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Category: Technology

Analytics, Change Management & Technology

What is a full-stack Data Scientist?

Posted on by Imarticus Learning

 

The world of facts, figures, data, numerics, statistics and other technical information needs an artful collection, collaboration, processing, collating and analysis.

Full stack data is what happens when any data gets collected, analysed and applied for all purposes.  The process helps in visualizing the entire stack of data is a systematic manner.

Data stack science is a broad field where statistics and other kinds of information get scientifically analysed and applied. This field is substantially used to management, business and scientific or technological dealings and aspects.

A person with specialist knowledge of numbers, data collection and research can be generally called data scientist.

Data sourcing, researching, stacking, systematization and application is also applied in fact analysis, machine learning, engineering and other technical studies and training.

Imarticus provides high-quality training and education in all fields requiring full data stacking science. The essential ropeworks are taught in a large number of courses offered both online and on-campus sites, such as Pune. 

Data science stacking training can help students get training and specialization in several management and technical skills. Firstly, the learner can understand the basics of management and business.

He can get to understand action taking, decision making and applying execution skills to the application of data. He can be trained to utilize information to maximize profits, to make smarter uses of information and to select and analyze information with relevance and accuracy. 

Data science knowledge is crucial in setting up new business ventures or making new deals. Action plans need to be made with efficiency and with originality. With fact and data stacking, and without a proper understanding of data collection and research, everything can be futile.

Imarticus takes pride in helping students begin their careers in technology, data science and other related fields, The institute offers projects, mentorships and other opportunities as well. The institute believes in the motto ‘learning by doing’. In other words, training is being provided in a practical and hands-on manner.  

The Data Science course is offered in collaboration with Genpact, the Global leader in analytics. The online and offline classroom experience includes 200 hours of training, work experience with renowned companies and projects and other opportunities. Courses cover all topics relevant to the data science, statistics and technological data analysis.

The Imarticus website (www.staging-imarticus.kinsta.cloud ) will provide all the details about the courses and how to apply. Several case studies have also been added for glimpses into what is expected to be taught and understood.

On completion, industry recognized certificates will be provided. The added advantage of being associated with Genpact can be the sure way to get into this field.  All professionals experienced and novice, are welcome into the programme. 

How valuable is Scrum master certification for Business Analyst?

Posted on by Imarticus Learning

 

In the life cycle of Software Development, the role of Business Analyst is pretty essential. A business analyst is the one who gives the team a clear understanding of what the software needs to do. The other teams work on the specification provided by the business analyst. As the IT industry is adapting the agile framework, the demand for the Scrum master has increased folds.

To explain in simple words, a scrum master is the one who tracks the progress of the project and helps in removing the obstacles that the team is facing. Even though the scrum framework does not have any place for the business analyst, the BA’s are an excellent choice as scrum master. But how can a business analyst take the role of a scrum master?

The role of the scrum master is to make sure that the project is running smoothly and on time. They conduct day to day meeting and take the inputs from the team members about their previous day’s work and understand what their current day’s agenda is. This may sound similar to the role of a business analyst whose job is to keep the track project’s progress and solve the obstacles that make come in the way.

In an organisation, the experience of the business analyst to handle the stakeholders plays a very crucial role in the scrum environment. The BA knows precisely when to approach the customer, the sponsor or the executive in the right time which as a scrum master is the key role in the team.

The Scrum environment is very collaborative. The job that the business analyst used to do alone is done with the help of the entire team in the scrum network. The Scrum master as the BA can be taken as the one who takes the lead in case of any issue and helps solve resolve the issue. In a Scrum environment, the responsibility to manage the backlogs in the product is on the product owner. In general, it is the responsibility of the BA to handle the backlogs. Hence, BA as scrum master can help guide the product owner in resolving the issue of backlogs.

Scrum is based on the agile methodology and just having the basic knowledge of it will not help. The certification course will help you understand the minor things as well as the overall idea behind the agile framework. There are certain ‘terms’, or you can call them as ‘vocabularies’ that the agile framework uses and can only be understood with the help of certification and certification. With a certification in the scrum, you will be an indispensable asset to the company that are adopting the framework.

With the organisations showing more willingness to adapt the agile framework, the business analyst alone will not help. A certification for scrum master is going to not only help you raise the career graph but also help the organisation with a skilled scrum person. The scrum master certification will help them become an important part of the team.

Before that also should have a look on the eligibility criteria for Agile Scrum master certification.The skills of a business analyst are very much required in the scrum master, and the certification will help you and the organisation both. The certification can help you make your organisation understand that you not only understand the agile framework but are also capable of using it to help the company.

For people who are willing to learn the scrum methodology, Imarticus learning is the leading institute that provides the certification for the same and helps grow the individual in their career with the Scrum certification and broaden their career opportunities.

The Charm Of User Stories

Posted on by Imarticus Learning

Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. The simplicity of a user story allows for this approach becoming the fundamental artefact in your project armoury. Let us understand two simple concepts in user stories which highlight how a user story operates and the INVEST acronym holding it together. These two simple techniques of product backlog formulating improves the quality of the product, communication of value to the user and rests wholly on the user.
Let us move to the 3C’s principle. The 3Cs approach components are:

  • Card:

Aptly named it forms the written-down text of the user story and is an open-invite to the next logical step of conversation. This concept accepts that like in Scrum the Product Backlog items are imperfect and invites the team to discuss, discover and diffuse iterational conflicts. At this stage of discovery, the elements of collaboration and communication are crucial to refinement.
It addresses the why, what and who in the user story. The format asks leading questions to discover the role, benefit and action required. Since the team is cross-functional, the questions are both important, and the user card is developed with an actual persona in mind while addressing the benefit and assigning it to the business-goal benefits.

  • Conversation:

Normally all conversations are face-offs and moderated by the Product Owner. A collaborative discussion of all stakeholders ensues. This is the phase of the actual value of the user-story getting written and reflects the commonly accepted terms shared by all members before recording ‘Doneness’. Ideally, it also includes the Acceptance tests and methodology to be followed, so a shared understanding is recorded.

  • Confirmation:

The PO firstly confirms ‘done’, and the team checks the ‘doneness’ and its alignment and common definition of ‘done’ in writing of the user story.
Next, we move to INVEST and what it stands for.

  • I means Independent:

This lets the team know that this user story is independently solvable and implementable immaterial of other user stories and can be broken into technical dependency as often as required using refactoring principles.

  • N means Negotiable:

This is an open-ended evolving iterative story and is flexible and yet to be attributed to technical specifications. The DevOps team takes the final call on technical implementation.

  • V means Valuable:

Here is the why question. The alignment of business goals to each user story is vital. However, it does not suggest that every user-story must evolve into a marketable product. More than the user view the business goal is paramount.

  • E means Estimable:

In this head, it calls on the team to be Agile and approximate the work-complexity, effort and time required to build a potential bearing product. Final values will be based on consensual approximations.

  • S means Small:

In this stage, the item should qualify as small functional increment achievable in a single Sprint. As it gets to the top of the Backlog list, it achieves its maximum size due to ongoing collaborations.

  • T means Testable:

This phase deals with the common definition of the team understanding on verification and testing procedures acceptable for a ‘done’. If there is a common consensus that the ‘done’ can be verified in a particular procedural manner the ‘doneness’ being achieved in one Sprint implies the product is testable.
The INVEST set of rules is applied to all items on the Backlog list even when user stories are to be written yet.
In conclusion, the Agile user story is simple to learn, and the charm of the user story lies in its team-collaborated iterations and evolution.

Three Questions To Determine If An Organization Is Agile

Posted on by Imarticus Learning

Being Agile is a continuous process and a way of thing. One should never expect 100% Agility. Just as every sport is larger than its practitioners no matter how famous they are. The same applies to Agility! There will be areas of improvement, techniques of excellence and some areas of total failure. Just to give a fair idea of Agile progress in an organisation, the three important questions one must ask are as below.
Q1: How often are products fully integrated by the teams?
This question is meant to assess the team functionality and hence organisational Agility from a customer’s point of view. While many people ask how many releases and how frequently releases happen, this may not be a true index value. This is because the question of releases and frequency of releases both depend on the client needs.
A persistently demanding client will have more releases and frequently so with no real way to compare the performance of products. Going a level higher the integration frequency of products is a better index since it does indicate how often projects are released and how quickly. The capacity for being Agile especially in cross-functional teams is a good way to judge the full capacity of the organisation to release marketable products.
Q 2: How would you handle critical issues that cause the timelines or planning to go awry and make achieving them impossible?
This question is directed at measuring leadership Agile commitment. The crisis response is a true indicator of Agility. Critical phases are times when Agile principles need to be put into practice. If the response is that during crisis stages Agile is not employed for resolutions, then the organisation has no commitment to Agility which remains a mere unpracticed fad.
Q 3: Why is your Scrum Master or PO the best?
This question is meant to figure out the dysfunctional areas in organisational Agility. Taking such opinions will assess WHY someone thinks the SM or PO is the best. Many giveaways are available in their opinions. Is the SM dedicated, full-time or distributes his team-time?  Most answers will let you know if the SM/PO is effective and meets the team’s needs. You may also hear of SMs who bark orders and tell people how bad their Scrum values are. This is especially true of past Project Managers in the Scrum Master role. This effectively lets the cat out of the bag. Scrum is to be practised at all times and even in personal life. However, when a person is still a project Manager and titled SM, he is more prone to behave as a PM.
Similarly, opinions about the PO also reflect the team Agility. How can a great PO do the real job and still be a good PO without affecting his/her job? A PO needs 100% clarity of project, is able to stay and explain iterations to the team and contribute to a performing Scrum Agile team. If the PO is just attending the meets, then iterations can lead to missed calls, poor clarity and a host of negative Agility scorers.
In conclusion, you may have to understand why these questions are asked and rephrase them. However, 3 questions are not enough to get a complete picture. The pointers in the answers are a good start to understanding company values, team functioning, effective leadership being present and state of Agility. Base your assessment and opinion on these answers.

What Are The Eligibility Criteria for Agile Scrum Master Certification?

Posted on by Imarticus Learning

Scrum, is the buzzword of the day. When it comes to upgrading your skills you want a reliable partner who will ensure you learn the requisite skills and not just theoretical aspects. That’s where Imarticus Learning’s expertise and agility scores.
ITeS and IT majors like Google, Oracle, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, and Dell are Agile! There are a plethora of jobs for people with experience in practically handling Agile suites on the Scrum framework. With CSM Certification your implementation of Scrum projects will lead your organization to better its efficiency, productivity and profits. The obvious must be stated. Your payouts could be fantastic and huge! Today teams work with members who have diverse expertise and work together to collaborate on speedy resolutions and focus on new projects, speedy deliveries, and multi-location access. To make effective Agile contributions and use the latest Scrum practices you need formal industry experience and agile scrum certification training.

Which Certification to Do?

There are two certification courses to enable your career as a CSM. The first is the CSM certification by Scrum.org.
About the CSM online exams and certification:
An understanding of the concepts of Scrum coupled with a 2-day CSM Course with a reputed institute like Imarticus enables you to take the CSM test online. You need to score at least 24 of the 35 questions rightly. You get two free attempts and can work on your wrong answers just in case you fail. The third-and-after attempts are paid-attempts at the certification.
On successfully clearing your certification exams you gain membership with Scrum Alliance, access to online support groups and forums, opportunities for continued learning and a Scrum website profile-page validating your CSM credentials.

The benefits of the Agile Scrum Master Certification Course:

The CSM course is your best route to the CSM certification exams. The course allows you to learn Scrum fundamentals and core concepts. The duration differs from 14 to 16 hours and is spread over two days.
• The CSM Course enables you in just 2 days on the weekend or on weekdays working 9 am to 5 pm the best practices, tricks, and tips on how to resolve issues in diverse environments.
• Scrum Alliance has Global REPs ensuring your certification is worth the money you pay.
• You will be comprehensively trained and prepared for the online test and CSM Certification.
• Effective CST-led training and global curriculum which is approved by Scrum to ensure you are industry and job ready on course completion.
• The reasonable course fee includes the fee for the examination by the Scrum Alliance.
• The courses offered are always based on demand-trends and future technology developments.
• Topics like core concepts, Scrum Foundational principles, the Agile Manifesto, Scrum roles and their differences and impact are covered. You explore how the SM manages Scrum and Sprint Meets, Daily Scrum Meets, the Retrospective Meet and more. You also learn about backlogs, iterations, burn-down charts, increments, and various Scrum artifacts.
• Scrum Scaling is an advanced module that will help implement work environment Scrum. No rote learning is present and you learn through real-time, industry-relevant scenarios, role plays etc to evolve and emerge a confident CSM.
• You also earn PDUs required for the PMI-ACP agile scrum certification examination and certification.
The second and harder to attain certification is the PMI-ACP® certification which is the goal of every agile scrum certification course. The ACSM course will help you prepare for the certification while providing you with training to earn PDU’s which are mandatory to take the examinations. The PMI-ACP includes Agile approaches like Lean, Scrum, Kanban, testing TDD, and XP.

Who can apply for this certification?

Transitioning enterprises and their Agile team members/employees will discover the certification path enhances career choices and prospects as agile scrum certification endorses and measures your practical skills and theoretical learning applications to real-world scenarios.
Essentials to get certified and retain certification:
The agile scrum certification exam consists of 120 objective type questions to be done in 3 hours. To maintain it you need to earn 30 PDUs on Agile related topics once every 3 years from training organizations.

Eligibility Criteria for Agile Scrum Master Certification

• 2,000 hours of general experience hours working on teams/ requisite PDUs from a training course.
• Agile practice of 21 contact training hours.
• And 1,500 working hours on Agile teams/methodologies.
Concepts learnt at the Agile and Scrum training:
You will imbibe the basics and explore the following topics
• Scrum (3*3) concepts, Product Backlogs, Estimation, and Planning.
• Core Scrum tenets, Release Planning and more.
• Comparing methods like Waterfall and Agile.
• Agile Process Introduction, project delivery and flavors.
• Kanban, Advanced Scrum, Project Simulation and Agile adoption.

Who Will Benefit and How?

The Agile suite has become popular for resolving complex issues in enterprise and project management opening up the market for CSMs, domain experts, BAs and developers too. The increased use of emerging technology and tools has transformed how business today is being done.
There are no prerequisite educational qualifications for the course. A high-speed internet connection, smartphone or computer, and the will to achieve your dreams are your investment. Dedicated teams in different teams like marketing, operations, finance et are a thing of the past. Being Agile is a continuous process of team contribution, collaboration and communication with each team member bringing domain expertise to the table especially in cross-functional teams. With this Agile and Scrum training you are ready for certification and to make a difference to the organization by ensuring project management, rapid release-cycles, teamwork collaborations, and in helping adapt to and resolve complex issues rapidly.
In conclusion, it must be said that the CSM certification and doing the courses have huge advantages. Here is how you can achieve the goal of certification as a CSM from either Scrum Alliance or Scrum.org. Enrol for an agile scrum certification with a recognized training partner like Imarticus Learning. The course will earn you the training certification and PDU’s required to take the certification exams. Obviously, this is the first step at equipping yourself and you get better with experience.
Tomorrow never pays in this fast-changing technological world. Set your goals high and do it today!

What are the benefits of Scrum certification for programmers?

Posted on by Imarticus Learning

 

Scrum is an empowering different perspective and work strategy when compared to older traditional work processes involving command and control over an individual’s work. Scrum is a simple framework strategy for DevTeams and software product development helping software developers to work as collaborative, communicative teams for the achievement of common business goals like the creation of a market-ready product.

Scrum is a widely used agile framework that aids teams to deliver shorter time cycles, instantaneous feedback, continued learning, and fast corrective actions based on frequent testing to achieve the desired outcome through Agile principles and Scrum best practices. The flexible Scrum methodology can be utilised in various circumstances of business, personal or team process to enhance value by delivering the desired outcome.

Here is a quick list of the benefits of Scrum certification course.

1. Learn and practice the basics of Scrum work: The Scrum Master is an ace in the use of Scrum and Agile values having excellent command over team dynamics and able to provide a self-organised team who can use the Agile and Scrum practices to resolve their situations and achieve ongoing team communication and collaboration.

2. Adapt your mindset to Scrum thinking and actions: A certified scrum master is a chief machinist who with gainful insights, perception and knowledge lead teams to organisational success.

3. Become industry ready, marketable and relevant: Scrum works well at all levels and in both personal and professional lives and environments. An Agile business analyst and Scrum Prodegree with SAPwill empower you to use Scrum, Agile and SAP effectively.

4. Scrum Master Certification organisational benefits: The training enables you to use the latest tools, technologies, and resources ensuring better-organised teams and business processes that cost less money and time.

5. Transition the organisation to Lean-Agile practices and Scrum methodology: The rather new application ensures better yields, enhanced resource management, timely insights, lesser times to the market, sellable products after each Sprint and much more. All these translate into improved productivity and profits with great ROI.

6. Better peer interactions: The Scrum methodology is simple and usable even in personal attitudes and outlook in life. A certified Scrum Master enables himself and others to promote productivity and obtain desired outcomes through efficient communication and collaborative work.

7. Update, prove and practice Scrum knowledge: The certification earned post-rigorous agile scrum master training especially from a bankable training academy helps land job and career opportunities with fantastic payouts and the option for continued learning and development.

8. Earn your place in the scrum community of experts: The Scrum Alliance Certification is joining the elite band of professionals with access to the community for continued experiential learning.

9. Enhance sale ability to earn new projects: Certified Scrum professionals ensure winning teams. Clients appreciate the flexibility, fast delivery, quality standards and quick releases of market-ready products. That’s exactly what a certified Scrum Master and Agile Coach is able to transform teams to achieve.

10. A coveted certification and validation: Obviously, the demand for Scrum professionals with certification is high and supply never enough. That’s why the industry pays well and ensures it fuels the demand and scope for emerging Scrum professionals.

Large multi-nationals like Microsoft, Google, Yahoo and many more are transitioning and updating to the Scrum methodology. The role of the Scrum Master is crucial and all important in the unseen coaching, mediating and inculcation of Scrum practice to optimise workflow and team processes. 

Now is the right time to do an agile business analysis course and utilise these benefits and earn your Scrum Master Certification.

How Does a Scrum Master Manage Risk in Scrum?

Posted on by Imarticus Learning

 

Most software development organisations today use Scrum or some other Agile methodology to streamline their processes. While they do have their own obvious benefits, many people do complain at times that Scrum has no clear Risk Management steps for the Scrum Master to follow – the fact is that Scrum does have a five-step plan which is meant to address the issues of risk in a structured manner.

The Scrum Master is in charge of ensuring that the team functions without any impediments on the way, and removing any obstructions which are holding the team back. Therefore, this is how a Scrum Master commonly deals with risk.

• Risk Identification
With the help of the Scrum Product Team, the Master should try and identify all the risks which could potentially have an impact on the project. This is done also by looking at the product from a host of perspectives and using some other techniques. Risk identification is a constant process, and the Identified risks even become inputs to many Scrum processes like Demonstrate and Validate Sprint.

• Risk Assessment
After identifying the risks, you have to now understand what the impact of each risk may be on the project. The overall business value in the worst case scenarios can be calculated, and you can also check if the risks outweigh the implications of the project itself – in that case, you should think whether it is apt to even continue the process. Probability Trees, Pareto Analysis and a Probability and Impact Matrix, can be used to understand the impacts the risks may have.

• Risk Prioritization
As a result of the first two steps, you have a list of the possible risks which could impact the project and an idea of how big each risk is. In this step, therefore, you will have to priorities the risks based on their chances of occurring and implications on the projects. This priority list will come in handy in the next couple of steps.

• Risk Mitigation
Risk can be mitigated by using a number of responses from Scrum, from which the best option is to formulate a plan B for you to fall back on. You can either be proactive about the risk, or reactive about it. Proactive is about trying to prevent the risk in an active fashion, which being reactive is about trying to mitigate the results of the risk after they have happened.

• Risk Communication
Every project has a lot of stakeholders who are worried about how the project is progressing. It is important to communicate to these stakeholders, not just the owners, about the risks and their potential impact on the project. You should also explain the measures you have taken in order to mitigate the effects of the risk. This is not the last step in the process – rather, it is a parallel step which should be done throughout the first four steps.

 

If you find yourself interested in learning more, you should check out the Agile business analyst and Scrum prodegree with SAP on offer at Imarticus Learning.

What is the Best Way to Train Agility?

Posted on by Imarticus Learning

Agile methodologies are becoming increasingly popular around the world today. Most large companies incorporate these principles in their work settings, owing to the many benefits that they bring to the table. However, in order to ensure that the organizations function as one in a seamless manner, it is important to help everyone be on the same page about Agile methodologies.

If you are learning Agile on your own, you need to understand what the methodology entails in order to carry out the job effectively. The best way to train agility would be to develop a training plan, which is comprehensive enough to have a long term impact on the organization. Here are the steps to build a training plan that will transform your organization.

  • Training Goals

First, you should set a goal as to what you are trying to reach by learning this. Are you only looking for a basic understanding of Agile and Scrum? Are you looking to make yourself a Scrum Master or lead a coaching team? Or are you simply trying to be the Agile leader every organization needs in order to guide the others towards an Agile system? All of these can be possible goals for your actions. Once you have this sorted out, you can move onto the next part of the plan.

  • Audience

Obviously, the overarching end goal is to transform everyone who works at the organization into Agile practitioners. However, it is not feasible to train everyone right at the start. The better way to do it would be to train a single person like yourself or a small group who will be able to start implementing the methodologies at the workplace. Know that the training experience for the Agile practitioner, leader and Scrum Master all different in their own ways too. This means that you will have to identify the target audience in this step in a clear manner.

  • Timeline

No training plan is complete without a rough timeline of what you are trying to achieve. You will have to draw up a high-level schedule, which can be difficult at first – however, it is necessary. Keep in mind your goals too, when you are setting up a timeline. It may be easy to train a single person as an Agile Pilot quickly, but transforming your organization completely may even take years – the timeline varies according to the goal you have in mind.

  • Scope and Expansion Plans

You should then have an idea about how you will move forth in making it an organization-wide practice. You should eventually expand the plan in mind to include everyone, and you must have an idea of whether you will use Stealth Agile or Organization wide agile training to that effect.

Choosing a vendor for training your organization is also an important part of the plan. You will need to have a high-quality vendor, who can teach Agile methodologies in a comprehensive manner – the agile business analysis course and other ones available in Imarticus Learning are just for you.

What is Scrum methodology?

Posted on by Imarticus Learning

The Scrum world provides the Scrum DevTeam decision-making capabilities instead of detailing how and when to do it. Scrum trusts the team to self-organize the issue presented to it and resolve criteria like Task definitions, Entry and Exit criteria, Validation criteria etc instead. Scrum is a strategy for software product development helping software developers to work as collaborative teams for the achievement of common business goals like the creation of a market-ready product.

Scrum methodology:

The Scrum framework relies on its team to be collaborative, cross-functional, Scrum organized and task-oriented. Every member of the team participates and contributes to goal realization for the desired outcome under the guidance of an Agile coach to resolve complexities and deliver on time.

As there are no leaders the team Manager is the Product Owner and is able to fully utilize capabilities when taking the idea from concept to a sellable product. It is definitely all about the team effort and each Sprint meeting helps prioritize the Product Owner needs and address issues based on them by team-effort that is both communicative and collaborative.

Scrum Development:

Scrum methodology encourages team planning at the beginning where the team decides on which items they will commit to creating in a sprint product backlog. Agile Scrum sprints then take the issues featured from coding to functionality and test to integrate its focus towards the evolving goal.

By sharing, communicating and collaborating in each Sprint, the product becomes flexible, defect-free, tested and emerges as a market-ready product during the project life-cycle itself. The daily Sprint reviews in a Scrum meet of about 15-minutes enables effective review, corrections, and transitions based on the progress achieved the previous day. The Scrum master is the coordinator who with a scrum certification course ensures team participation and goal focus.

Here is how a task is performed in Scrum.

  • The Scrum DevTeam collaborates to resolve complex issues.
  • The product backlog is discussed by the team to prioritize Product Owner needs and fixes deadlines for committing to produce a market-ready product resolution.
  • Each time-restricted Sprint is reviewed in daily Scrums of not more than 15 minutes.
  • Each daily Scrum reviews tests and corrects the previous day’s progress.
  • On completion of a sellable product, a new Sprint begins.
  • The process continues till the deadlines or budget is complete.

The Scrum process artifacts:

At the end of a Scrum sprint, the team as one delivers the primary product or artifact which should be sellable.
The product backlog artifact lists the functionalities, time chart, and features required to enhance the primary artifact.

The Product Owner’s onus of working the backlog allows the team to work the most value-based feature first. The Scrum Master ensures user stories or client perspectives serve as the basis of product development during Sprint reviews and backlog creation.

The Agile  Scrum methodology creates by team efforts, artifacts like the burndown sprint chart and a release chart listing work accomplished, tested and corrected to ensure timely delivery of a market-ready product.

Main Roles in Scrum methodology:

The Scrum framework works on three roles.

  • The Scrum Team who work in Sprints to produce market-ready products.
  • The Scrum Master ensures the team uses Scrum Agile practices.
  • The (PO)Product Owner or client prioritizes the backlog, manages and coordinates the team efforts.

Wrapping it up the scrum methodology is akin to winning in a car race where the interlocking roles of the driver being the PO, the mechanic being the Scrum Master, the team is responsible for winning the race in a sellable product the race car.

What Does a Scrum Master Do?

Posted on by Imarticus Learning

The Scrum framework treats the scrum master role as a person with scrum master certification and hence an important coach of Scrum values. While without actual authority, the person in this role has to lead by example and influence the team using the servant-leader example. So powerful is the effect of the Scrum Master role that the role is also known and called as Team Coach, Agile Manager or Coach and iterative Coach or Manager.

Role of a Scrum Master
The team member responsible for implementing Agile principles, values, practices, and processes that the team follows and lives by, is denoted as the Scrum Master.

The Scrum Master is responsible for

  • Protecting team members from external distractions and interruptions.
  • Removal of team obstacles.
  • Ensuring team-dynamics and effectiveness.
  • Establishing excellent relationships between the product owner and team both inter and intra team.

Benefits of having a Scrum Master
The Scrum Master is an ace in the use of Scrum and Agile values having excellent command over team dynamics and able to provide a self-organized team who can use the Agile and Scrum practices to resolve their situations and achieve ongoing team communication and collaboration.

The team’s Scrum Master also has the onus of addressing any obstacles, distractions, disruptions etc. to ensure the team members can concentrate on output and production without any hindrances.

Also, present-day teams comprise of team members who are all experts in their own fields. There needs to be a binding agent and cushion for the team to achieve transparent communication leading to effective collaboration. That role is for the Scrum Master to effectively fulfill.

Common Scrum leadership issues 
With the benefits come to the drawbacks. Ineffective role appreciation of the Scrum Master can lead to hindrances that may include:

  • The assumption that project managers without an agile business analysis course can be effective Scrum Masters.  Most often the failure is in the leadership being a control with commands style very different from the servant-master role envisaged in Scrum practices.
  • Donning the role of Scrum Master without prior experience in prior Agile environs.
  • Expectations of performance and workloads from the Scrum Master with all teams. This fails the premise that teams new to Agile practices and principles perform just as well as the experienced teams. An experienced team needs far less Scrum Master inputs when compared to new teams who have to achieve an effective level of communication and collaboration in Agile roles, practices, and principles.

Scrum Master role-apportioning
There Scrum Framework does not define by skills the levels of mastery in Scrum practices. However, practically the following levels can be adapted based on experience levels.

  • Rotational scrum master: Team members accept scrum master administrative responsibilities on a rotational basis in a lap-by-lap style.
  • Partial scrum master: Where one team member also accepts the scrum master roles along with other team responsibilities.
  • Dedicated full-time scrum master: Teams learning Agile prefer to have one team member designated with the scrum master responsibility for a specified time.
  • Dedicated full-time scrum master with multiple teams: Is a realistic model of a single full-time Scrum Master working with different teams.
  • Agile Coach: This role envisages interventions on a need-basis and works across teams without any restrictions to an assigned team only.

Conclusion:
The Scrum Master is vital to the teams effective functioning. Through effective team management and implementation of Scrum values efficiency, productivity and desired outcomes are achievable.