Sila SAFe Scrum Master Starter Guide
Sila SAFe Scrum Master Starter Guide
Sila SAFe Scrum Master Starter Guide
Introduction
You’re probably excited to get started and look forward to being part of
something BIG. If the butterflies are beginning to set in, don’t worry, this
guide will help you understand the key steps you need to take in the first
30-60 days to be viewed as a capable SAFe Scrum Master.
The guide will not cover the critical values, principles, and key agile
mindset training you will need to bring the most value to the ART in
your role as a Scrum Master. Refer to the Scaled Agile Website for a
review of the Lean-Agile mindset.
SAFe and Scaled Agile Framework are registered trademarks of Scaled Agile, Inc.
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The First Days
During your first few days on the ART, you may You might be wondering
notice that you are part of a large organization how I can add the most
building multi-faceted products with many
value to this organization?
moving parts. You may see anywhere from
5-12 teams talking to each other, working out
dependencies, and negotiating estimates. Let’s dive in.
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Get Familiar with the SAFe Big Picture
The SAFe Big Picture1 website shows the core of the Scaled Agile Framework®. The website helps
you answer questions about why specific processes are done as well as how they should be
carried out. The Big Picture is also an excellent resource for clarifying roles and responsibilities for
each of your agile team members.
Speaking of roles, let’s talk about your role, the SAFe Scrum Master.
SAFe and Scaled Agile Framework are registered trademarks of Scaled Agile, Inc.
1
(The Scaled Agile Framework, 2020)
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Learn Your Responsibilities
and Clarify Your Strengths
5
Build Your Improvement Plan
Extra Credit: With
your improvement plan
complete, spend some
additional time clicking on
Now that you have learned more about your responsibilities and identified the key events in the SAFe
your strengths, it’s time to build a quick improvement plan that you can Big Picture. Try to identify
revisit weekly. Use a tool like PowerPoint Timeline to define your actions the SAFe Scrum Master’s
role in each of these events.
and set target dates for yourself. Be sure to set aside time each week to Check with your Release
do additional research, take online classes, or reach out to mentors who Train Engineer (RTE) to see
may know more about the topic and can guide your learning. The key is to if you guessed correctly.
be accountable to yourself for your improvement as a SAFe Scrum Master.
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Scrum Master Responsibilities Checklist
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Make the Process Visible
8
Facilitate Sprint
Planning CALCULATE
TEAM CAPACITY
PULL SPRINT
STORIES
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Calculate Team Capacity To calculate your team’s capacity
accurately, you’ll first need to understand
how many team members are going to
contribute to completing stories during
the sprint. Keeping this in mind, do not
include the Product Owner or Scrum
Determine which team members Master into capacity unless these team
are developers and testers. members are going to complete backlog
items during the sprint.
3 + 4 = 7
Add up every individual’s capacity DEVELOPERS TESTERS TEAM
7 x 8 = 56
TEAM DAYS IN A POINTS OF
MEMBERS TWO-WEEK CAPACITY
SPRINT
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Estimating the Work
Calculate Team Capacity
You might be asking yourself if there are ten Once capacity is calculated, you need the team
days in a sprint, why were only eight points of to estimate their work. The purpose of work
capacity assigned to each person? This lower estimation is to help the team decide how much
number is because the first and last day of work they can do in each iteration or time period.
every sprint is dedicated to planning and sprint There are several approaches to work estimation,
closure activities, respectively. These are non- but one of the most common is Agile Planning
productive days for your team members and Poker. A quick Google search provides you with
are subtracted from the total capacity. The information about how to play.
same rule applies to days off like vacations,
holidays, and sick days. Another less common approach is White Elephant
sizing, which you learn about in a SAFe Scrum
Remember to calculate capacity for each sprint Master training class. A great video breaking
in the Program Increment (PI) to give a full down the benefits of using this approach can be
picture of team capacity for the PI. When you found here.
are done, capacity should look more like this.
Sprint 1 – 56 Points
Sprint 2 – 44 Points
Sprint 3 – 37 Points
Sprint 4 – 56 Points
Total Team
– 56 + 44 + 37 + 56 = 193 Points
Capacity for the PI
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Loading the Sprint
80-90%
Helpful Hint: While working this out, be sure to ask the team if they
have other duties like production support responsibilities, a backlog of
technical debt, or other work they may have forgotten to estimate before
they commit to any deliverables for the sprint. Your role (and goal) is to
help the team estimate accurately and load work sustainability. OF THE TEAM’S
CAPACITY
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Facilitate Daily 3 Simple
Standup Questions
Whether your team is doing Scrum, Kanban, Encourage the team to answer these
XP, or something else, the 15-minute Daily three simple questions in the standup.
Standup is a powerful tool that helps your team 1. What did I do yesterday?
communicate with you and each other. The key
2. What will I do today?
to success in this meeting is facilitating it so the
team stays within the 15-minute time box. This can 3. What impediments may prevent me
be challenging, especially for teams with a lot to from meeting our team sprint goals?
discuss.
These questions provide you with excellent
This is where the Meet After insight into the team’s progress and clarify
+30
MINUTES comes in. When scheduling your where they may need some help.
standup meetings, go ahead, and
schedule an additional 30 minutes
of separate meeting time for
those who have additional needs Helpful Hint: If the team seems disengaged
for more discussion. This meeting or a bit lost during the daily standup, get them
allows the team to complete the back on track with a pre-set agenda showing
their iteration goals. Once the team can
standup in 15 minutes but also provides them with
visualize what they are trying to accomplish, it
extended time for necessary discussion. should help them re-engage in the discussion.
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Attend Scrum of Scrums What has the team accomplished since
the last Scrum of Scrums (SoS) meeting?
You gather all this information from your team’s Daily Standups.
Helpful Hint: While your team is explaining their progress, keep Will the team be blocking
a notebook handy so you can take notes on some of the critical
information you need for the Scrum of Scrums meeting. If the team any other teams soon?
has not shared the information you need, ask them about it. Let them
know you are trying to prepare for the Scrum of Scrums meeting
where you represent them and their progress toward their goals.
2
(The Scaled Agile Framework, 2020)
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Reporting That Tells a Story
ITERATION 1 2 1 1 1 0 1 3
ITERATION 2 0 0 0 1 1 2 4
ITERATION 3 1 0 0 0 1 1 2
RISKS One of the team's stories requires new technology the team is not familiar with. May take a bit longer to complete.
ISSUES The team does not have the required equipment to conduct smooth demonstrations to the customer.
ACTIONS The product help guide must be reviewed and edited before launch.
DEPENDENCIES The team is dependent on the legal team to help them define the contract.
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An essential aspect of the Scrum Master’s Reporting progress isn’t just about metrics, either.
responsibility is to help others understand what To help your team remove impediments, you also
is happening with the team. This responsibility need to be able to explain to your stakeholders
should not be taken lightly. As the Scrum Master, what risks or issues the team is facing. You need
you know your team best. It is your role to share to manage open action items, dependencies on
your knowledge about your team with key other teams, and cost considerations. The key
stakeholders. Your team is depending on your is to arrive at the best combination of metrics,
communication and progress-tracking skills to progress, and impediment reporting that tells your
represent them accurately. team’s story in a way that helps them trust you as
their Scrum Master.
Tracking metrics like the number of stories
loaded at the beginning of the sprint, percent
of accepted, and the number of stories added
during the sprint will, over time, provide you with
a comprehensive view of team performance.
This information helps you tell the team’s story
to key stakeholders who are expecting progress
updates.
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Coordinate the Sprint Demo
According to the Agile Manifesto, the primary measure Another part of your role is
of progress for an Agile software development team is to remind people that they
the delivery of working software.3 are responsible for certain
aspects of the process. For
The team needs to demonstrate their working software example, during the demo, it
to their customer and gather feedback. The team must is the Product Owner who will
also evaluate the feedback and translate it into actions accept the stories as done while
or more backlog items that help move the product in the Product Manager accepts features. Be prepared
the right direction. to answer questions regarding team roles using the
information you learned from exploring the SAFe Big
A Scrum Master’s responsibility is to ensure this demo Picture website.
is coordinated, that all criteria for the demo is defined,
and that the team has all technical issues worked out Once the demo is complete, the Scrum Master should
prior to conducting a successful demonstration. In a look back at the team’s stated iteration goals and validate
SAFe context, demos may be done in front of large that what was demonstrated matches what was planned
groups of stakeholders. To ensure the best outcome, for the sprint. If this was not the case, the situation needs
the team should plan a demo rehearsal. to be discussed at the team Retrospective.
Helpful Hint: The Scrum Master should also coordinate and validate that someone is taking
notes on the outcomes, feedback, stakeholders present, and any decisions made during the demo.
If you complete this step, you’ll avoid some uncomfortable requirements misunderstandings later.
3
(The Scaled Agile Framework, 2020)
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Close the Sprint
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Conduct the
Retrospective
During the Retrospective, the team should discuss
the outcomes of the sprint. You’ll want to find out
if the team is working well together or if there are
conflicts between key team members. For software
development teams, you’ll need to ask if they are
integrating their code regularly and resolving any
resulting issues quickly. You’ll also want to understand
if the team was able to complete their goals.
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Creative
Retrospective Ideas
Sometimes retrospectives can become boring. If this happens,
the team relies on the Scrum Master to understand how to pull
them out of the rut. Research new ways to ask the teams for
important information.
Just a simple google search gives you a load of ideas such as:
- Appreciations
Ask the team if someone helped them this sprint.
- One Word
Have each team member use one word to describe their
experience with this sprint.
- Rate the Iteration
Ask the teams to rate the iteration on a scale of 1-5.
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Support PI Planning
PI Planning can be a bit noisy and busy, but your team can plan REMINDER:
effectively and efficiently by doing a few key things. Deliver realistic Sprint Plans and a
Program Board. Load work to 80-
First, you must timebox your team. Teams tend to think the
only time they get to discuss a feature is during PI Planning, but 90% of Capacity. Feel good about
that’s not true. They have multiple Sprint Planning events during your commitments.
which they discuss features in detail and break down the work.
The goal of PI Planning is to get as much planning as possible At the end of the PI, celebrate
done within a specific timeframe, usually 1-2 days. as a team! A potluck, movie day, or
bowling outing are always fun team
Next, you’ll need to help your team understand the event
agenda and when they are expected to present information. celebration activities.
Scrum of Scrums, Draft Plan Review, and Final Plan Review
occur at specific times of the day, and you need to be ready with
the information requested by the RTE. For help understanding
the specific information being requested by your ART, speak
y
da
with your RTE, who can help you understand what questions
they will ask and what kind of information they expect. ie
ov
Finally, be ready to help the teams get what they need. If
m
they need a breakout room to have some quiet planning time,
schedule the space ahead of time. If they need planning poker
po
cards or planning materials, be sure these are available. Be sure tlu
the expected PI features and corresponding information are g ck
available to them as well. w lin
bo
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Inspect & Adapt INSPECT & ADAPT WORKSHOP
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Learn some
Agile games!
Arguably, one of the more difficult things
about being a Scrum Master is getting a
team of 6-12 people to understand an Agile
concept in approximately the same way.
Games can help your team arrive at common
understanding much faster.
Search https://www.scrum.org/forum/
scrum-forum/5611/games-agile-and-scrum
to find some new and exciting games to
play with your team. The Penny Game is a
common one to introduce first. The idea is
to help your teams understand concepts like
product development flow, strengthening
requirements gathering, work estimation, etc.
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Remember the A Scrum M a ste r ’s role is to
m e m b er this!
Agile Manifesto help us re
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Resources
Other Resources
Retrospective Ideas
https://agilestrides.com/blog/40-ideas-to-spice-up-your-
retrospective/.
Agile Games
https://www.scrum.org/forum/scrum-forum/5611/games-agile-and-
scrum
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About Sila