In today’s competitive job market, organizations are inundated with a deluge of resumes for every open position. To streamline the hiring process and manage this influx, many companies have turned to Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) that rely heavily on keyword matching to screen potential candidates. However, this automated approach is not only inefficient but also unjustified, leading to significant drawbacks and missed opportunities in identifying the best talent for the job.
The Unjustified Reign of Keyword-Driven Screening
The use of ATS software has become ubiquitous in modern recruitment practices, with the promise of saving time and effort by quickly filtering through a large volume of resumes. These systems are programmed to scan resumes for specific keywords related to job requirements, skills, and qualifications set by the hiring team. Candidates whose resumes contain these keywords are then flagged for further review, while those lacking them are often discarded without human intervention.
However, this reliance on keywords overlooks the nuances of a candidate’s experience, achievements, and potential cultural fit within the organization. It fails to capture the full scope of a candidate’s capabilities beyond what is explicitly stated in their resume, leading to a narrow and incomplete view of potential candidates.
The Unintended Consequences of Keyword-Centric Screening
Keyword-driven screening can have severe consequences for the recruitment process and the future of the organization:
1. Ineffective Candidate Evaluation: Relying solely on keywords overlooks the nuances of a candidate’s experience, achievements, and potential cultural fit within the organization. It fails to capture the full scope of a candidate’s capabilities beyond what is explicitly stated in their resume.
2. Perpetuating Bias and Discrimination: Keyword matching can inadvertently perpetuate bias in hiring by favoring candidates who use specific industry buzzwords or have certain educational backgrounds. This can result in overlooking qualified candidates from diverse backgrounds or unconventional career paths.
3. Wasted Opportunities for Hidden Gems: Exceptional candidates who possess valuable skills or experiences not captured by standard keywords may be unfairly excluded from consideration. Creativity, adaptability, and potential for growth are often overlooked in favor of rigid keyword criteria.
4. Negative Candidate Experience: Candidates who feel their applications are being judged solely on keyword matches may perceive the hiring process as impersonal and dehumanizing. This can damage the employer brand and deter top talent from engaging with the organization in the future.
5. Identify incorrect candidates: This has been a recent experience, where in based on a few key words, the hiring team is short listing potential candidates, when reviewed / test evaluated / interview – these candidates are found lacking in their relevant skills as quoted on their problems.
The Need for a Holistic Approach
To address the shortcomings of keyword-driven screening and enhance the quality of candidate selection, organizations must adopt a more holistic approach to recruitment:
1. Define Clear Job Requirements: Instead of relying solely on keywords, hiring teams should clearly outline the essential skills, experiences, and qualities required for each role. This ensures that screening criteria are aligned with actual job needs.
2. Utilize Technology Wisely: While ATS systems can be valuable tools for managing high volumes of applications, they should be used as aids rather than substitutes for human judgment. Combining automated screening with manual review can help identify top talent more effectively.
3. Emphasize Soft Skills and Potential: Look beyond technical qualifications and prioritize soft skills such as communication, problem-solving, and adaptability. Assessing a candidate’s potential for growth and cultural fit can lead to more successful long-term hires.
4. Implement Diverse Hiring Practices: Actively seek out candidates from diverse backgrounds and experiences to foster innovation and inclusivity within the organization. Encourage hiring teams to look beyond traditional metrics and consider a wide range of perspectives.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the reign of keyword-driven candidate screening is not only inefficient but also unjustified. It leads to missed opportunities, bias, and subpar hiring decisions. By adopting a more balanced approach that combines technology with human judgment, organizations can improve their ability to identify top talent that aligns with their values and goals. Embracing diversity, emphasizing potential over checkboxes, and prioritizing candidate experience are key steps towards building a stronger workforce capable of driving innovation and success in today’s dynamic business landscape.
One of the main task for any Scrum Master is to manage and motivate the development team (do not forget the Product Owner) to deliver the best-in-class output with outcome to the respective end-users / stakeholders. Pure Agile / Scrum processes will not achieve this, A Scrum Master above all else should be a people person.
During the life of the product development, Scrum Master would enable / facilitate creating a range of tangible deliverables that are critical to the meeting of DoD and release to the production. These would include Impediment board, risks, teaming agreement, cadence of sprint and so on… The funny part of the story is that when the product is delivered all the tangible outputs that we are speaking about would be of no use (atleast to the end-user community). They have little or no value outside the life of the product.
It is important for us to understand that Scrum is all about people, who help to create beautiful and meaningful outputs that serve the needs of the stakeholders and market in general.
The main task for the Scrum Master is to ensure that the development team can deliver and all blockages that occur in the journey of theirs are removed or assisted to be removed.
Over next few paragraphs, we shall de-mystify the needs and requirements on what and how a Scrum Master should enact the approach.
Step # 1 – Get the basics right – Right People, Right Skills, Right Tasks.
As a Scrum Master, help, guide and assist / facilitate the development team to get the right skilled people -with adequate dose of attitude and aptitude. Do not focus on technical skills, focus on learnability, ability to survive in a tough environment, how to respect, being open, have the right level of commitment to the team and others.
There would always be some gap between your needs / wants vs. what talent is available. Remember a perfect match may not be available, try to manage this as a risk and work towards mitigating the same. Try to always get a balanced set of capabilities and skills, do not fall in the trap of choosing all the folks that favor you or you like. Infact look for people who can work with others and create magic for your customers.
Also find a balance between internal and external resources, several times you may be forced by the Leadership to take an internal person (in order to save on cost) but evaluate the person as you would when you take any external resource and ensure it fits in your culture band that you are building in your team.
Step # 2 – Go for Quality rather than Quantity.
More resources may not always be the right approach, but the right resources is what matters. Life and experiences have always suggested that a small set of motivated people have delivered far more than a much larger group of able people. Be the master negotiator with the leadership or the resource allocating person to get the best talent for your team, you may have to act as a salesman to get the right quality in your team (Scrum does not talk about this … but it is critical)
Step # 3 – Clear Roles and Responsibilities.
For any team and individual – we all look for clarity of our roles and expectations, how shall we be judged. Yes, there are no defined / allocated roles in Scrum, but it does not hurt to have pseudo approaches for the initial few sprints and then educate the team to self-allocate, self-define how they want to work out. Scrum Master is like parenting job, initially we would be required to do babysitting, but the as team grows, becomes more mature , our role should be limited to guidance and coaching.
Step # 4 – Building the team
Do not take for granted that Team is automatically built – You need to invest your sweat equity into it.
There is no right or wrong way to build a team, different cultures, different set of people will bond in different lengths of time. To build the team with right values, try these elements:
Ensure roles are clearly understood
Ensure communication channels are open between you and the team and amongst the team
Bring people together (More physically)
Give people time to know each other
Have the Product Owner address the team on the needs, vision, big picture, roadmap of the product in focus
Step # 5 – Focus on personal development of team members
It may not be the core objective of Scrum Master, but not focusing on the same would have adverse impact.
Face this task much earlier in the life cycle, ideally when people first get involved in the team, As a part of their initial induction have an understanding of their career needs and wants. The areas where they want to grow and contribute. If their expectations are out of line or un-reasonable, then put it straight on the record.
Help the Product Owner agree to have about 4-6 Hrs / Sprint (Assuming 2 weeks of Sprint cycle) to get it invested in growth, learning of new tools, more on the product development, team building, exploration of new ideas (like using Gen AI to help in the development) and so on … this is a bit of selling exercise with the PO and team (also!)
However, make sure that the training / workshops or getting people involved in specific things do not derail the product development, it should not deviate from the core objective with which the team was formed.
Step # 6 – Be aware of team dynamics and politics
When people work together, they develop their own style of communication. Working together, as a Scrum Master your ability to understand the team dynamics is going to become more critical and critical.
Note: There is no right or wrong team working style or responding to team dynamics. Team dynamics will never remain static, it changes over a period – and when the team matures or new team members join, old ones move on, this can help you rebalance the approach for the team.
Implement PI (Predictive Index Assessment) for everyone on your team. Identify their personalities and ensure you and others in the team understand how to deal with a given personality. This is no rocket science, but not knowing how to deal with a Collaborative vs. Strategists can cause unwarranted losses and damage to the morale of the team and thereby to the product.
Encourage openness and honesty – when these elements are in place, then the team would have few barriers to open communications.
Remember to lead by example if you do not want politics in the team, then do not politic yourself. You want to be trusted by the team.
Final note on this one – Team is more important than any individual, In Agile it is the team that would deliver and not an individual.
Step # 7 – Managing Part time resources
At times, you may not get a fully dedicated person to work on your product development. You would have to work with Shared resources, when such a situation arises, ensure:
To get fixed and measurable time from shared folks
Make sure you have sufficient skills and talent and working hands, remember it is not the number of people in your team, but it is the amount time that these folks are ready to devote to you.
Recommend your team to build a little slack and inefficiency in the approach (this acts like a risk mitigation strategy)
Your approach to managing the time utilization (not saying to act like a project manager- but watch the game) would be critical to the success of the delivery
Step # 8 – Working with the Wider Organization
Remember your team, the product’s existence is never in isolation. There is always a requirement with some other function, department to get your product out of door, it could be the marketing or the sales team or the travel team (to book your tickets, hotels) or some other platform team whose output would be critical for integration and working of your product.
There is always to a need to manage relationships with the wider organization, and it would vary depending on context and content of the product as developed, Therefore as Scrum Master is it important to guide and assist the team to manage these relationship internally in the system.
Providing adequate and timely notice to dependency would help them plan their side of the work and provide sufficient time allocation for your work.
Step # 9 – Have a sense of humor
The ability to generate and enjoy humor is an extremely positive trait for a Scrum Master. Developing products / projects can at times be quite stressful – the ability to laugh and crack jokes (not on any individual) would help the team manage the stress.
If you are not natural at this … do not worry, just smile a lot. People love to see a smiling face, do not underestimate the power of a simple smile. A well-placed smile of yours can completely change the dynamics of the conversation, can lift an individual from a negative stance to a positive frame of mind.
These are a few ideas that has potentially given me the required results and mind you – it has always worked.
The demand for Scrum Masters to also have project management skills can be attributed to several factors and trends in the industry. While it is not a universal requirement, some organizations may prefer or require their Scrum Masters to possess project management capabilities. Here are a few reasons as per me to why this demand is existing in the market?
Overlapping responsibilities: Scrum Masters and project managers share certain responsibilities, such as facilitating communication, removing obstacles, and ensuring the smooth progress of product development or execution of the projects. By combining both roles, organizations can streamline their processes and avoid duplication of efforts.
Hybrid approaches: Many organizations adopt a hybrid approach to project management, combining agile methodologies like Scrum with traditional project management practices. In such cases, having a Scrum Master who is also familiar with project management can be advantageous, as they can bridge the gap between the two approaches and facilitate effective collaboration (question: Are the organizations getting the monies worth by doing this approach – would love to see a few case studies and experience sharing from others)
Project coordination: In larger organizations or complex projects involving multiple teams, a Scrum Master with project management skills can help coordinate and align the efforts of different teams or departments. They can ensure that the work being done by various Scrum teams is in sync and aligned with the overall project objectives (but is this not the pure role of a Scrum Master – Have we ever given a thought and management / leadership understand the pure meaning of the role called – Scrum Master)
Stakeholder management: Project managers often deal with various stakeholders, including clients, executives, and team members. Having a Scrum Master with project management skills can enhance their ability to manage stakeholders effectively, ensuring clear communication, managing expectations, and resolving conflicts (but again here we had Product Owner to deal with the stakeholders and manage their expectations, for resolving conflicts within the team – Scrum Master can handle the job)
Career progression: For individuals working in agile environments, gaining project management skills can offer opportunities for career advancement. By acquiring a broader skill set, Scrum Masters can expand their roles and take on project management responsibilities, leading to increased career prospects within the organization (but when the world is moving towards Agile and Agile adoption is increasing by the day – Not sure if any Scrum Master would care to become a career project manager – any takers?)
It is worth noting that while the demand exists to have a combo offer of Scrum Master Cum Project Manager, not all organizations require Scrum Masters to be project managers. The specific requirements may vary depending on the organization’s structure, size, and project management approach. Agile methodologies like Scrum prioritize flexibility and adaptability, so organizations may choose to have separate roles for Scrum Masters and project managers, depending on their specific needs and preferences.
Have we ever heard that Organizations are looking for Project Manager Cum Scrum Master? You would say Yes ….if you notice industry is looking for Scrum Master Cum Project Manager – Mind you there is a see change of difference between the two demands that the market is looking out for.
When such demands are placed, It gives me a lot more food for thought … in terms if the organization really wants to adopt Agile and do the implementation or it is just a new card that the leadership wants to use in the organization.
Has the management thought on these lines:
Conflicting priorities: Scrum Masters and Project Managers often have different priorities and approaches. Scrum Masters focus on facilitating the agile process, promoting self-organization, and removing impediments for the development team. Project Managers, on the other hand, may prioritize adherence to schedules, budgets, and overall project objectives. Balancing these potentially conflicting priorities can be challenging – It is like Chalk and Cheese, we mixing two elements together – Are we aware of the reactions and impact it would have on the moral of the person and the approach of agile adoption.
Time management: Both roles require significant time and effort to fulfill their responsibilities effectively. Juggling the tasks of a Scrum Master, such as organizing and facilitating ceremonies, coaching the team, and ensuring adherence to agile principles, along with the project management responsibilities like planning, tracking progress, and managing stakeholders, can be demanding and time-consuming (when a SM acts like a PM then the whole concept of Self-Organizing, Self-Managed goes out of the window, there is no concept of team autonomy – Time management for me would be a secondary thought)
Role clarity and expectations: Combining the roles of a Scrum Master and a Project Manager can lead to ambiguity in responsibilities and expectations. Team members may become uncertain about whom to approach for specific issues, and there could be confusion about the boundaries of each role. It is crucial to establish clear expectations and communicate them effectively to avoid role confusion. More than the team, I believe it would utter confusion for the person to play dual role – This is also an indication that Leadership of the organization does not even understand the concept of Agile and have little or no clue on how the work of a Scrum Master is performed. For them we all are just resources available to get some job done.
Skill set requirements: Being an effective Scrum Master and also a Project Manager requires a diverse skill set. Scrum Masters need expertise in agile methodologies, facilitation, coaching, and team dynamics. Project Managers require skills in project planning, risk management, budgeting, and stakeholder management. Finding individuals who excel in both areas can be challenging, as the skill sets required for each role may not overlap entirely. This is an interesting problem to have … if this logic can be applied for Scrum Master and Project Managers … then the same logic should be applied for all roles in the organization, like COO and CFO could be same or COO and CIO could be the same individuals and similar more. I hope the management wakes up and smells the coffee.
Potential burnout: Taking on the responsibilities of both a Scrum Master and a Project Manager can lead to increased workload and potential burnout. Both roles can be demanding individually and combining them may intensify the pressure. It is important to manage workload effectively, delegate tasks when possible, and prioritize self-care to prevent burnout. – Now the important question that I would have is where the HR policies of “Work Life Balance”, are these concept confined to the policies and to be used when recruiting people, later they have little or no meaning
Conflict of interest: Scrum Masters are advocates for the team, ensuring that they have the autonomy and support needed to deliver value. Project Managers, on the other hand, may have obligations to meet specific project objectives, timelines, and stakeholder expectations. Balancing these sometimes conflicting interests can be challenging and may require careful negotiation and communication. Meeting the timelines should be everyone’s job in the project or organization, At times we do not right resources (meaning skills), tools are missing, dependencies do not respond, client behaves abnormally, team members at times are moved across projects, no proper or adequate KT is done for the new joiners to the team – and with all these challenges, one expects ON TIME Delivery !!!
With my hand folded, I request leadership and decision makers across the globe to carefully consider these challenges and assess whether combining the roles of a Scrum Master and a Project Manager aligns with their specific needs and context. It is important to ensure that individuals in these dual roles receive the necessary support, training, and resources to succeed in fulfilling their responsibilities effectively. In a better world – one would not combine these two roles.
A small query – How many of us on a daily basis would combine / mix our tea and coffee together and enjoy the same – Any takers – On a daily basis (not experiment)?
This article is based and drawn on my Scrum Master, Product Owner, and Agile Coach experiences over a period of many years across different domains and industries and not to forget the geographies that I have worked in.
Beyond my fundamental training on Scrum and Agile, I had the privilege of working with and learning from highly competent, ethical professionals who had provided me ample opportunities to learn, make mistakes, and re-apply my learnings. People with whom I have been associated have practiced “Fail Fast” and showed me directions on how to prepare for the future. They have guided me to deal with stakeholders who need to be managed at a different level (as each of them was a different personality – No One size that fits all)
Everyone wants to succeed, but regardless of many forms of success, one must also be successful in dealing with others.
While there are many attributes that contribute to the growth and behavior of an individual, I have listed down what worked for me and helped me in my agile coaching journey.
Positive personal effectiveness is achieved when we can ethically win confidence, respect, and cooperation in our dealings with others (they could be your Seniors or Juniors).
Scrum Master’s job is to work with others; they cannot delegate this nor can they avoid the required interaction. For Scrum Masters to be successful, they should practice the below mentioned nine people skills for ‘Self-Improvement and Effectiveness’.
Personal Ethics
Adaptability
Tact
Creditability
Intercommunication
Persuasiveness
Objectivity
Initiative
Self-Discipline
From the above one would spot over-lapping approaches across many skills like Intercommunication and Persuasiveness vs. Tact.
Personal Ethics
It is thefirst people related skill that any individual should develop, and it applies to a Scrum Master also. It is basic to establish and maintain a high standard of excellence in the practice, life and behavior. Good character, stemming from good ethics, is a quality of leadership and it distinguishes any leader from others. It inspires well-founded and reciprocal confidence and trust of others in you.
I learnt in my career that the best and most successful people at the top (like Ratan Tata) were those who displayed and practiced personal ethics and took personal responsibilities toward their own people, project, organizations, employees, and society at large.
Consistent reliance on personal ethics should be our guiding principle in our personal encounters, which would inspire others to follow the same pattern and principles.
This should be the default element of any Scrum Master and bare minimum traits to have. There cannot be any compromise on this front.
Adaptability
Not everything would always go as per plan. It is important for us to be adaptable, especially in our project environment, where requirements can change, scope gets impacted, estimates go for a toss, – and the delivery of the MVP is at risk. This is the place where adaptability as a people skill would help us bring harmony to our attitudes and actions in our dealings with the situation and economic environment.
The required degree of adaptability varies with the situation, at times it would be temporary or minor in nature and at others, it would cause a major impact in our dealings and thought processes.
Experience has taught me that however crucial the circumstances may be, adaptability with a cool and collected mindset helps in managing the situation better.
The product owner could be putting pressure on the team, teams may have internal conflicts and challenges to deal with, or the market situation may not be as per our needs or plans. To deal with all these situations, adaptability is required. There is no substitute for the same.
Every project would demand a certain amount of adaptability, as its needs and goals would be different than your prior experiences. As a scrum master one would play multiple roles in a day-to-day affair of the product development. Depending on the need, one would act as a wise counselor or demonstrate as an inspiring mentor or display compassion. Scrum Master should know that change is inevitable and would have an overarching impact. A Scrum Master who can adapt to these changing situations would be able to survive and thrive in the business.
Tact
Scrum Master needs to master the art of tact in dealing with the team, PO and stakeholders including the leadership and show genuine concern for their situation and feelings. Tact as an approach cannot work alone, it has to be used with other personal effectiveness traits and people skills.
Lacking tact can be a costly impediment to personal effectiveness. How can we avoid conflict with someone who takes a totally arbitrary posture of disagreement? Now look at these 2 statements –
“Please tell me a little more about how you came to this conclusion.”
“I don’t agree with you.”
The first one might prevent antagonism, but the latter one would more likely cause it.
This is what we call tact – an important parameter in our approach to dealing with people. Self-control under pressure is a powerful tool of discretion. Lacking tact as a skill could be a costly impediment to personal effectiveness. A practical guide to improving your handling of situations with “tact” should consider these three elements:
Perception
Discretion
Empathy
Tact is more about mutual respect for other parties involved in the situation or discussions.
Credibility
Credibility is an essential attribute that is built upon elements of Trust, Integrity, Reliability, and Commitments. Credibility lends its power to personal effectiveness as it helps you earn the genuine respect, trust, and confidence of others.
Imagine a Scrum Master with credibility issues. Will they be able to lead the team, or will the team respect such a person?
Commitment and promises are a necessity in every part and type of job that we do. Breach of these would have issues on credibility of the person, whether it is in the society, organization, project, or family. A person’s past performance creates a track record which builds up credibility.
Intercommunications
Intercommunication is a synthesizer to all the other elements as discussed in this article. Intercommunication capabilities create the power to use all the skills more effectively. A good communicator conveys messages, ideas, thoughts, suggestions, and intentions clearly and concisely, while displaying the reciprocal interactions – listening, hearing, and evaluating the comments and feelings of others. This is a common element of Scrum Master’s daily job.
The effectiveness of Scrum Master’s communication is always reflected in the responses they receive, whether in action or attitude or words. These responses are an excellent ongoing opportunity for evaluating the style of our communication. If the Scrum team’s performance matters, it needs to have excellent communication from Scrum Master. Scrum is a high-intensity team sport. Good communication is one of the essential elements to build a robust Scrum team. Lack of communication or poor communication will invariably cause your Scrum team to fall apart.
Signs of poor communication
Here are the most common indicators of improper communication that you as a Scrum Master should be careful about:
Using a monologue over a dialogue
Disregarding the feelings of others
Being subjective/vague
Resisting feedback
Lack of shared language of communication
Persuasiveness
It is an art of gaining approval, acceptance or agreement when presenting your thoughts, ideas, plans, suggestions, and opinions to others.
It is one of the most valuable skills for the scrum master to have, as it leads to gaining cooperation, and a greater success in our dealing with the situations and people.
Quite often, traditional managers can be very autocratic when they delegate their authority. Scrum supports empowerment. Self-analyzing and self-organizing teams decide the best course of action. At times, it becomes necessary to advise the team to follow the Scrum process or carry out a particular activity. Generally, the teams respond positively by listening to the scrum master and engaging with the task. However, if the team fails to respond in time, or fails to respond positively, it may be required to engage with the team so it can comply. This is where the attitude comes in – the Scrum Master can either instruct the team or discuss the issue and persuade the team to respond positively.
An autocratic attitude is frowned upon by the team, and at an individual level, it may become difficult to avail the team member’s cooperation. The servant-leader role suggests that a scrum master should refrain from delegating his or her authority. Instead, the person should persuade the team member to cooperate.
Persuasiveness forms an integral part of well-defined communication. It is derived from competence, convictions, and ethically driven behavior.
Objectivity
Being objective helps to evaluate the situation, data, information which would be un-influenced by emotions, beliefs, or any personal preference. For a Scrum Master maintaining objectivity – an unbiased perspective when dealing with others and doing so fairly – is vital to achieving personal effectiveness. Objectivity is closely linked to credibility.
For objectivity to survive, an open mind is required, or should I say, it is the bare minimum requirement. An open mind would allow the Scrum Master to have the freedom to evaluate possible choices. A closed mind would rob us of these advantages.
Scrum Masters should be careful about objectivity as per social science research. This is difficult and arises out of the adverse influences of the following:
Personal prejudices and bias
Value judgement
Ethical dilemma
Complexity of social phenomena
A clear objective of Scrum Master should be to focus on the development and dissemination of knowledge and skills which are required to exploit the potential of the latest technologies and have collaborative design and working environment.
Initiative
This is an approach or a skill, where the Scrum Master converts an idea into action. The focus is to find if the idea would work, and whether we should pivot or throw away the thought.
A good product is well-crafted when engineering practices are in place with good effect. Scrum Master should arrange workshops on coding guidelines, designs, tools, and different engineering practices. Arrange a workshop for the team members where you can discuss or try a new tool, current architecture, latest technology, build-process, and do much more. This can be implemented by reserving time for the workshop and organizing an arbitrator who can be from the team.
Never have a laid-back attitude with your team or product, or when dealing with the stakeholders. Play on your front foot and move forward.
Self-Discipline
It is the ability to control one’s impulses, emotions, desires, and behavior. Agile transformation is all about self-disciplined team members. When we find discipline is missing, we do not get the value flow from the team to the end users. Self-discipline is important because it gives the Scrum Master the opportunity to excel in their professional life. It helps establish a set work routine and holds one accountable for the goals by pushing them to pursue advanced job opportunities.
Self-control is discipline in the face of pressure from an immediate urge, desire, or compulsion. It relates to delaying immediate gratification of the senses. Its struggle is the conflict between intellectual knowing and emotional desiring. It is the choice between physical and psychological satisfaction now vs. the hope or expectation of something better later.
A Scrum Master is required and expected that they would maintain a high degree of self-control and discipline.
Because self-discipline is a learned behavior, Scrum Master should make the choice to develop it. It’s important to set clear goals and have a solid plan for how they’ll achieve them. Knowing where we’re headed makes it easier to stay focused and avoid distractions. Here are a few steps you can follow to become self-disciplined:
Know your current situation
Define your expectations and set goals for yourself
Push yourself to meet your goals
Measure your progress
Learn from the situation
Reward yourself when you accomplish it
Identify your areas of improvement
Repeat the cycle – have a defined frequency
Remember there is no magic – it is all about you, your behavior and ability to handle complex, difficult situations, when the career and aspirations of people are involved. It is a delicate balance and Scrum Master needs to walk the tight rope.
Always inspect and adapt. Be the servant leader that Agile expects you to be.
For all those who have been to the gymnasium, let me present to you a concept, somewhat similar to catch 22 situations – of who chooses whom? Do you choose the gym and the personal trainer or the gym chooses you and allocates the trainer for you?
Will your gym trainer/coach refuse to train you on Day 1? Does the trainer say that you are not qualified to be his/her student? Or is it the other way around where you go and enroll in the gym and identify a trainer and figure out the way things work? If you are not happy with the coaching or advice you receive at the gym, are you allowed to change the trainer/coach or switch the gym? How does it work? I am sure, the customer always calls the shots. It is the service provider who is at the receiving end of the system and this I believe is the default rule in the game (whether it is right or wrong, it’s a matter of different debate for some other day.)
This leads me to think about the industry practices that have been nurtured over the period of years by pseudo Agilest and the so-called sponsors of the transformation game from traditional project management to Agile way of doing the job. Have we achieved success? Do expending millions of dollars justify? How do organizations measure ROI in their balance sheets? Nobody has a clue; the consulting organizations are making merry and laughing all the way to the bank.
Come to think about it, when I ponder on the reasons of failures. (Oh yes, Agile says “Fail Fast,” but not at the cost of losing millions down the drain.) One of the failure points could be the SCRUM MASTER (read the pun as SM is written in caps). Especially on how we appoint the Scrum Master.
How is the scrum master selected?
Who selects them?
Who should get involved in selecting the Scrum Master?
What consideration should be applied when identifying a Scrum Master for the role?
What characteristics & traits should one look for when selecting a Scrum Master?
Let’s explore how it is done today in our industry as compared to how should this happen?
Most of the times (9 out of 10), it would be the management who would appoint a person, whom they feel qualified for the job. However, the irony is that the Management would have little or no idea what that role entails. Experience has suggested that we find the job for the person rather than find the right person for the job.
At times, the selection process of appointing the Scrum Master has been dictated by the person who is on the bench and we are trying to find a project to make the person billable or the other approach as seen is to nominate a person close to the management.
In fact, according to Scrum co-founder Dr. Jeff Sutherland, great Scrum Masters can come from virtually any background or discipline (i.e., engineering, design, testing, product management, journalism, academia, social work, etc.), and their role is relatively simple:
Remove impediments
Guide the team in Scrum practices
Protect against outside interference
In a way, a Scrum Master closely resembles a personal gym trainer, where the trainer would not have any direct control over what you eat and how hard you work out. All they can do is inspire you through effective coaching, enablement and guidance, but the implementation of the same is in your hands.
Who should be or become the Scrum Master for your new team? Is it your current project manager, Tech Lead, or the functional manager? I would have to argue against the current industry practices and say, anyone but one of these above-mentioned roles.
During my past few interviews, I have discovered that potential candidates are highlighting achievements; such as managing and controlling more than 2-3 teams at the same time. This reminds me of something that happened a few months ago, wherein I was asked, how many teams should a Scrum Master handle? For 2 minutes it made me think, of my past experiences as Project leader / manager, where in one was managing (or should I say was accountable) for multiple projects and we did not do justice to the projects (any one of them). My response to the person was very diplomatic. I responded, “A good Scrum Master manages two teams whereas an Excellent Scrum Master manages one team”
Although, understandably, the management usually wants a standard answer for who they should select to be the Scrum Master in this new work approach called “Agile,” it is not a one-size-fits-all answer. And the reason is because it depends on the person, the team and the environment. There are multiple factors that would impact the selection of the person for the role. It cannot be a cookie cutter approach, which is pretty much standardized, even in the same organization across 2 teams, the selections could vary (and they should vary, if the circumstances vary)
I think it’s a good question to ask, “Who decides the Scrum Master?” We often see that it is the management who decides, but they make the decision without knowing what Scrum is and more importantly, how it works. If possible, take this crucial decision to the team to see what they think. There needs some prudence in this, certainly, but we should rather lean toward making this statement of empowerment and trust of the team from the very start of adopting Scrum.
We commonly see Project Managers being given the role of Scrum Master. What makes a great Project Manager may not make a great Scrum Master. Often, the management wants Project Managers who can “get things done.” They drive performance and push the team. They may even micro-manage for results and visibility by tracking every task, status, risk, change and deviation from the plan. Management loves this (or, more truthfully, love the results). On the other hand, I’ve also seen Project Managers who provide management what they want (helping get more productivity and more visibility to progress, issues and options) by serving, empowering and trusting the team. If you are currently a Project Manager, which type are you? Experience over the years have identified that about 50% of project managers are on each side of the coin.
The industry has seen experienced managers taking the Scrum Master role. This, more often than Project Managers, has negative consequences, only the consequences are not so obvious, but these can be corrected more often and more easily than I’ve seen with Project Managers.
Some managers, due to their company’s culture and expectations, carry the responsibility of getting results from their people (for the projects their people are on). For these managers, even if they wanted to embrace the trans-formative qualities of the Scrum Master, the company culture will push back, and most often win. For managers in these tough positions, one would rather see them find someone else to be the Scrum Master, and then the manager can focus more time and energy towards the bigger need of being a heat shield, organizational impediment remover and management mindset and organizational cultural change agent.
The problem is much larger than we imagine or can think of; many questions are unanswered and the answer that are correct or atleast deemed right, the industry does not want to embrace them:
So what traits do we expect a Scrum Master to have?
How do we select a Scrum Master?
What skills do we want a Scrum Master to have?
Look for these ideas and thoughts @ selection of Scrum Master:
A person who understands and can practice servant leadership and facilitation
Always in pursuit of continuous improvement
A relationship person and can create a certain degree of influence with team members and other stakeholders
You need a person who is Humble, Ego-less, Collaborative in nature, Knowledgeable on Scrum (should kind of Google of Scrum / Agile Practices)
Getting all of the traits in a single person could be a near to impossible task, in case we do see that happening, find from above items, which are your critical success factors and what are things that are type of MVP (Minimum Viable Personality) for the Scrum Master role in your organization.
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