Advancing Scrum Master skills to help realise the promise of Agile

Is the Scrum Master role misunderstood in your organisation as a team facilitator or coordinator?

In this short two and a half minute video Certified Scrum Trainer Rowan Bunning explains that the Scrum Master role is often undervalued and he covers the skills Scrum Masters should develop to help organisations realise the promise of Agile.

As a summary...

Many organisations are failing to realise the promise of Agile, because change requires leadership.

The Scrum Master is the change leadership role for Scrum, but the role is widely misunderstood and often undervalued as a team facilitator or team coordinator.

To fulfil the Scrum Master role to its fullest, there are a lot of skills to master:

• Reflective observer
• Teacher
• Change agent
• Mentor / trusted advisor
• Servant-leader
• Coach
• Facilitator
• Manager
• Impediment removal facilitator

The Certified ScrumMaster course is a great introduction and it is necessary, but it is not sufficient to master all of the required skills. 

There is now the Path to CSP-SM (Certified Scrum Professional - ScrumMaster) which offers three levels of professional development for Scrum Masters to help them have greater impact in enabling organisations to realise the promise of Agile.

The three levels are:

• Certified ScrumMaster
• Advanced Certified ScrumMaster
• Certified Scrum Professional - ScrumMaster

Rowan Bunning is a Certified Scrum Trainer based in Sydney with Scrum WithStyle. He partners with Equinox IT to deliver certified Scrum training in New Zealand.