Scrum Master: Skills, Knowledge, and How to Become One?

A Scrum is a framework that has been used in today’s business world and industries mainly because of the size of the team and the operational work they are performing. It was founded in the year 1993 by Ken Schwarber and Jeff Sutherland, over the year this framework has gained some popularity, especially these days it is dominantly used in industries.

To maximize the value that an organization can get through the utilization of this technique in their day-to-day work and to improve their operational capabilities is immense. A Scrum master is a professional who drives his team in an organization be a technical, marketing, or another divisional team in a project while using Agile project management techniques. The most important trait being a scrum master is their leadership qualities which may include coaching or mentoring the team.

What is Scrum?

It is a framework used while managing a project. The main aim of using Scrum is to enable different teams in a project to work together. In today’s business world when the size of teams that are working on a project can be immense. Managing all the teams in the project to be effective and productive is very necessary.

During a project which is being divided into small chunks at the time of commencement into the different specialized teams now as a Project Manager, you need to handle the overall operation and outcome of the project. You may be answerable to the client and other stakeholders also.

While being a Scrum master one is responsible for all the agile practices being followed while the commencement of the project. The main aim of doing this is to bring out the best of the team working on the project. While performing Scrum framework the teams can,

• Self-lean from their previous experiences.
• They can better organize themselves while facing the project risk.
• Teams can better analyze their achievements. In case something is not going according to the project forecasting, they can create a workaround.
• The most important part while doing a project is to provide deliverables effectively, timely, and efficiently.
• Utilizing the project resources effectively. During a project most crucial thing is the effective allocation of resources, utilizing the optimum project budget, and keeping in mind the time frame.
• When the project is quite long, what the team can do is they can divide it into small doable sprints. These all techniques can only be utilized when you are fully aware of your Scrum meeting outputs.
• The most important part is that it provides better visibility in terms of the project pace, stakeholder input, bottlenecks, and client inputs.
• Being a Scrum master, you need to feed your team about the continuous feedback you get about the project prototype. Constant feedback keeps the client and stakeholders in harmony.

Role of a Scrum Master

• These are the professionals who lead the team by using Agile project management techniques. While doing any project the most critical part is the flow of information, as it can make or break a product. A Scrum Master utilises a scrum project management framework to manage the communication between team members.
• A Scrum Master is generally a team leader who drives the whole team including the Product Manager towards a project’s success by utilizing various agile principles.
• A Scrum Master is typically not involved in the product iteration or changes. They facilitate collaboration among the team members, product owners, and stakeholders by insuring smooth communication.
• Project these days might have different agile frameworks and scrum. The Scrum Master is responsible to increase the collaboration among the teams by utilizing some of its expertise. They also use to streamline the whole process to achieve the project goals.

Scrum Master skills

• Being a Scrum Master in an organization can be challenging, as you have to be technically sound as well as have good soft skills. Some of the necessary soft skills you need are,
• You need to have very good communication and leadership skills. Being a Scrum Master, you have to coach and mentor your team during a project. Scrum meetings are a very important part of the curriculum and briefing the team at that meeting, shows the culture of the project team.
• You need to have very strong interpersonal skills. Some of these skills prove to be very good exercises during the team building exercise. Showing empathy and actively listening to the team member is a must.
• Scrum Masters need to have very good leadership skills like coaching their team whenever needed, inspiring team members, and sharing thoughts. They need to be very good at conflict resolution also.
• A Scrum Master needs to be very agile, collaborative, and adaptable at times.
• There are different techniques and principles used while implementing agile methodologies. A Scrum Master should be well aware of these techniques.
• A Scrum Master should be well aware of technological advancements, because they may need to work on a project with different technology requirements. While working on a project they should know the basic architecture of the project along with the basic knowledge, expectations, processes, and requirements.
• Being a Scrum Master, you are required to bring all the stakeholder’s requirements and teams’ expectations from a project in line.

How to become a Scrum Master?

There are 3 basic steps by which you can become an expert scrum master, and these are.

Get a necessary degree

Being a Scrum Master requires you to have a bachelor’s degree in a relevant IT field like Computer Science or Electronics. You may be graduated from Business Administration also. Though some of the companies may also require you to have a Master’s degree.

Do the certification

Once you are graduated with a relevant college degree you need to choose your scrum certification. After being a certified Scrum Master, a weightage is attached to your profile. There are different scrum master certificate courses that you can choose to do, these are.

1. Certifies Scrum Master or CSM.
2. Certified Scrum Product Owner or CSPO.
3. Professional Scrum Master or PSM I.
4. Certified Scrum Professional or CSP.
5. Safe Scrum Master or SSM.
6. Professional Scrum Product Owner or PSPO I.
7. Certified Scrum Developer or CSD.

Other necessary steps

Do an in-depth study by clearing all the basic concepts of Scrum. After studying for the course clear the competitive exam. The certification must be renewed within 2 years of giving the exam.