Overview
Scrum Master
Roles and Responsiblity :
Backlog Maintenance
Create and Manage Backlog
Backlog grooming: Manage/Update “sprint-backlog” and “project-backlog” regularly after client calls and demos
Plans forward looking technology investigations (spikes / POC)
After each sprint-demo work with dev team to estimate and re-estimate backlog
Facilitate prioritisation of backlog first time;
Facilitate prioritisation of backlog during planning n+1 sprint with client
Creating mock-ups/wireframes/Sktich images to illustrate or to detail for getting clarity from client; and for communicating task to dev team
Use JIRA for all backlog (no use of Google spreadsheets)
Daily Stand-ups
Drive daily-stand-ups
Ask what was done yesterday, what is the plan for today
Ask probing questions in the stand-ups and outside of it
Identify potential roadblocks or challenges that may come up
Consult Group Lead and raise your concerns
Implement advise by GL
Ensure that team is working towards completion of the sprint; each stand-up well done, will suggest if the velocity is enough to complete Sprint or no
(Maintain and) Update the “information radiator board (with stickies)” for all sprints
Sprint Demos
Run sprint demos
Calls must be marked on client and team’s calendar; no ambiguity in when calls happen
Every member must be present on calls atleast 2-mins before the scheduled time on calendar; be the first to join the call as moderator
If you are unable to join, ensure that the session is recorded; if it cannot be recorded, ensure team has captured all feedback during the demo
Business Analysis
Understand the business of the client and the project
This will enable you to question business needs that clients communicate
Validate and record agreements in stories, acceptance criteria
Create mock-ups/wireframes/Sktich annotations to illustrate or to detail — for getting clarity from client; and for communicating task to dev team — put these in stories in JIRA
Project Management
Plan — Do — Check — Act (Complete control on the project)
Create Physical boards “information radiator board (with stickies)
Plan deliverables (JIRA/Sprint) along with the team
Organise the Sprint, get re-estimates done,
Plan Sprint n+1 with client — prepared stories for n+1 sprint to be taken up by dev team; work with QA in
Learn to read JIRA Burndown Charts to know if the project is on time or is there likely to be a delay
If there is likely to be a delay, speak to the Agile Coach / Group Lead to decide the nature of communication to be sent to client
Release Planning – define release goals
Quality Assurance
Detail out stories with acceptance criteria
Ensure all stories have acceptance criteria
Work with QA in improving quality of acceptance criteria
Work towards zero-defect sprints
Defect triage – accept/reject
Support the Dev+QA team in testing yourself
Use JIRA for all these activities
Drive testing strategy
Deliver stories in piecemeal for testing throughout the sprint
Validate technical architecture by asking relevant questions
Stakeholder Management
Send out weekly Status emails to internal and external clients — must be on SM’s calendar
Red, Amber, Green status
Budget consumption
Key activities this week
Pre-empt and document roadblocks that you/team foresee
Raise/Flag issues to clients and work aggressively within the team/org to mitigate this
Coach clients on agile/scrum, our model, align them on our practices, using Jira, etc
Engineering Practices
Drive towards Unit Testing
Drive towards Continuous Integration (CI) using Jenkins; leads to a clear release and deployment strategy/plan
Piecemeal UAT strategy
Drive Intrinsic quality like Code, stories written, test scenarios written
Continuously monitor and improve them. Question people on them
Use Jira rigorously to track stories, defects, and manage it end to end.
People, Process and Tool Coach
Coach people to improve in their role
Challenge and question people on the way they are working to make it better
Run sprint-retros
During retros listen for “cause” behind the words; by asking probing questions
Continuously strive to improve yourself
Handhold team on Scrum way of doing
Strategise which tool to use for what purposes.
About Srijan Technologies
Srijan is a 12 year old web services consulting company with expertise in building high-traffic websites and complex web applications in Drupal.
Srijan is based in New Delhi, India and has offices in Gurgaon, Goa, Bangalore, India and Delaware, USA. We have served over 200 clients across Asia, Europe, United States and Middle East. We are an Acquia Enterprise partner in India.
We're an Agile development company with a transparent and communicative work culture. We use a combination of SCRUM principles in our product development methodology, and a leading Agile coach mentoring our project teams. Most product development happens at our Gurgaon office.
Srijan's people are getting Acquia certifications. This is a huge validation of our skill set and a way for our customers to trust us even more. As of July 2015, we have 23 Acquia Certified Developer- Backend Specialists and 2 Acquia Certified Developer- Frontend Specialists.
Srijan practices a very democratic and transparent work culture. Open salaries, transparency in work orders, company financials have been commonplace for years. Our transparent and democratic work practices won us the Worldblu World's Most Democratic Workplaces award for two consecutive years in 2009 and 2010.
We're out to create a better workplace; a workplace that is participative, transparent and fair Such a workplace naturally becomes 'happier', and joyous employees demonstrate heightened levels of responsibility and are willing to be held accountable 'by choice' ("how am i doing?" attitude) Such a workplace encourages and rewards innovation, creativity and responsibility This reflects in how we treat our customers, and the quality of work we produce What is thus achieved is alignment of the interests of the employees, the business that employs them, and the customers they serve together