Ron Wilson
An agile scrum master is a critical role within agile. It requires someone who has great technical and collaboration skills. The role of cheerleader, coach, and mediator are words who would describe characteristics of an effective scrum master. It is a challenging yet rewarding position when done well can yield some pretty amazing results. I personally have been trained and received the agile scrum master certification. It usually requires a training that can be completed in a few days followed by an exam. The agile scrum master exam is not that hard and it will give you some great guidance and information when you are going through the training course.
The agile scrum master is someone who can help provide leadership and direction to the agile team and work with the agile product owner and other scrum masters if required in helping to build a great product for the organization. Here are some important guiding principles for the agile scrum master:
Lead: While the agile scrum master lets the team be self guiding in most agile organizations, the agile scrum master needs to perform leadership and provide direction to the the agile team.
Mentor: It is important for the agile scrum master to mentor and provide direction to other members on the team. Often, the agile scrum master has more experience and has performed some or all of the roles on the agile team.
Influence: In addition to mentoring, the agile scrum master might need to influence the team, product owners or other scrum masters to move in certain directions and this is often needed to get things moving in the right direction.
Patient: The agile scrum master needs to be patient and needs to give the agile team a certain leeway to figure things out on their own. In certain situations, the agile team may make mistakes which will help the team grow and it requires failure in certain cases so the team will be more effective moving forward.
Consistent: The agile scrum master needs to be consistent in how they interact with the team and others outside the team.
I hope this information has been helpful. In addition to the role of an agile coach here are some additional articles which might help you gain a greater appreciation for agile.
Role of Agile Development Manager
Role of an Agile Business Analyst
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