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Should A Scrum Master Be Technical?

A serious matter of debate has been out there for a while. Mostly in the Agile confines. Whether a Scrum Master should have a technical background or not. This discourse took a new turn after one survey result by Scrum Alliance was out in 2015. It revealed that Scrum Masters were mainly dealing with teams wherein 44% were working in software development and 33% in IT.  This, somehow, led to a mass rethinking of the requisites of a Scrum Master, mainly the technical aspects.  While many are of the opinion that a Scrum Master only needs to facilitate Agile team activities, some emphasize the necessity of a Scrum Master with basic technical knowledge. In fact, a whole new cohort of technically sound Scrum Masters has worked wonders in Agile teams in the recent past.  So while an extensive technical knowledge is not a mandate for a Scrum Master, a familiarity with the project-specific domains is no less than a boon for the SM himself and his/her team. A Scrum Master can be either technical or non-technical. Let us view the role of a Scrum Master in both the ways. Should a Scrum Master be technical? Great, thought-provoking blogpost by @barryovereem at https://t.co/4jd6is7XP6: https://t.co/5qMSteApU6 — Christiaan Verwijs (@chrisverwijs) 18 October 2017   Scrum Master with technical background Benefits of a Technical Scrum Master (TSM) A Scrum Master need not necessarily be technical, but an SM with a technical background is an added advantage. A Scrum Master with a technical background means a Technical Scrum Master (TSM) who plays a crucial role apart from a servant-leader and facilitator. An SM is not a team member, but a team coach. A technical coach plays a key role in successful Agile adoption and in identifying possibilities to implement its usage to maximum effect. A Scrum Master with technical skills can involve in the software development activities successfully by understanding it from a technical perspective. A technical Scrum Master: Is capable of building rapport between the teams and team members Knows very well how and when to ask tech-savvy questions and Has the acumen to find out if something is not right It is necessary for a Scrum Master to have basic technical skills in order to communicate with the technical team properly. It can help the Scrum Master develop reliability among other senior management.   Issues with a Technical Scrum Master (TSM) The main problem with a TSM is that sometimes he/she creates some kind of problems. Working with a Scrum Master who is a technology expert is like working with complex problems that are better left unaffected. A TSM can affect the Scum team in many ways. He/she may: Act as a technical SME (subject matter expert) and try to handle services Ask team members some questions on their assessments Force the team to adopt and use a particular technology Guide the team on how to disintegrate stories into tasks Guide the Product Owner on how to evaluate the work Try to handle the project that the team is working on Both the team and the organization should understand what a TSM is doing and when he/she is overrunning the bounds.    Scrum Master with non-technical background Benefits of a Non-Technical Scrum Master Q: Should Scrum Master necessarily have a technical background? A: Definitely not It is not a demand that a Scrum Master should be technical, but it is essential for an SM to have excellent communication and management skills. The main role of a Scrum Master is to assist the team to follow the processes properly and the team is completely responsible for the enhancement of its technical practices. A Scrum Master with a lack of technical skills is free from resolving technical problems and delivering technical services while helping the team in finding the communication and collaboration issues and tackling non-technical impediments. A Scrum Master with his/her intelligence would be able to ask thought-provoking and direct questions which would resolve the barriers. A Scrum Master need not necessarily know the domain details that the team members are working within. This is because, everyone is responsible to do certain work, such as: The Product Owner is responsible for having knowledge on what needs to be done The development team is responsible for identifying how to execute this in a better way The Scrum Master is responsible for enabling them to do what they need to do   Issues with a Non-Technical Scrum Master Apart from the standard reasons, there are some other reasons for the failure of Scrum Projects. Some of the failures are caused because of a Scrum Master with lack of technical skills. Here is a list of a few reasons:   No follow-up with the team on their understanding of the User Stories  An experienced Technical Scrum Master follows up with the team and helps them execute the task.   Ignores mapping user stories to a single feature TSM may not be required here, but when the architect is busy with the other technical assessments, that is where a TSM can help to fill the gaps.   Acceptance Criteria given by the Product Owner (PO) is taken up without any discussion Sometimes we need to examine whether the Product Owner has taken a comprehensive view while considering the acceptance criteria. A TSM can help here to negotiate the acceptance criteria if in case anything needs to be considered additionally.   Unit testing is ignored frequently A Non-Technical Scrum Master does not understand the importance of unit testing. But a TSM understands its essence and helps the team by arranging a meeting on unit testing.   No particular plans to address the defects A Technical Scrum Master, sometimes, especially when the team extremely requires time out from the user stories, could update the program on his/her machine, run unit tests, fix the bugs, and finally ask the testing team to check them once.   Final Thoughts: Technical Scrum Master or Non-Technical Scrum Master? A Scrum Master is not required to understand the code, but coaching new teams requires some amount of technical excellence. Technical skills help the Scrum coach to teach and guide the team properly in understanding the practices well.     A Scrum Master does not need to be technical at all. He/she should understand the fundamental concepts of software development and be clear about the work process of IT projects. The most essential skill of Scrum Master is to guide the Product Owner and the team on the Scrum Practices and help the team in increasing productivity. It does not entail anything pertaining to technical and coding skills.   
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Should A Scrum Master Be Technical?

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Should A Scrum Master Be Technical?

A serious matter of debate has been out there for a while. Mostly in the Agile confines. Whether a Scrum Master should have a technical background or not. This discourse took a new turn after one survey result by Scrum Alliance was out in 2015. It revealed that Scrum Masters were mainly dealing with teams wherein 44% were working in software development and 33% in IT. 

This, somehow, led to a mass rethinking of the requisites of a Scrum Master, mainly the technical aspects. 

While many are of the opinion that a Scrum Master only needs to facilitate Agile team activities, some emphasize the necessity of a Scrum Master with basic technical knowledge. In fact, a whole new cohort of technically sound Scrum Masters has worked wonders in Agile teams in the recent past. 

So while an extensive technical knowledge is not a mandate for a Scrum Master, a familiarity with the project-specific domains is no less than a boon for the SM himself and his/her team.

A Scrum Master can be either technical or non-technical. Let us view the role of a Scrum Master in both the ways.


 

Scrum Master with technical background

Benefits of a Technical Scrum Master (TSM)

A Scrum Master need not necessarily be technical, but an SM with a technical background is an added advantage. A Scrum Master with a technical background means a Technical Scrum Master (TSM) who plays a crucial role apart from a servant-leader and facilitator. An SM is not a team member, but a team coach. A technical coach plays a key role in successful Agile adoption and in identifying possibilities to implement its usage to maximum effect. A Scrum Master with technical skills can involve in the software development activities successfully by understanding it from a technical perspective.

A technical Scrum Master:

  • Is capable of building rapport between the teams and team members
  • Knows very well how and when to ask tech-savvy questions and
  • Has the acumen to find out if something is not right

It is necessary for a Scrum Master to have basic technical skills in order to communicate with the technical team properly. It can help the Scrum Master develop reliability among other senior management.

 

Issues with a Technical Scrum Master (TSM)

The main problem with a TSM is that sometimes he/she creates some kind of problems. Working with a Scrum Master who is a technology expert is like working with complex problems that are better left unaffected.

A TSM can affect the Scum team in many ways. He/she may:

  • Act as a technical SME (subject matter expert) and try to handle services
  • Ask team members some questions on their assessments
  • Force the team to adopt and use a particular technology
  • Guide the team on how to disintegrate stories into tasks
  • Guide the Product Owner on how to evaluate the work
  • Try to handle the project that the team is working on

Both the team and the organization should understand what a TSM is doing and when he/she is overrunning the bounds. 

 

Scrum Master with non-technical background

Benefits of a Non-Technical Scrum Master

Q: Should Scrum Master necessarily have a technical background?
A: Definitely not

It is not a demand that a Scrum Master should be technical, but it is essential for an SM to have excellent communication and management skills. The main role of a Scrum Master is to assist the team to follow the processes properly and the team is completely responsible for the enhancement of its technical practices.





A Scrum Master with a lack of technical skills is free from resolving technical problems and delivering technical services while helping the team in finding the communication and collaboration issues and tackling non-technical impediments. A Scrum Master with his/her intelligence would be able to ask thought-provoking and direct questions which would resolve the barriers.

A Scrum Master need not necessarily know the domain details that the team members are working within. This is because, everyone is responsible to do certain work, such as:

  • The Product Owner is responsible for having knowledge on what needs to be done
  • The development team is responsible for identifying how to execute this in a better way
  • The Scrum Master is responsible for enabling them to do what they need to do

 

Issues with a Non-Technical Scrum Master

Apart from the standard reasons, there are some other reasons for the failure of Scrum Projects. Some of the failures are caused because of a Scrum Master with lack of technical skills. Here is a list of a few reasons:

 

No follow-up with the team on their understanding of the User Stories 

An experienced Technical Scrum Master follows up with the team and helps them execute the task.

 

Ignores mapping user stories to a single feature

TSM may not be required here, but when the architect is busy with the other technical assessments, that is where a TSM can help to fill the gaps.

 

Acceptance Criteria given by the Product Owner (PO) is taken up without any discussion

Sometimes we need to examine whether the Product Owner has taken a comprehensive view while considering the acceptance criteria. A TSM can help here to negotiate the acceptance criteria if in case anything needs to be considered additionally.

 

Unit testing is ignored frequently

A Non-Technical Scrum Master does not understand the importance of unit testing. But a TSM understands its essence and helps the team by arranging a meeting on unit testing.

 

No particular plans to address the defects

A Technical Scrum Master, sometimes, especially when the team extremely requires time out from the user stories, could update the program on his/her machine, run unit tests, fix the bugs, and finally ask the testing team to check them once.

 

Final Thoughts: Technical Scrum Master or Non-Technical Scrum Master?

A Scrum Master is not required to understand the code, but coaching new teams requires some amount of technical excellence. Technical skills help the Scrum coach to teach and guide the team properly in understanding the practices well.




 


 

A Scrum Master does not need to be technical at all. He/she should understand the fundamental concepts of software development and be clear about the work process of IT projects.

The most essential skill of Scrum Master is to guide the Product Owner and the team on the Scrum Practices and help the team in increasing productivity. It does not entail anything pertaining to technical and coding skills. 

 

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KnowledgeHut

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KnowledgeHut is a fast growing Management Consulting and Training firm that is a source of Intelligent Information support for businesses and professionals across the globe.


Website : https://www.knowledgehut.com

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1 comments

KINGSHUK MANDAL 07 Dec 2018

When the Scrum Master role was created by Jeff Sutherland, it was a technical position so that impediments for technical team could be removed without the team having to sped time explaining the problems to multiple people to get a resolution. Many organization who got Scrum right have trained the SMs to have enough technical knowledge to be helpful to the team in removing impediments. Just having management and communication skills sounds like trying to justify rebranding PMs.

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In this fast-moving world, project management has become one of the most important pillars that are helping businesses run without any glitch in their processes. Both small and large scale organizations around the world are exploiting technology and depending on project management systems to deliver the software development project successfully. Whether it is team workflow management or timing, these tools help to ensure that everything is going well without any obstacles. While there are tens of different project management approaches, Agile is considered one of the most practical and flexible software development mechanism that exist today. It is capable of executing a variety of tasks, but what sets it apart from others? Let’s find it out. Here’s a brief comparison of Agile management and traditional project management software:                                                                                                                    Traditional vs Agile Project Management Overview of Agile and Traditional Project Management What is Traditional Project Management? The traditional Project Management (waterfall) approach is linear where all the phases of a process occur in sequence. Its concept depends on predictable tools and predictable experience. Each and every project follows the same life cycle which includes the stages such as feasibility, plan, design, build, test, production, support, as shown in the figure above. The entire project is planned upfront without any scope for changing requirements. This approach assumes that time and cost are variables and requirements are fixed. This is the reason why traditional project management faces budget and timeline issues. What is Agile Project Management? When a traditional system focuses on upfront planning where factors like cost, scope, and time are given importance, Agile management gives prominence to teamwork, customer collaboration, and flexibility. It is an iterative approach that focuses more on incorporating customer feedback and continuous releases with every iteration of software development project. The basic concept behind Agile software development is that it delves into evolving changes and collaborative effort to bring out results rather than a predefined process. Adaptive planning is perhaps the biggest feature of Agile and one that makes it a crowd favorite among project managers. Scrum and Kanban are two of the most widely used Agile frameworks. They are very well known for encouraging decision-making and preventing time consumption on variables that are bound to change. It stresses customer satisfaction and uses available teams to fast-track software development at every stage. The table below shows the major differences between Agile project management and traditional project management.                                                                                Table: Agile project management vs traditional project management   Why is Agile Preferred and why not the traditional project management? Agile is preferred by most developers and managers because of a variety of reasons. Let’s have a look at the most common ones: 1. Project complexity Traditional: This method is the best fit for small or less complex projects as it follows linear approach. Sudden changes in the project or any other complexities can block the entire process and make the team go back to step one and start all over again. Agile: This is the best methodology to follow in case of complex projects. A complex project may have various interconnected phases and each stage may be dependent on many others rather than a single one as in simple projects. So, Agile methods are preferred for large complex projects, as they can respond better to such structures. 2. Adaptability Traditional: This approach works with a belief that once a phase is done, it will not be reviewed again. So, it is not adaptable to rapid changes in the work plan. In case if any sudden situation arises or any change in the requirements from the client’s side, traditional approach fails to adapt to the new change. The only choice is to start from the very beginning once again. This wastes a lot of effort and time in the process. Agile: The adaptability factor is very high in this methodology since it is not linear. Complex projects consist of several interconnected stages, where a change in one stage can cause an effect on another. And the project managers can take calculated risks in such scenario, as there is a chance of high adaptability.  3. Scope for feedback and changes Traditional Each and every process is clearly detailed and defined at the start of the project in the traditional approach. It cannot deal with any big change or feedback that might require a change in the process. Mostly, the project delivery time and budget are fixed, allows change very rarely. Agile There is a high acceptance for feedback and change in this method. The process is very flexible and allows constant feedback that can help to provide better output within the fixed project delivery time. The main reason that managers or developers choose agile direction is for the flexibility it offers. Developers working with Agile management are able to respond to customer requests quickly as they are only addressing small parts of the project at a time and the customer validates each iteration or sprint before finalizing.   Some of the important characteristics of Agile development Breaks project into parts Agile divides a project into parts (called iterations) where the release is sent to the customer after every single iteration. Additionally, the success of the project can be easily foreseen through the success of these iterations. This removes the need for upfront planning completely. Self-organized As mentioned above, Agile uses a parallel mode of management. Employees of a company are not managed by a central line of control, but by groups. For example, in Agile, there may be eight teams working on a single project. Each team is managed by itself without external guidance. 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The Agile methodologies stand in contrast to the traditional waterfall methodology, where all the requirements are initially analysed and documented before the development begins. While in Agile approach, requirements are like the actual software-development advances within each iteration. This approach provides flexibility in accommodating changes in the requirements and priorities of the business. The Agile development process aligns with the concepts of Agile Manifesto. Also known as Manifesto for Agile Software Development, the Agile Manifesto is a formal declaration of 4 key values and 12 principles supporting an iterative approach to software development. The Agile development methodology enables assessment of project direction throughout the development lifecycle. This is achieved through regular iterations, and when revaluation is done at every iteration, it greatly reduces the development costs and time. Agile helps the companies to build the right product. 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