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Category Agile

scrum

How do I prepare for being a Scrum Master?

At a time in my career, I wanted to work as a Scrum Master, however, the biggest question for me was “ Where do I start to become a scrum master?”.  You may have a similar question and now when I reflect on this question, I feel it is normal to question yourself about how to prepare for a Scrum Master interview, and how to equip yourself with the knowledge to serve a scrum team. Based on my experience in transitioning to a Scrum Master role, here are seven pieces of guidance that you can follow –

Guidance 1 – How do I prepare for being a Scrum Master ?

Start with Why – Sounds familiar, the famous book from Simon Sinek. This is the most critical question to ask yourself, Why do I want to become a Scrum Master? Ask this question to yourself and convince yourself that you are clear on your path to being a Scrum Master.  If you have the conviction of becoming a Scrum Master, you are unstoppable.

Guidance 2 – How do I prepare for being a Scrum Master ?

Path to becoming a Scrum Master – Assuming you have zero knowledge of Scrum, creating a plan and following it will help you reach your goal of becoming a Scrum Master. This will lead to the 1st question that we discussed, Where do I start to become a scrum master?”. A few things that I followed to become a Scrum Master are as follows –

a) What is Agile?

b) What is the Agile Manifesto?

c) What are the various frameworks under agile?

d) What is Scrum?

e) Read the Scrum Guide

f) Read the Scrum Guide – Again and Again and Again and +++++++ (Scrum is easy to understand but difficult to master, reading the Scrum Guide once a month and reflecting on your experience and learnings on Scrum will make you understand Scrum better)

Guidance 3 – How do I prepare for being a Scrum Master ?

Scrum Master Certification – Understand various Scrum Master Certifications available, and go through the course outline before taking up a certification. The major advantage of doing a certification is to get the knowledge in a capsule format in a limited time.

Guidance 4 – How do I prepare for being a Scrum Master ?

Daily life of a Scrum Master – Understand what a Scrum Master does daily, day-to-day tasks, and challenges faced. Connect with Scrum Masters and ask them about the challenges they faced in their organization/teams.  Also, learn about their context, the processes followed, things working well, and things not working well.

Guidance 5 –How do I prepare for being a Scrum Master ?

Prepare for the Scrum Master interview – Here is a list of questions which you can go through for a Scrum Master interview.

Check this – https://www.lighttangent.com/how-to-prepare-for-a-scrum-master-interview/

Guidance 6 – How do I prepare for being a Scrum Master ?

Learn the tools used by Scrum Master – JIRA/Asana/Azure, these are some of the tools used by Scrum Masters with JIRA being the most commonly used. Tool knowledge will increase your confidence during the interview process. ( I asked a few Scrum Masters to give me a walkthrough of JIRA and that helped before I took up a Scrum Master job)

Guidance 7 – How do I prepare for being a Scrum Master ?

Apply Apply Apply – Now you are ready to take up a Scrum Master role, you know a Scrum Master, and you are aware of the challenges faced by a Scrum Master, it is time to apply for a Scrum Master role either in your organization/outside of your organization. Speak to your friends/colleagues/network and inform them that you are looking for a Scrum Master opportunity. My strong recommendation is to apply for internal job postings in your organization as many organizations promote career aspirations and do not necessarily look for prior experience as a Scrum Master. Keep trying and keep applying till you land up with a Scrum Master job.

Kanban

14 Key Terms in Kanban – Everybody should know

Here are the terms that one comes across in Kanban. Understanding the concepts of these terms will help one in understanding Kanban.

Flow – Kanban is based on the theory of flow. Flow is of no use without value, in Kanban Flow is the movement of potential value through a system.

Kanban Practices – There are 3 practices in Kanban ( (1) Defining and visualizing a workflow (2) Actively managing items in a workflow (3) Improving a workflow

Kanban system – Kanban practices are collectively called a Kanban system

Kanban system members -Those who participate in the value delivery of a Kanban system are called Kanban system members.

Workflow – How work gets done + movement of potential value through a system.

Definition of Workflow (DoW) – This is the fundamental concept of Kanban. The explicit shared understanding of flow among Kanban system members within their context is called a Definition of Workflow (DoW).

Kanban Board – The visualization of the Definition of Workflow (DoW)is called a Kanban board.

Work Items – A definition of the individual units of value that are moving through the workflow.

Work in progress (WIP) – Any work items between a started point and a finished point are considered work in progress (WIP).

WIP limits – WIP stands for Work in Progress, part of actively managing items on a workflow practice. Controlling WIP helps in managing the workflow which means not adding new work items unless the in-progress work items are completed.

Service Level Expectation (SLE) – Forecast of how long it should take a work item to flow from start to finish. It serves 3 functions – right sizing, completion forecast, and how much age is too much age.

Throughput: The number of work items finished per unit of time. Note the measurement of throughput is the exact count of work items.

Work Item Age: The amount of elapsed time between when a work item started and the current time.

Cycle Time: The amount of elapsed time between when a work item started and when a work item finished.

Refer this page – Kanban on a page to know about Kanban in a nutshell.

Kanban

Kanban on a page

Definition of Kanban

Kanban is a strategy for optimizing the flow of value through a process that uses a visual, pull-based system. Context is critical in Kanban and the primary step upon which the whole Kanban setup is built. If a team/organization is following the below 3 practices of Kanban, they are doing Kanban. There can be additional practices that teams can adopt along with Kanban practices based on their context however these 3 practices are a MUST.

3 Practices of Kanban

  1. Defining and visualizing a workflow
  2. Actively managing items in a workflow
  3. Improving a workflow

These Kanban practices are collectively called a Kanban system

Those who participate in the value delivery of a Kanban system are called Kanban system members.

Core Concept of Kanban

Flow theory is the foundation of Kanban. Flow is the movement of potential value through a system. The strategy of Kanban is to optimize value by optimizing flow. Optimization does not necessarily imply maximization. Rather, value optimization means striving to find the right balance of effectiveness, efficiency, and predictability in how work gets done.

3 aspects of value optimization – Effectiveness, Efficiency, Predictability

An effective workflow is one that delivers what customers want when they want it.

 An efficient workflow allocates available economic resources as optimally as possible to deliver value.

A more predictable workflow means being able to accurately forecast value delivery within an acceptable degree of uncertainty.

Kanban Measures

Quote – If you can’t measure it, you cannot improve

There are 4 measures in Kaban

  • WIP: The number of work items started but not finished.
  • Throughput: The number of work items finished per unit of time. Note the measurement of throughput is the exact count of work items.
  • Work Item Age: The amount of elapsed time between when a work item started and the current time.
  • Cycle Time: The amount of elapsed time between when a work item started and when a work item finished.

Summary

If one has to summarize Kanban in one sentence that would be Kanban is about flow optimization which includes effectiveness, efficiency and predictability. No flow No Kanban.

scrum

How to start a career as a Scrum Master

A common question from professionals who want to move to a Scrum Master role, before we delve further let’s understand “Who is a Scrum Master”. Do read the Scrum Guide 2020 for an understanding of the Scrum Master role.

Identify which of the category you find yourself in –

Category 1 – Professional with 6+ years of experience

Category 2 – Professional with 3 – 6 years of experience

Category 3 – Professional with 0 – 3 years of experience

Category 1 – Professional with 6+ years of experience

 There are 2 scenarios –

Scenario 1 – Your organization is not following Scrum, hence there is no Scrum Master opportunity in your organization. Refer to the article – How to get a Scrum Master Role. This will give you a detailed list of activities that will help you to prepare for securing a Scrum Master Role. The day you are confident, start applying for Scrum Master positions as there are organizations that recruit passionate individuals for Scrum Master roles and towards Scrum in general.

Scenario 2 – Your organization is following Scrum. You have an opportunity to apply for Scrum Master within your organization as part of internal job mobility or IJP program. However, before you apply for the Scrum Master role, you have to have adequate knowledge/understanding of Scrum, hence refer to the article – How to get a Scrum Master Role. This will give you a detailed list of activities that will help you to prepare for securing a Scrum Master Role.

Category 2 – Professional with 3 – 6 years of experience

(Recommendation is to gain domain/technical knowledge in your field. Observe the Scrum Master (if you are working in a Scrum setup). If you are not in a Scrum setup, refer to this article –Learn Scrum Master role without being part of a Scrum Team). Some organizations recruit Scrum Masters with less than 6 years of experience; however, it is better to move to a Scrum Master role with good domain knowledge and technical skills. For example, as part of an IT team, if you are a developer/tester/business analyst, continue working as a developer ( say Java) and be proficient in Java coupled with gain knowledge of the industry ( say Retail). With good knowledge of Java and retail industry knowledge with over 6 years of experience and observing your Scrum Master, observing the Scrum events, you are in a better position to take up the Scrum Master role.

Category 3 – Professional with 0 – 3 years of experience

For less than 3 years of experience, it is early to take up a Scrum Master role, kudos to you for having clarity in your career and having a north star to follow)