New Self-assessment radar for Scrum Masters.
Use this as a permanent link to always get access to the latest version: http://www.smharter.com/blog/scrum-master-skills-self-assessment-radar/
2. FOREWARD
This radar assumes that you already have the Scrum knowledge covered by the Scrum guide
and by the Scrum Alliance and Scrum.org training and certification programs.
The radar focuses on the additional complementary competencies that enable you to:
- Facilitate the successful adaptation of Scrum to a team/organisation specific circumstances,
maturity, and culture, when and where it is beneficial
- Complement Scrum with practices that go beyond the iteration and the single team setup
- Be a lean-agile polyglot and an all rounded lean-agile professional, and have the necessary
competencies expected in todays job market and domains.
Image from the Crisp.se book Prioritera Fokusera Leverera
3. Self-assessment How to:
A) Assess your competencies
Fill your radar using the competencies’ descriptions that follow.
B) Plan your improvement
Identify a competence you really wish to improve and you can
practice too. Have a mentoring conversation around your radar,
to identify improvement actions.
C) Track your progress, rinse and repeat
Carry out your improvement actions. Collect feedback
continuously from peers and teams to assess your progress.
Periodically (e.g. every 2-3 months) update your radar, and
follow-up with a mentoring conversation.
4. Self-assessment guidelines:
Guidelines for self-assessing your competencies’ level
0) Use it for your personal development: find someone in your community and pair-mentor each
other. Or use it for career development: find someone in your organisation to be your mentor, or
hire a mentor.
1) This radar is mainly a placeholder for a conversation between you and a mentor, exactly like
user stories are for a conversation between the customer and the development team.
2) The levels are relative to you and personal: using them to compare two SMs makes no sense, it
would be like comparing velocity between two teams. The purpose is to identify and visualise
options for improvement and to track your progress over time. Rating yourself too high or too low
would defeat the purpose. The shape of your radar resamples your stance as SM and is unique to
you and your style.
3) Tip: you can print or draw the radar on paper, or you can download the PowerPoint radar’ deck
and edit the radar’s chart adding your data and saving the deck.
Guidelines for using the Self-assessment in an organisation
1) When this radar is used in your organisation, consider having the Scrum Masters’ Community of
Practice rewrite and adapt the content of this radar to make it fit the context of your organisation.
5. Level 0: Tourist
I never heard about that!
Level 1: Just starting (e.g. just got out of the CSM class, limited previous
experiences)
I act following predefined rules, my approach is limited and not very flexible.
Level 2: Improving
I incorporate aspects of the situation and the context, and I adapt my approach accordingly.
Level 3: Capable
I act consciously taking into account long-term goals and plans.
Level 4: Expert (e.g. good listener, collaborative with other SMs,
confident/effective with multiple teams, engaged with stakeholders from the
broader organisation)
I see the situation as a whole and I act from personal conviction, invent and introduce
small-scale innovations; my personal improvement is continuous and self-sustaining.
Level 5: Globetrotter
I have an intuitive understanding of the situation and I zoom-in on the central aspects, I have an easy
and creative way of doing things, I invent and introduce large-scale innovations to deal with truly unique
situations.
Levels:
6. Scrum Master Competencies’ Descriptions
Lean-Agile
Practitioner
I enact the Lean-Agile mindset, values, principles, and I master a variety of Lean-Agile practices and techniques.
I’ve knowledge, understanding and hands-on experience with Agile, Lean software and product development,
Scrum, as well as other frameworks such as Kanban and eXtreme Programming, Crystal Clear, Cynefin,
Systems thinking, Complex Adaptive Systems, etc. I know a variety of different techniques and practices to
manage self-organising systems.
I have practised Agile and Lean in a variety of different teams, organizations, and industries. I’ve knowledge and
direct experience of what good really looks like in Lean and Agile.
I’m an active member and I contribute to the SMs Community Of Practice. I collaborate effectively with other
Scrum Masters to tackle common problems and to agree on common approaches where beneficial.
Teaching &
Mentoring
I teach and mentor effectively team members and stakeholders in Lean-Agile mindset/principles/practices, on
Scrum, on Nonviolent Communication (NVC), on giving and receiving effective feedback, on deep collaboration
and co-creation.
I teach and mentor BAs, POs and also business people, managers, and stakeholders on Product Ownership,
agile requirements, agile estimation, and agile planning.
I negotiate effectively my role’s and the mentoring relationship’s goals with my manager (or the client) and the
team.
Facilitation
I tell less and I practice active listening more, with curiosity, openness, and without being judgmental. I give full
undivided attention when listening. I perceive what has been told, the subtext, as well as emotions, body
language, posture, tone, the surrounding context and the environment.
I facilitate team building, discussions, common understanding, and collective sense-making. I navigate and
resolve conflict, facilitate collective consensus building, and facilitate collective decision making.
I facilitate effective ad-hoc meetings and ceremonies, including bigger and more complex workshops such as
Inception Workshops.
7. Scrum Master Competencies’ Descriptions
Product Delivery
facilitation
I facilitate effective team’s agile deliveries: team dealing with backlog priorities and estimates, facilitate the
creation of agile roadmaps, facilitate the definition of delivery success criteria and the delivery constraints using
the agile triangle, facilitate the identifications of risks and unknowns and their respective prioritisation.
I facilitate team’s adoption of agile delivery practices and enaction of agile principles at the release level, including
those described in Servant leadership, Radical Management, and Management 3.0. I adopt various leadership
approaches that fit the specific challenge at hand, as described for example in the Cynefin framework.
I facilitate effectively and confidently delivery efforts that involve multiple teams.
Dependency
Management
facilitation
I support the team in identifying, visualising, weighing, and dealing with dependencies (technical, business and
people related) both incoming and outgoing. I encourage the team loosening and removing dependencies.
I support all teams involved in organising dependent work in ways that suit the circumstances (e.g with queues,
buffers, SLAs, staggered sprints, or synchronised sprints).
I facilitate team’s collaboration and communication with stakeholders, to inform them of the status of the
dependencies, to get updates on dependencies from other teams, and to handle the impact.
Enterprise Agility
I’ve knowledge and understanding of traditional and modern organisational culture, organisational development,
and organizational change.
I’ve a good understanding of traditional and modern organisations structure (e.g. hierarchical organisations,
networked organisations, flat organisations), functions (e.g. PMO, Marketing), and governance.
I’ve direct experience of different organisational cultures and their relation with Scrum and lean-agile. I’ve direct
experience of paradigm shift related to the lean-agile mindset, and of agility at the business and organisation level.
I understand and apply lean and agile theory for organisations, including for example systems dynamic, and
complex adaptive systems.
I’m capable of collaborating with and supporting various stakeholders and senior leaders from the broader
organization.
8. THANKS FOR THEIR PRECIOUS FEEDBACK & VALUABLE
SUGGESTIONS:
• LAURA RE, COACH AND TRAINER, LONDON: FUTUREFOCUSDEVELOPMENT.ORG
• MARIJN VAN DER ZEE, SCRUM MASTER, NETHERLANDS
• NOEL WARNELL, SCRUM MASTER AND AGILE COACH, LONDON
• GUILHERME MOTTA, AGILE COACH, BRAZIL
• JAMES WILLIS, SCRUM MASTER AND AGILE TEAM LEAD , UK
• ANNA ZALUTSKA, AGILE COACH, LATVIA
• CORRADO DE SANCTIS, SCRUM MASTER AND AGILE COACH, LONDON
• JAMIE PANTON, AGILE DELIVERY MANAGER, UK
9. LUCA MINUDEL - LEAN-AGILE COACH & TRAINER
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
ON TWITTER @SMHARTERLTD ➤
ON LINKED-IN HTTPS://WWW.LINKEDIN.COM/COMPANY/SMHARTER ➤
ON SLIDESHARE HTTP://WWW.SLIDESHARE.NET/LUCAMINUDEL/ ➤
10. ABOUT THIS RADAR:
The most valuable part of this radar is the approach to continuous personal
development toward your self-actualisation, supported by recurring mentoring
conversations.
You are encouraged to personalise and even rewrite, with guidance from your mentor,
the competencies in the radar, based on your specific needs and circumstances.
The competencies described in this radar have been drafted with the assumption that:
- Good Scrum Masters are Lean-Agile polyglots and master a variety of frameworks
and techniques even beyond Scrum
- In real-life scenarios where Scrum by the book may not be enough, it is important to
master the theory behind Scrum and Agile, for example empirical processes,
complex adaptive systems, lean, etc.
The radar is based on the feedback received, observations working and collaborating
with many Scrum Masters, participation in SMs CoP, and several years of experience in
the field.