[dropcap]B[/dropcap]usinesses of today manage projects with the latest technologies, tools, and techniques. Enterprises need better-organized teams, and efficient resource utilization, which is cost and time effective. A scrum master helps to drive and manage the teams to realize the organization’s goals and objectives. A scrum master is a facilitator for the agile development and governs the information exchange process in the group. The role of the scrum master is critical in project teams as he assists the team as well as the product owner to ensure the quality of work is at its best by following scrum practices and framework.
A certified scrum master brings the best agile practices and helps the development team, product owners, and the organizations to deliver the best products and services to their end clients. A scrum master stands like a mirror before all the three teams and reflects the good and flaws in the work and helps to correct and rectify the errors quickly.
Role of a CSM
The character of a CSM is unique in any organization. He is an interface between the developers, product owners, and top management. You should understand the role before you get your scrum master certification. Fundamentally, a scrum master should know the tools and techniques required to assist the teams in accomplishing the goals and objectives of the top management and the product owner and remove all the challenges, obstacles which could slow down the progress.
Skills of a Certified Scrum Master
A CSM certification will give you the requisite technical skills which are often referred to as hard skills. Apart from hard skills, a scrum master is expected to possess soft skills to ensure project success. According to research conducted by Harvard University and Stanford University, technical skills account for 15% of the project success only. The remaining 85% depends on how the scrum master uses his soft skills, which are critical while working with the team members.
Technical skills
Technical skills can be imparted during Certified Scrum Master training. Some of the technical skills needed to be a scrum master:
Robust Scrum and Agile technology knowledge: You must have a sound understanding of the terms, phrases of the Scrum and Agile framework and understand their application. The role of a scrum master is above a team lead and a project manager. Therefore, it is imperative to have a thorough knowledge of the terminology and the best practices of Scrum and Agile.
An understanding of the technical knowhow: As a Scrum master, you are expected to understand the technology of the product in the development. It is vital to have an understanding of the technical process and technical terms in use. This knowledge will help you to push the teams to work with proper techniques and appropriate tools to accomplish their goals.
Proper scheduling and organizing skills: A scrum master is expected to have a proper plan and schedule in place for their teams. This will help the teams to stay organized and there will be no task that will escape notice.
Soft skills
Mentoring and coaching skills: A good scrum master should have sound knowledge of the scrum process and train and coach the teams to follow the scrum process and methodologies. He should know what to do and how to get the job done.
Servant leader skills: To be efficient, you should lead by example. You should do rather than tell your team members. If need be, you have to be a part of the team and collaborate with team members to accomplish the goals.
Mediation and conflict resolution: As a scrum master you have to mediate between management group, product teams and development teams. Since the team members working in every team are diverse with their skills, thoughts and prior knowledge, there will be a conflict of interest. The scrum master plays an important role to resolve all the conflicts which become barriers to qualitative delivery.
Improve Team dynamics: A scrum master should promote positive team dynamics by having well-defined roles and responsibilities in the team, understand and tackle the issues and problems in a timely manner, eliminate barriers to productivity and communication.
Effective communication: A scrum master should liaison between product owners, development teams and management. This is possible with effective communication and transparency of information.
A CSM certification will help you to understand your role as a scrum master, gain technical and soft skills, learn agile and scrum methodologies, and understand scrum terminologies and processes, and scrum lifecycle.
