The Journey we went on as a team.

1. © 2013 ripplerock
ScrumMaster Education
The Value Added Learning
Programme
Helen Meek
Helen.Meek@Ripple-Rock.Com

2. © 2013 ripplerock
Our Conundrum
“What is there out there that really supports the
growth of our ScrumMasters, and the coaches of
the future? ”
This was a problem that Mark Summers and myself encountered on a recent
assignment where many of the ScrumMasters were early on in their journey
and needed support and guidance. When faced with this challenge we looked
around at what others had done, but specifically in the German market where a
group of coaches and trainers had a created an offering of teaching and
coaching outside of the normal certified classes that modelled a professional
coaching qualification. It was from here that we got our inspiration. We spoke
to our client and agreed an 3 month trial of the program to see how this would
help them. This was later increased to 6 months.
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ScrumMaster Support and Development
1 to 1 Coaching ScrumMaster
community
Mentoring on the
job
Training
In context
coaching on issues
Out of context
coaching
Discussion on
Agile topics
1 hour per week to
share experiences,
techniques, and
ideas
Mentoring from
another
ScrumMaster
when taking on a
new team
Scrum Experience
Training
ScrumMaster
Education
programme
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We had already identified several key opportunities where knowledge
and experience could be passed to our colleagues for reflection and
implementation, but really needed to understand for ourselves what
really made a great ScrumMaster/Coach for the future, and how we could
track the learning and improvements. The ScrumMaster Competency
Model was then born!

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ScrumMaster Competency Model
The framework was developed to help ScrumMasters and coaches understand
where they are on their journey. It is a tool to help self reflection and to hep
identify potential next steps for personal growth.
.
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Agile
New Shu Ha Ri
Principles
(Agile Manifesto, Agile
Principles and Lean Principles)
The principles are not
something we do, but they
guide our thinking and actions
when approaching new
situations. They also help us
apply processes and practices
in the way they were intended.
New to helping
teams adopt Agile
Understands the Agile
principles and manifesto.
Able to help a team adopt
Agile principles.
Recognises when decisions help or
hinder the adoption of Agile
principles.
Able to help those outside of your
immediate team adopt Agile
principles.
Understands how lean principles can
benefit Agile approaches.
Able to apply Agile principles
naturally in all situations.
Able to help small to large
organisations adopt Agile
principles.
Respected outside of the
immediate work environment as
somebody who lives the Agile
principles.
Processes / Frameworks
(E.g. XP, Scrum, Kanban,
Crystal, DSDM, FDD, etc.)
New to helping
teams adopt Agile
processes.
Understands at least one
process framework and
can apply it as intended.
Can compare and contrast the
differences between different Agile
approaches.
Helps the team evolve the process
that is most suitable for them.
Helps the organisation evolve the
process that is most suitable for
them.
Respected outside of the
immediate work environment as
somebody who knows about at
least 1 Agile process/framework.
Practices
(E.g. Continuous Integration,
TDD, Refactoring, User Stories,
BDD, Visual Management,
Pairing, Collaborative Design,
Estimation, Story Mapping etc.)
New to helping
teams adopt Agile
practices.
Can help a team adopt at
least one practice that
helps them to deliver
successfully in an Agile
environment.
Understands the benefits of a wide
range of Agile practices and can help
the team adopt them as appropriate.
Can help teams apply existing
practices in a more Agile way, i.e.
Collaborative Design over design
upfront, testing right from the start.
Can apply Agile practices beyond
the team.
Respected outside of the
immediate work environment as
somebody who knows about at
least 1 Agile practice.

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ScrumMaster Competency Model
Intentionally this framework lacks statements such as “As a ScrumMaster I
must do this …”, instead statements are more like high level goals for each
competency. There are a number of reasons for this:
• The world is rarely so simplistic that even in similar situations you can
apply the same practices and expect the same results.
• Every organisation will be different, we cannot presume to tell you
what you must do as a ScrumMaster (no-one can).
Therefore this is a framework to be adapted for each organisations situation;
however we have found that keeping it high level is better. Rather than it
being a detailed set of things you must do it is preferable to use it as a basis for
collaborative sessions with a more experienced coach, your managers, your
team or your peers.
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Results of the Self Assessment
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0
1
2
3
Agile
Knowledge
Agile
Application
Facilitation
Teaching
Leadership
Mentorship
Coaching
Emotional
Intelligence
Technical
Domain
Business
Domain
ASOS ScrumMasters
Ripple Rock
We collected the data by getting the ScrumMasters to pair up and work together
going through the model. This was a great exercise to really use key skills such as
active listening and powerful questions. Below you will see an example of the
initial cut of data. Initially as a comparison we also asked the RippleRock Coaches
to provide their data.

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Getting Started
Once we had all of the data it enabled us to understand where there was
knowledge gaps in the organisation. Using this data we officially launched the
ScrumMaster Education programme.
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Our Focus
The programme is to focus on two key areas:
• Learning through teaching
• Learning through working on a community project together. This enabled
putting into practice what we learnt. But also an opportunity to drive real
value back into the organisation.
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Key Principles of the programme
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• Open to anyone
• Everyone has the opportunity to get involved
• The agenda is driven by the community
• Different learning styles are utilised e.g. classroom, learning
through doing (project), guest speakers etc.
As a community we committed to come together for learning for 6
hours every two weeks.

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Our Journey
The following slides are a pictorial representation of the activities we did as a
community.
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Introductions
Why are you a
ScrumMaster/coach?
As a
ScrumMaster/coach
• What‟s the strangest
thing you have dealt
with?
• What‟s your biggest
strength?
• What‟s your biggest
weakness?

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How we can develop
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Choosing a Project
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We learnt 35s
& Tribes
Tribes

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Creating a Vision Box
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Retro: What we have learnt?
• Where we are as ScrumMasters
• How to do 35
• Better facilitation
• Importance of an ice breaker
• Product Vision Box
• A Vision helps us focus on what is important
• How to do tribes – it can make you uncomfortable
• Other peoples experiences shared
Actions
1. Ben to set up repository for ScrumMasters (Games/training)
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Learning: Being a Product Owner
Brain storming
• What it
means to be a Product
Owner?
• Which of the
key meetings should
they attend?
• What support
ScrumMasters give them?
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Getting our Product Owner!
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The team met with Kate
Boyle, Head of Business
Transformation to discuss
Product Ownership within the
teams. We discussed issues on
both sides of the fence and
agreed to work together to build
a great delivery team.

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Learning: Open Space
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• "Predictability over
Estimation Presentation“ -
Dan Brown
• “Cultural Change
Discussion” – Duncan Smith
• “BDD Discussion” – Adrian
Pottier
Actions: Feed all discussions
into the Project Backlog

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Learning: Being a ScrumMaster
• Draw & Articulate the role of a
ScrumMaster
• Discuss whether we do all
these activities as a group
Actions:
1) Set up 121‟s with
BA‟s/PO‟s/Team Members
2) Research Agile Practices and
share with the group
3) Share learning's from
programme with the teams
“Ice Breaker Tic Tac Toe“ – Mike Spruce

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Retro: Six Thinking Christmas Hats
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Learning's:
• User Journey Mapping
• Individual Coaching practices
• Kanban
• Coaching stakeholders
• New retrospective techniques
• Improved Confidence
• Giving bad news
Commitments to the new year
• „I want to learn more about Agile‟
• „Stay strong & continue of journey‟
• „Lets sort out Continuous Delivery‟
• „Be a good line Manager‟
• „Help & Assist with Agile practices where I can‟
• „Learn more about agile practices‟
• „Make sure teams have clear objectives to meet future career
aspirations‟
Actions
• Set up a session with Rob and Ian in the new year to talk us through the
ASOS Competency matrix (Duncan arrange this)
• Arrange for sessions with Rob and Ian with the engineers to ensure that
they understand the above (Ben to explore this after the first meeting)
• Set up 121s with team members and Bas (Everyone to do this if they
haven‟t already)
• Try out a new SM Ed agenda item where one person researches an area
of agile practice and then presents it back to the group (Mike to try this)
• Try a new practice of setting yourself one specific new thing to try each
sprint (Duncan to have a crack at this, but everyone can too. No fines for
excessive agility.)

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Learning: Facilitation
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Learning: Systems Thinking
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Retro: Lets get organised
The team wanted a longer view on what is coming up on the education
programme. The following plan was created and we looked for volunteers to
research and present their knowledge and learning's.
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Date: 25-Feb-13 28-Feb-13 12-Mar-13 14-Mar-13 26-Mar-13 28-Mar-13 09-Apr-13 11-Apr-13Pending
Lead: Duncan E Carl Zia Zia Helen Helen
02:30 Kick off with full
team to break
down top two
stories (1pm-
3pm)
Guest speakers
Dave Snowdon
and Naveed
Khawaja
Review & Next
actions from
backlog
Influence (Carl) Use time in
session or at
desks to deliver
against our
backlog
commitments
Coaching (Zia) Use time in
session or at
desks to deliver
against our
backlog
commitments
Leadership
(Helen)
Use time in
session or at
desks to deliver
against our
backlog
commitments03:30 Open Space
(Smithy)
Open Space
(Smithy)
Open Space
(Smithy)
04:00 Predictability/Esti
mating/CFD (Dan)
The Business
(Smithy)
User Stories
(Ben Cooke)
17:00 Close

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Re-cutting the Backlog
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Learning: Guest Speakers
• Dave Snowden
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Dave+Snowden
Dave presented on Cynefin
• Naveed Khawaja
http://www.linkedin.com/in/naveedanis
Naveed presented on Agile Portfolios
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Learning: Leary’s InterpersonalBehaviours
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So did we increase knowledge?
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0
1
2
3
Agile Knowledge
Agile Application
Facilitation
Teaching
Leadership
Mentorship
Coaching
Emotional
Intelligence
Technical Domain
Business Domain
October 2012
You can see from the data that ScrumMasters and Coaches working and
learning together has increased the scores In the majority of areas.
0
1
2
3
Agile Principles
Agile
Process/framew
ork
Agile Practices
Facilitation
TeachingLeadership
Coaching
Technical
Domain
Business
Domain
April 2013 ScrumMasters
RippleRock

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A Deeper Dive
Whilst all ScrumMasters showed an improvement, specifically two members of
the community demonstrated significant improvement in their journey.
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0
1
2
3
Agile
CoreDomain
23/10/2012
19/04/2013
0
1
2
3
Agile
CoreDomain

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Conclusions
• Despite heavy workloads the community still committed to the Education
Programme and this was testament to the value it drove.
• Towards the end of the programme we took the opportunity to use the group to
reflect over the whole experience and refined the competency framework for the
April data collection. We found that some areas were so linked that we should
merge them and other areas needed to be broken into more refined areas.
• On a personal note I found the experience extremely rewarding. Being able to really
make a difference and help shape future coaches has been exciting and I even learnt
a few things along the way also.
Final Thoughts
Through running programmes such as these we have been able to have continual
development of our ScrumMaster community, thus driving continual improvement into
the teams and the end result being improved customer service for both the organisation
and the end customer.
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Did we complete our mission?
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