(this article is for a series of posts of which some might be published in the upcoming book “97 Things every Scrum practitioner should know” in the O’Reilly series, which will be edited by Gunther Verheyen)

Actively Doing Nothing (is actually hard work)

What do Scrum Masters actually do, all day long? This is a hard question as the behavior of a Scrum Master is very contextual. It depends greatly on the maturity of the team, the experience of the Product Owner, and the amount of dysfunction in the organization. I use the “five tools of Scrum Masters” for clarifying what a Scrum Master does, when he does that, and why,

1. A Scrum Master asks questions.
2. A Scrum Master educates.
3. A Scrum Master facilitates.
4. A Scrum Master actively does nothing.
5. A Scrum Master interrupts (in exceptional cases).

These tools require little clarification, except probably the tool I probably use most: actively doing nothing.

(this article is the first in a series of posts. Some of these might be published in the upcoming book “97 Things every Scrum practitioner should know” in the O’Reilly series, which will be edited by Gunther Verheyen)

The Scrum Master as a Technical Coach

The best Scrum Masters that I’ve encountered spend part of their time as a technical coach for their team. Unfortunately, it seems that most Scrum Masters do not do this. To me, this seems like a lost opportunity since spending effort on technical coaching for your team can help them enormously, and it will help you with your other Scrum Master responsibilities.

It often comes as a surprise when I suggest that a Scrum Master could (or even should) do technical coaching. It shouldn’t! Technical coaching isn’t explicit in the Scrum Guide [1] as it is written to be applicable to both technical and non-technical work. Therefore, technical coaching is only mentioned as “Helping the Development Team to create high-value products.’’ That is unfortunate. However, some other great Scrum resources do refer to technical coaching explicitly, such as Michael James’ Scrum Master Checklist [2]. In the checklist, one of the four focus areas of a Scrum Master is “How are our engineering practices doing?”

Scrum Masters can (should) do technical coaching and that shouldn’t come as a surprise.

So I am a beginner in using agile frameworks and came to Munich for LeSS Conference for one purpose only – to find out how to quickly and effectively and painlessly make use of the framework in my own context. Simple, right?

I knew there would be a lot of inspiration – and there was! Thank you all content givers! I knew there would be many interesting discussions about different implementations in details or specific problems on the way or discovering the mindset it is great to manifest – and there were! (Some discussions/presentations ended up standing because of hot topic) I expected many experienced, positive, I-know-why-I-came people to meet and to stay in touch afterwards and I wasn’t disappointed. Finally, I hoped for great food ;) and it was de-li-cious (though still… less is more).

I also have learned that silent high five actually works for big conference, that (piano) keyboard is not designed for one player only (and pattern „one keyboard – one screen – one developer” is only my heavy bias) and that bully hen was a great team player 6 generations earlier, so promoting good teams as a whole is far better than promoting individuals in the long run.

It is with much trepidation and anticipation, that I decided to make the pilgrimage to Munich to attend this year’s LeSS Conference at the Paulaner am Nockherberg that happened between 12th to 13th of September, my very first. I know myself enough that travelling anywhere that wrecks havoc to my bio-clock has typically turned out torturous and eventful for me. However, I am curious as to what to expect and what I can gain attending THE annual LeSS event. There is a lot that I know that will put me into my uncomfortable zone - a brand new place I have yet to visit, a country with a language I do not speak, fresh new faces with people from countries and cultures very different from what I have grown used to in my 40 odd years growing up in Singapore.

We booked an Airbnb place, near-ish from the conference venue. I was warmly received by my Shanghai colleague, Joseph, on the early morning of 9th September, who waited at the train station, which is close to where he stays, and happens to be a short walking distance from where he currently coaches - BMW; Incidentally BMW is presently, undergoing a huge organisational transformation, to adopt LeSS, and find a better approach towards product development for their Autonomous Driving Program.

Last week I had a pleasure (and pain :)) of attending Less Conference in Munich. Here are a few words why it is such a great experience and why I would recommend it to anyone working within a team.