is sustainable and comfortable for the team and organization
• Ensure product quality expectations are defined and known across the team.
• Track progress and help the team achieve their commitments.
• Removing impediments or guiding the team to remove impediments by finding the right personnel to remove the impediment.

-Progress is monitored daily when problems are identified work with team to develop corrective actions. -Manage and report the status of scope, schedule, resourcing and financials.

• Building a trusting and safe environment where problems can be raised without fear of blame, retribution, or being judged, with an emphasis of healing and problem solving.
• Facilitating getting the work done without coercion, assigning, or dictating the work.
• Facilitating discussion, decision making, and conflict resolution and all scrum ceremonies
• Assisting with internal and external communication, improving transparency, and radiating information
• Supporting and educating the Product Owner, especially with respect to refining(aka grooming) and managing the product backlog.
• Collaborate with the team in scheduling work, including defect remediation and refactoring, guarding against the accumulation of technical debt.
• Work with technical team and product owner balancing the interests of both when issues arise.
• Guide project team meetings including sprint pre/planning meetings, daily scrum and sprint review meetings. Facilitate retrospective discussions and support continuous improvement efforts.
• Remove Blockers/impediments to the team
• Limit the external interference the team must deal with.

Qualifications and Required Skills/Experience:
– Degree – information technology or business or related field.

• Must have First level Scrum Master certification (CSM ) (PSM), PMI-ACP
• Experience playing the Scrum Master role for at least three years for active Scrum teams.
• Excellent skills and knowledge of servant leadership, facilitation, situational awareness, conflict resolution, continual improvement, empowerment, and increasing transparency
• Exceptional people skills. Comfortable working with a diverse group of people and serve as arbitrator when conflicts arise.
• Knowledge of numerous well documented patterns and techniques for filling in the intentional gaps left in the Scrum approach(example: numerous Burndown techniques, numerous Retrospective formats, handling bugs, etc)
• The ability to distinguish between what “is Scrum” what is “not Scrum”
• Knowledge of other approaches discussed in the Agile space: XP, Kanban, Nexus, LeSS, SAFe, Crystal, FDD, Scrum at Scale etc
• Knowledge and/or experience with widely successful Agile techniques: User Stories, ATDD, TDD, Continuous Integration,
• Exceptional communication and mentoring skills
• Solid understanding of and demonstrated experience in using appropriate tools:
• Agile Project Management tools such as Jira, Rally, or equivalent
• Microsoft Project, Visio, and all Office Tools
• Understanding of financial controls needed in project management and consulting work
• In depth understanding of how to scope and estimate work. Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Preferred Skills/Experience (Any of these is a plus)

• Second or Third level Scrum Master certification (PSM II, PSM III, CSP, CTC)
• PMI-PMP, and CSPO or equivalent preferred
• Experience being on multiple Scrum teams in a variety of different contexts (different team sizes, different organizations, different cultures, co-located vs. distributed, etc)
• Track record of continued and recent education in Scrum, including training, conferences, user groups, self study, etc.

Continuous Testing, Pairing, Automated Testing, Agile Games

• Applicable knowledge of the technologies used by the team
• Experience applying a wide variety of well documented patterns and techniques for filling in the intentional gaps left in the Scrum approach(example: numerous Burndown techniques, numerous Retrospective formats, handling bugs,etc)