SCRUM
New Scrum Master?
Being a Scrum Master in a corporate environment isn’t as easy as the books make out. Here are seven tips to help you make the grade
Introduction
Over the years, I’ve worked with many new Scrum Masters within large organisations and a pattern has emerged over time. You see, whatever flavour of Agile you choose to follow is less relevant when you’re in a corporate environment then making your style work. Led on by what you read and see in startups, it’s easy to become romantic and think it applies equally in large corporations, particularly those that operate in regulated industries. However, I regularly see talented Scrum Masters become disillusioned and leave, or fail in their roles, and I would love to see them thrive instead.
So, what advice do I give my corporate Scrum Masters? Read on.
1. Being a slave to the process
If you follow Scrum, you’ll be taught that co-location is key, that documentation is secondary to interaction, that the daily stand up should be 15 minutes, at the same time etc.
In a perfect world, these are all fine but then you find that one of your new team members is in a different office, or maybe in a different timezone.
