This document provides an overview of Ilan Goldstein, an Agilist consultant and coach. It includes images and brief biographical information about Ilan, noting his background in traditional project management and experience with Scrum for almost a decade. The document also discusses some of the key attitudes and abilities needed for the ScrumMaster role, focusing on qualities like being extremely approachable, caring for the product and team, and acting as a wise wizard. It questions whether common job postings and industry practices truly reflect the servant leader aspects of the ScrumMaster.

1. Agile
Attitudes & Abilities
Image by news.com.au Image by
Planetrugby.com
Ilan Goldstein – AxisAgile.com
Twitter - @ilagile
Agile Australia 2012

2.  Scrum guy!
 Background in traditional
PM
 ‘Agilist’ for almost a
decade
 Blog about Scrum
 www.scrumshortcuts.com
 Writing first book...
Image by Mike Cohn Signature Series

3. Attitudes Abilities

4. So who cares?

5. ‘House of Agile’
FDD
RUP
DSDM RAD
Scrum
XP
Crystal

6. ‘House of Agile’
FDD
RUP
Crystal
RAD
DSDM
The eventual demise of the agile movement!!!

7. y Craftedview.com

8. ScrumMaster Definition

9. 2.
1.
Noun
ster]
ScrumMaster
ScrumMaster [say skruhm-mah-ster]
Noun
1. The coach, facilitator, impediment remover, and servant leader
of the Scrum team providing process leadership
[skruhm-mah-
2. A person who helps the Scrum team and the rest of an
organization develop their own high-performance, organization-
specific Scrum approach

10. Image by Presidio of Moterey

11. Leading without authority
Hardest to lead without authority
Harder to lead
Hard to join
Difficulty

12. Image by Welsnet

13. Qualities of True Servant Leadership
No ego
Extremely approachable
Calm and logical under pressure
Genuine care for product and team

14. Self org teams
S E L F
O R G A N I
S I NG
T E AM S
Image by Wildexplorer

15. ScrumMaster acts as wise wizard
len

16. So I’m concerned…

17. Image by Scrumshortcuts.com
Our industry is progressing but does
everyone get it?

18. Focus on
Image by CrazyFast

19. Focus on the functions
Release Management
Iteration Planning
Burndown Charts
Planning Poker
Reporting
Standups
Sprint Retrospectives Backlog Grooming
Updating Artifacts
Impediment Management Sprint Reviews

20. Let’s look at the evidence…

21. Job Ad 1
Agile Project Manager …adherence to all
Scrum Master documentation standards,
practices and tools
The candidate is considered The Agile Scrum Master
a subject matter expert in monitors progress on an
one or more functional areas hourly basis
Reviews Product Reports progress through
Backlog dashboards and
burndowns
Plans upcoming sprint
Process management
…effective at leading &
motivating team members to Establishes
perform at a pace that is, at budgetary constraints
times, grueling
Image by Monster.com

22. Job Ad 2
Scrum Master /
Project Mgr
Sprint planning meeting(s)
Shield teams from external Daily stand up meetings
influences, facilitate
removing impediments Scrum of Scrums
Report impediments
Build / maintain
comprehensive Sprint Reviews
knowledge of business
processes and technical
systems
Proficient in MS Project
Strong personality, ability
to influence people
Image by Monster.com

23. Simply a co-ordinator role?
Just the tip of the iceberg
Image by Guille Avalos

24. Attitudes Vs Functions
Functions will evolve

25. Attitudes Vs Functions
Should be aware and proficient
ATTITUDES
B
I
L
I
T
I
E
S
Attitudes & abilities are more constant &
fundamental

26. What not to do

27. Bestow because they know the rules back to front
Image by amazon.com

28. So what are we looking for?
Enact change without fear
Diplomatic without being political
Selfless without downplaying
Protective without over-protecting

29. Enact change without fear

30. “If you want to make enemies, try to change something.”
-Woodrow Wilson (American President 1913-1921)
Image by nanagyei

31. Diplomatic not political

32.  ‘Hub’ connecting
the ‘spokes’
 Subtle diplomacy
 Respect for all
roles
 No hidden agendas
Image by Sebastien Barre

33. Behave selflessly (without downplaying the role)

34. Image by Podiumcafe.com Image by The
Telegraph
“There‟s no one in the world that can do his job; he‟s the best in the world at what he does.”
- Mark Cavendish on Mark Renshaw, his lead out man
Image by Ke-Ai

35. Protecting or over-protecting?

36. Image by Leah Bend

37. So what are we looking for?
Enact change without fear
Diplomatic without being political
Selfless without downplaying
Protective without over-protecting

38. Who here is a project manager or ex-PM?
Image by ramonbonetfotos

39. Who arrived under the common assumption
that the ScrumMaster = Scrum PM?

40. WIDE BELIEF
ScrumMaster = Scrum Project Manager

41. Some more evidence…

42. Image by

43. This is incorrect:
– “On Scrum projects we acknowledge the untenable role of
the project manager and eliminate it” – Mike Cohn
Image by Mike Cohn

44. Ken Schwaber coined the term „ScrumMaster‟ in 1997
as a reminder that…

45. +
SM IS
NOT PM - Some
bits

46. Scrum
Vocabulary
IS
Vocabulary
for
change

47. Master of
process NOT people

48. So what happens to all the important
PM functions?

49. Scope
Image by Salendron

50. Scope
Budget
Image by Jeffbelmonte

51. Scope
Scheduling
Image by Garry L Bookerelsnet

52. Product
ScrumMaster
Owner
PM
Developers

53. So why the tight coupling?

54. Project
ScrumMaster
Manager
Certainly some overlap
No legacy role – candidates?

55. Image by Markb120
Image by boarderland
Existential threat = go to familiarity

56. Why is this a problem?
Wrong people to do the right job
Many transitions less than stellar...
Image by rknight

57. Scrum incompatible

58. Scrum incompatible
 Maintain command control authority
 Attached to up-front planning
Image by familymwr
 Continue to enforce rigid procedures

59. Good News
 Transition from
PM to SM is
very common
 Able to find
their inner-
agilist
 ‘Drop and
embrace’
Image by amazon.com

60. Scrum compatible
 Protective of
their teams
 Excellent risk &
issue managers
 Strong
stakeholder
managers
Image by herbrm

61. So can a PM become a SM?

62. ABSOLUTELY!
But…
Does
PM not
equal SM
Not the
only one
who can
become

63. Remember…

64.  Not simply a
functional list
 Not the exclusive
domain of ex-PMs
 PM’s do make the
transition
 Great
ScrumMasters
can be hiding in
plain sight...
Image by goutamgujjar

65. Image by kk
Not anyone can be a ScrumMaster
but a ScrumMaster could be anyone

66. Questions?
Stay in contact:
Ilan Goldstein
@ilagile
axisagile.com
scrumshortcuts.com/blog
ilan@axisagile.com
au.linkedin.com/in/ilangoldstein

67. Images used in this presentation – with special thanks to their talented creators
1 – Advance Australia Fair – News.com.au 33 - Express Delivery – The Telegraph
1 - Going Nowhere – Planetrugby.com 33 – Brugge 3/Apr/11 - Kei-Ai
2 – Mike Cohn Signature Series 35 – Helicopter Mom – Leah Bend
6 – Machu Picchu - Craftedview.com 37 – Mans elaire – ramonbonetfotos
9 - Co. B 229th Military Intelligence Leaders 41 – Job Search - Monster.com
Reaction Course - Presidio of Monterey 42 – Mike Cohn Books – Mike Cohn
11 – Seeing Eye Dog – Welsnet 48 – Telescope – Salendron
13 – Honeycomb - Wildexplorer 49 – Coins - Jeffbelmonte
14 – zz-Gandalf – Ianmckellen 50 – Gantt Chart Anatomy – Garry L Booker
16 - Perplexed Scrumtrooper – 54 - Other Food - Markb120
ScrumShortcuts.com 54 – Chinese McDonald’s – boarderland
17 – Untitled - CrazyFast 55 – Hole in One – rknight
20 – Job Ad 1 - Monster.com 57 - CSA-2006-10-23-093556.jpg –
21 – Job Ad 2 - Monster.com familymwr
22 – Antarctica 14 - Guille Avalos 58 – Software Manager’s Bridge to Agility -
26 – Various Agile Books – Amazon.com Amazon.com
29 – Change – It’s a New Year - nanagyei 59 – Do not disturb – herbrm
31 – Hudson Cement Factory - Sebastien 63 – Camouflage – goutamgujjar
Barre 64 - Minded. Heart. Relationship. Standards.
33 – Offseason Team Capsule - Source. - kk
Podiumcafe.com

68. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/