AGILE Scrum Master

In Depth
(based on materials developed in 2014 by Vito Vitale)

© 2011 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T, the AT&T logo and all other AT&T
marks contained herein are trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property and/or AT&T affiliated
companies. All other marks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.
 Agile Scrum Master
Objectives
– Provide details on the Scrum Master role on Agile Initiatives.
- Provide clarity on Frequently Asked Questions

2 © 2011 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T, the AT&T logo and all other AT&T
marks contained herein are trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property and/or AT&T affiliated
companies. All other marks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.
 SCRUM MASTER
Frequently Asked Questions –
-What is the Role of the Scrum Master?
-What does the Scrum Master do?
-What are the characteristics of a good Scrum Master?
-How does one become a “Certified” Scrum Master?
-How does the Scrum Master Role differ from small projects to larger
ones that have numerous Scrum Teams/ Applications Impacted?
-What is a Scrum of Scrums Master ? (ETE Scrum Master)
-How can we get started with the Scrum Master role as we get started
with Agile?

3 © 2011 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T, the AT&T logo and all other AT&T
marks contained herein are trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property and/or AT&T affiliated
companies. All other marks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.
 SCRUM MASTER
Frequently Asked Questions –

-What is the Role of the Scrum Master?

-What does the Scrum Master do?
-What are the characteristics of a good Scrum Master?
-How does one become a “Certified” Scrum Master?
-How does the Scrum Master Role differ from small projects to larger
ones that have numerous Scrum Teams/ Applications Impacted?
-What is a Scrum of Scrums Master ? (ETE Scrum Master)
-How can we get started with the Scrum Master role as we get started
with Agile?

4 © 2011 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T, the AT&T logo and all other AT&T
marks contained herein are trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property and/or AT&T affiliated
companies. All other marks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.
 Disclaimer
• AGILE is No Silver Bullet
• AGILE is a disciplined
approach.
• Requires ramp up and
rigor

picture by a2gemma
Scrum
Master Servant leader
Team protector
Troubleshooter
Scrum guide

picture by Orange Beard

 Scrum
Master
Support/Enforce the process
Facilitate the team
Remove impediments
Prevent interruptions
Manage management
Guardian of Quality
Scrum Master Enforcing
Agile Principles
1. Satisfy the Customer
2. Welcome Change
3. Deliver Frequently
4. Work as a Team
5. Motivate People
6. Communicate Face-to-Face
7. Measure Working Software
8. Maintain Constant Pace
9. Excel at Quality
10. Keep it Simple
11. Evolve Designs
12. Reflect Regularly
Core Responsibilities of the Scrum Master
Provides leadership to the delivery team and is
responsible for:
•Scheduling and facilitating ceremonies
•Managing the scrum team
•Clearing up impediments/blockers encountered by the team
•Being the liaison between Product Owner and Project Manager
•Tracking team progress (Rally Dev or other tool)
•Serving as a buffer to protect the team and keep them
focused on the tasks at hand
•Guardian of Quality –
 Establishes and enforces Agile discipline
 Monitors progress and metrics for improved efficiencies and
performance
 Ensures strong communication with PO (and PM)

9 © 2011 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T, the AT&T logo and all other AT&T
marks contained herein are trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property and/or AT&T affiliated
companies. All other marks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.
 Scrum Team
Business
User /
Clients

Delivery
Delivery
Team
Team
Scrum including:,
including:,
Master Architects,
Architects,
Product Developers,
Developers,
Owner Testers
Testers &
&
others
others

Project
Manager

10 AT&T Proprietary (Internal Use Only) Not for use or disclosure outside the AT&T companies except under written agreement.
© 2013 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T and the AT&T logo are trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property.
Scrum Team Preconditions
Empowerment
Discipline
Courage
Stamina
Passion
Coaching
Stable Teams
Cross-Functional
Available Customer

picture by mpov
Scrum Master Roles and Responsibilities
A good Scrum Master is:
Agile Knowledgeable, a Servant Leader, a Good Communicator

12 © 2011 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T, the AT&T logo and all other AT&T
marks contained herein are trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property and/or AT&T affiliated
companies. All other marks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.
 Traits An Effective Scrum Master…
Similar to a good Team Lead or Systems Engineer a good Scrum Master
must:
•Good Management skills
– Team leaders
– Taking into consideration non-engineering factors
•Good human relations; Team player; Good communication skills; Good
interpersonal skills
•Autonomous and independent learner; Strong learning skills
•Willing to deal with systems and external entities
•Curious, innovator, initiator, promoter, originator
•NATURALLY - Good understanding of Scrum Processes
•A PLUS - Domain Level or Subject Matter Expertise

© 2011 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T, the AT&T logo and all other AT&T
marks contained herein are trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property and/or AT&T affiliated
companies. All other marks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.
13
Content owned by IBM - not to be distributed without consent
 IT UP Agile Core Processes
Software
Capitalization
Starts

TCP1 TCP2 Software

Capitalization
Create Create Business
Create Ends
Phase 1 Phase 2 Case Approval
IWR
PMT PMT Evidence

Vision and Funding

Solution
Epic Level Project
User Stories
Definition for
Estimation
Plan Agile Release Planning and Management
Epic
User Stories Iteration and Deployment Management
Solution
Definition for SDG Closure
Project Arch

14 AT&T Proprietary (Internal Use Only) Not for use or disclosure outside the AT&T companies except under written agreement.
© 2013 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T and the AT&T logo are trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property.
 SCRUM MASTER
Frequently Asked Questions –
-What is the Role of the Scrum Master?
-What does the Scrum Master do?
-What are the characteristics of a good Scrum Master?

-How does one become a “Certified” Scrum Master?

-How does the Scrum Master Role differ from small projects to larger
ones that have numerous Scrum Teams/ Applications Impacted?
-What is a Scrum of Scrums Master ? (ETE Scrum Master)
-How can we get started with the Scrum Master role as we get started
with Agile?

15 © 2011 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T, the AT&T logo and all other AT&T
marks contained herein are trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property and/or AT&T affiliated
companies. All other marks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.
 IBM Application Services, AT&T DRAFT – IBM Confidential

IBM Agile CoC – Scrum Master Positioning Statement

 As per the AT&T Agile CoE – For Scrum Master Certification AT&T uses the following
criteria:
- Completion on Agile Basics Web Class
- Completion of Agile with ITUP Web Class
- Completion of Agile Boot Camp
- Completion of Break out Session of Scrum Master during Agile Boot Camp
- Serve as Scrum Master on multiple Projects
- Work closely with Agile Coach on Scrum Master Principles during project delivery and gain their recommendation / approval as
Scrum Master
- Note: External or Internal Scrum Master Certification is not required - will be considered as supplemental or reinforcement
education as long as principals do not conflict with AT&T Agile Principles.

 As the IBM Agile CoC for AT&T, we put forth the following positioning statement:
- We will follow the above ATT requirements for our Scrum Masters
- We will assign our Scrum Master Candidates a Mentor from our Support Community
- We will allow/provide one (1) form of formal Scrum Master Certification as Supplemental / Reinforcement Education as
optional, providing it complies with AT&T Agile principles and disciplines

IBM Confidential/AT&T Proprietary © Copyright IBM Corporation 2011

 SCRUM MASTER
Frequently Asked Questions –
-What is the Role of the Scrum Master?
-What does the Scrum Master do?
-What are the characteristics of a good Scrum Master?
-How does one become a “Certified” Scrum Master?

-How does the Scrum Master Role differ from small projects
to larger ones that have numerous Scrum Teams/
Applications Impacted?
-What is a Scrum of Scrums Master ? (ETE Scrum Master)
-What is a Scrum of Scrums Master ? (ETE Scrum Master)
-How can we get started with the Scrum Master role as we get started with
Agile?
17 © 2011 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T, the AT&T logo and all other AT&T
marks contained herein are trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property and/or AT&T affiliated
companies. All other marks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.
 Scrum of Scrums Master
ETE Scrum Master
ETE PM
ETE Scrum Master
Customer
Scrum Team Scrum Team Scrum Team
User Stories D User Stories D User Stories D
E E E
Design
Code Code Code

……………..
Design
Code Code Code
Code
P
LL Code
P
LL Code
P
LL
AGILE Process
Test
Test O
O
Test
Test O
O
Test
Test O
O •Requirements Driven
y y y
•Frequent Deployments

. adds value early

•Frequent Deployments
avoid CRs
•Depends on high
performing Self Managed
Teams.
•Is in early stages and
infrastructure and testing
needs to evolve.
•Looking to IBM to handle
complex projects

© 2011 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T, the AT&T logo and all other AT&T
marks contained herein are trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property and/or AT&T affiliated
companies. All other marks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.
 Scrum Master
Responsibilities by Scrum Ceremony

© 2012 IBM Corporation

 Collaboration is Key to Agile Success

• Vision Meetings as needed

CEREMONIES
• Daily 15-minute meetings

Agile
• Bi-Weekly Backlog Grooming
• Bi-Weekly Iteration Planning
• Bi-Weekly Iteration Reviews
• Bi-Weekly Lessons Learned

Agile:Activity/delivery-
based as opposed to waterfall
which is document based.

20 AT&T Proprietary (Internal Use Only) Not for use or disclosure outside the AT&T companies except under written agreement.
© 2013 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T and the AT&T logo are trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property.
picture by OnTask

Vision Meetings
Goals, Vision Statement, Planning,
Scope and Approach, Backlog,
Estimations
picture by OnTask

Vision Meeting
Vision Meetings
Goals, Vision
Project VisionStatement,
Presented Planning, Scope and
Approach, Backlog, Estimations
Goals and Objectives Baselined
High Level Plan Outlined
Key Roles and Participants
Epic Level Backlog
Scrum Master Responsibilities

Vision Meeting
– Ensure vision statement is clearly identified and communicated.
– Represent his/her scrum team’s interests and concerns.
– Ensure all key roles are identified and engaged.
– Ensure there is a clear understanding as to who has the authority to create, modify, and accept user stories.
– Identify and coordinate up and downstream code and test impacted applications for the project.
– Help in the ranking and creation of the Release Backlog.
– Ensure customer wants and needs are captured in the epics.
– Identify non-functional requirements (performance, capacity, etc) and that these are captured in the epics.
– Ensure epics and user stories are clear, formatted correctly, and assigned to their scrum team.
– Ensure that the architecture impacts of the project are addressed and that appropriate architectural representation is
engaged on the project.
– Determine if the project needs other SE&A resources (Business Modeler, Data Architect)
– Record risks, issues, defects uncovered during the meeting.
• If an ETE SE and/or ETE Scrum Master are not assigned, then take ownership of reviewing these at the end of the
meeting

© 2012 IBM Corporation

Release and Sprint Planning
Team capacity, Product backlog,
Current product, Business, Technologies +
Goal =

picture by Darcy McCarty

Release Planning
Establish Target Release Dates
Test and Deployment Strategy
Scrum and Cross Team
Integrations/Ceremonies
Scrum Master Responsibilities
Release Planning Meeting
– Validate deployment considerations, dates, and constraints.
– Validate test environments are available for the testing teams.
– Identify number of releases and which epics per release.
– Ensure the epics for the release are aligned with the Vision
– Ensure all epics have been decomposed into user stories and that these are all sized.
– Agree to the length of a sprint, if not already established and determine how many will be needed for the release.
This will be based on team’s velocity if it is already established.
– Determine which user stories will be TENTATIVELY slotted into each sprint / iteration.
• Consider potential deployable increments when assigning user stories to sprints
– Validate deployment dates and closure dates with Product Owner and Project Manager.
– Identify key sprint sync points for possible early and final deployments in test environments of functionality
delivered or required by the team.
– Verify if advanced ETE testing such as BST and IST testing are required, and if so, determine dates when needed.
– Determine schedule for scrum ceremonies.
– Record risks, issues, defects uncovered during the meeting.
• If an ETE SE and/or ETE Scrum Master are not assigned, then take ownership of reviewing these at the end of the meeting

© 2012 IBM Corporation

Sprint Planning
Face-to-face communication
Small reversible steps
User’s perspective
 Sprints

Timeboxed – Frozen features

Variable scope – Shippable result
Scrum Master Responsibilities

Sprint Planning Meeting

– Create agenda, facilitate, and take minutes.
– Work with the scrum team to define the goal of the sprint.
– Work with the scrum team to identify the stories for the next sprint based on the sprint goal, priority,
dependencies, and team velocity.
– Ensure that the team has a full understanding of the user stories assigned to the sprint so that they can begin
creating tasks.
– Encourage team to “select” tasks for all user stories.
– Identify or review team’s availability.
– Identify or review team capacity per person.
– Work with the delivery team to break the user stories into tasks (e.g. design, code, test, documentation, IST,
UAT support).
– Identify Risk and Mitigation plan associated with sprint.
– Record risks, issues, defects uncovered during the meeting.
• If an ETE SE is not assigned, then take ownership of reviewing these at the end of the meeting

© 2012 IBM Corporation

Daily Scrum

The heartbeat of Scrum

picture by Hamed Saber
Daily Scrum
Commitment and accountability
Say what you do, do what you say
Demonstrates team ownership
Includes Product Owner

picture by Hamed Saber

Daily Scrum
What I did since last meeting
What I will do until next meeting
What things are in my way

Only the team talks

Not to Scrum Master
No problem solving
Max 15 minutes
Standing up
Scrum Master Responsibilities
Daily Scrum
– Ensure that each Scrum team member is present.
– At the beginning of the project provide the expectations from the team members for this call.
– Track daily progress of all Delivery team members that have assigned tasks.
– Track daily progress of the Product Owner and/or Product Owner Delegate.
– Track if there are any new user stories ready to be user acceptance tested by the Product Owner and/or Product Owner Delegate.
– Verify that the work tracking tool is being updated by the team on a timely basis.
– Verify that the team has documented in the work tracking tool any impediments blockers being reported on.
– Get status from team on previously reported impediments blockers and drive them to closure.
– Record attendance and capture the minutes from the meeting (what was reported by each team member).
– Capture items that can be discussed at the sprint retrospective.
– Communicate the minutes to the entire team as a means for reporting on progress to the PM. Tip: Include a snapshot of the daily
burndown chart with the meeting minutes.
– Record risks, issues, defects uncovered during the meeting.
• If an ETE SE is not assigned, then take ownership of reviewing these at the end of the meeting

Scrum of Scrums
– Represent their Scrum Team in the meeting
– Report progress of their team
– Bring issues, questions, and blockers from their Scrum Team to the overall project team
– Resolve issues with other Scrum Teams
– Provide status and
– Record and communicate back to their Scrum Teams issues that other Scrum Teams need help with.

© 2012 IBM Corporation

Sprint Backlog
Owned by the team
Team allocates work
No additions by others
Scrum Master Responsibilities

Backlog Grooming Session

– Facilitate grooming sessions with Product Owner and Scrum Team.
– Ensure two sprints worth of user stories in the Release Backlog are well groomed to the point
where they can be broken down into tasks and be ready for sprint planning.
• Groom the user stories based on priorities and dependencies.
– Lead team based estimation sessions to size the user stories.
– Have a clear understanding of the project impacts and shifting priorities.
– Record risks, issues, defects uncovered during the meeting.
• If an ETE SE is not assigned, then take ownership of reviewing these at the end of the
meeting

© 2012 IBM Corporation

 Sprint Demo
Informal, no slides
Whole team participates
The world is invited
Perform Frequently

picture by oskay
Sprint Demo
Preparation needed
Show complete features
Accept or reject results

1-2 hours
per sprint/week
Scrum Master Responsibilities

Sprint Review/Demo
– Schedule all meetings in advanced for all sprints.
– Ensure all user stories to be demoed have been completed by the Delivery
Team.
– Conduct a demo preparation.

© 2012 IBM Corporation

Sprint
Retrospective
Reflect on process and product
Whole team participates
Sprint Retrospective
What to start doing
What to stop doing
What to continue doing

(Product Owner Optional)

Scrum Master Responsibilities

Sprint Retrospective
– Ensure everyone speaks up at these meetings and that it remains civil.
– Record all retrospective items in the Retrospective Log.
– Once the retrospective items are logged, the team decides on a few items to improve
upon for next sprint. Lead discussions on the selected items to use as improvements
for the next sprint.
– Create a plan to implement some of the ideas provided by the team in the next sprint.
– Capture and distribute minutes to the team.

© 2012 IBM Corporation

Back up Slides

© 2012 IBM Corporation

 Agile IT UP Core Processes

Click a Core Process to

open related topics and
artifacts

All Topics are available

from this icon

Click SDG to launch the

activity Determine
Decision to Deploy
(Go/No Go)
43 © 2013 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T and the AT&T logo are trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property.
AT&T Proprietary (Internal Use Only) Not for use or disclosure outside the AT&T companies except under written agreement.
 Change Management for Agile Teams
 Manage the change by
The Agile adding User Stories to the
Team(s) are backlog.
If the only teams
then
 Maintaining the backlog
impacted by meets the needs for quality
the change . . . change management.
 The 1ATTCR tool may be
required in certain situations.
Any other The full IT UP Change
If teams are then Management
impacted . . . Process must be
followed.
44 AT&T Proprietary (Internal Use Only) Not for use or disclosure outside the AT&T companies except under written agreement.
 Change Management for Agile Teams
How it’s met in
The requirement
Agile
A record of the change is A User Story is added to the
change created so it can be monitored backlog. In this case, the User
and kept for historical purposes. Story is the change request.

The Agile Team continually

All impacted teams have the
monitor opportunity to assess the
monitors the backlog. Delivery
teams size the effort of the new
impact of the change.
User Story in the backlog.
The Agile Team selects the User
Teams commit to the work
commit (or not) given their capacity.
Story from the backlog, the
equivalent to a team committing
to do the work.

45 AT&T Proprietary (Internal Use Only) Not for use or disclosure outside the AT&T companies except under written agreement.