This is the Checklist of Scrum Masters

1. Contents
 Role of the Scrum Master
 Roles and Responsibilities of the Scrum Master
 Characteristics of Effective Scrum Masters
 Activities of the Scrum Master
 Best Practices (Tips and Considerations)
 Scrum Master Checklist

2.  Supports the Sprint/Core
Team
 Facilitates the Agile process
 Enables self-organization
◦ Lead vs. manage
◦ Accept that mistakes may
happen
 Shields outside interference
 Resolve impediments
Role of the Scrum Master

3. Description
 Facilitator who represents and oversees the efficiency and effectiveness of the
development team
Major Responsibilities
 Enforces meeting time-boxes while conducting all key agile ceremonies
 Guides scrum process and maintaining the integrity of scrum values
 Ensures continuous process and team effectiveness
 Supports members of the development and testing teams
 Facilitates the Scrum process - authority extends only to the process. Considered
mentor of the team, helping the team do the best work they possibly can.
 Helps resolve impediments to progress.
 Creates an environment conducive to team self-organization
 Supports Product Owner in backlog grooming, in particular the estimation facilitation
 Captures empirical data to adjust forecasts
 Shields the team from external interference and distractions to keep it in group flow
(a.k.a. the zone)
 Keeps Scrum artifacts visible - specifically will create and maintain Jira dashboards for
each program stream as well as a roll-up of programs.
 Promotes improved engineering practices (TDD, automated testing, continuous
build, continuous integration, etc.)
 Does not have management authority over the team (anyone with authority over the
team is by definition not its Scrum Master)
 Works together with other Scrum Masters to ensure dependencies and risks are
accounted for across scrum teams
 Has a servant-leadership role
Agile Cycle Est. Time
Sprint 1 (Planning)
Sprints 2 – n
100%
100%
Meeting Cadence Frequency
Daily Scrum
Scrum of Scrums
Team Backlog Grooming
Port. Backlog Grooming
Sprint Demo
Sprint Retrospective
Sprint Planning
Daily
Twice/Weekly
Weekly
Weekly
Once/Sprint
Once/Sprint
Once/Sprint
Key Decisions
Action required to overcome
blockers/impediments impeding delivery team
Scrum Master Role and Responsibilities 1/2

4. Key Deliverables
 Facilitation of all key Agile ceremonies (see meeting cadence)
 Maintenance and upkeep of Agile artifacts (monitoring of dashboards, retrospective
action items)
 Participates in Scrum of Scrums meeting
Key Competencies Required
 Technical understanding of product and software development
 Knowledgeable in Agile best practices
 Leadership ability
 Meeting facilitation skills
 Ability to hold team members accountable
Agile Cycle Est. Time
Sprint 1 (Planning)
Sprints 2 – n
100%
100%
Meeting Cadence Frequency
Daily Scrum
Scrum of Scrums
Team Backlog Grooming
Port. Backlog Grooming
Sprint Demo
Sprint Retrospective
Sprint Planning
Daily
Twice/Weekly
Weekly
Weekly
Once/Sprint
Once/Sprint
Once/Sprint
Key Decisions
Action required to overcome
blockers/impediments impeding delivery team
Scrum Master Role and Responsibilities 2/2

5. Characteristics of Effective Scrum
Masters
Facilitator
Communicator
Serves the Team
Coach/Mentor
Moderator
Process StewardInfluential
Knowledgeable
Scrum
Master
Morale Booster

6. Activities of the Scrum Master

7.  Listen More. Talk Less.
 Apply the 3-second Rule.
 Limit multi-tasking to really listen and engage with team.
 Trust your team will get their work done.
 Respect the team.
 Words matter.
• What do you think?
• Would you mind if…?
• How would you do it?
• Are you okay with …?
• That's a great suggestion(s)/approach.
• May we try this…?
• I like how you…
Best Practices (Tips and Considerations) 1/2

8.  Remember to switch hats
• – If you are playing multiple roles, remember to switch to your Scrum Master hat when facilitating
the Agile ceremonies
 Communicate the value of each Agile ceremony/process to the team so they understand
WHY we are doing what we are doing (not just for the sake of doing).
 Provide guidance to the team and allow/foster the team to be creative and come up with
their own solutions.
 Radiate positive energy.
 Show genuine appreciation of the team on their accomplishments.
 Foster team concept/self-managing team
 Less usage of of the word “I” and more of “We” “Us”
 Let team take ownership of work versus Scrum Master assignment.
 Avoid the word “BUT”. Use “And”.
 Avoid referring people to “Resources”. People are not inanimate objects.
 Follow through with team members feedback/retrospective action items.
 Remain calm. Breathe.
Best Practices (Tips and Considerations) 1/2

9. Scrum Master Checklist
 Sprint Planning
 Team Backlog Grooming
 Daily Activities and Daily Scrum
 Sprint Demo
 Sprint Retrospective

10. PO starts off the sprint planning with goal/theme for the sprint
No. Guidelines Role Comments
CAPACITY AND VELOCITY PLANNING
1 The following are launched prior to the meeting: (1) Capacity and
Velocity Planning spreadsheet and (2) Jira
SM/RM
2 Have the incomplete stories available with points remaining from the
Sprint Review
SM/RM
3 Review Previous Sprint Velocity With Team SM/RM
3a - What was the team committed velocity SM/RM
3b - What was the team's capacity? SM/RM
3c - How many points did the team complete? What was the percentage
of completion?
SM/RM If the team did complete ALL the
points, then you would base the next
velocity off of that by also taking into
consideration the capacity. You will
need to adjust the new velocity
depending on the increase/ reduction
in capacity from previous sprint.
3d Team is praised and/or shown appreciation for their accomplishment(s)
- specific accomplishments such as an increase in velocity, quality, etc
are pointed/called out.
SM/RM
4 Team members are asked if there's any known vacation days or days off
that need to be added for the upcoming sprint. If so update the
Capacity/Velocity spreadsheet. Ensure that the team agrees on the %
Availability as well.
SM/RM
Sprint Planning – Part 1 (Team Commitment) 1/2

11. No. Guidelines Role Comment
5 Calculate Current Sprint Velocity With Team SM
5a What is the team's capacity for this sprint? SM
5b How many points are left remaining from the previous sprint
to be brought into the current sprint?
SM This was determined after the Sprint Demo.
5c Increase or decrease the current velocity by factoring in the
current capacity and also the points left remaining from
previous sprint. Get team agreement.
SM
6 Based off of the velocity, team will pull work items (stories and
defects) into the Sprint Backlog.
SM
7 Once items have been pulled into the sprint backlog , go
through each item and ask team if need to re-estimated.
SM
8 Get PO approval on team’s commitment SM/PO
9 PO to work with team to finalize the ranking of the approved
work items (stories and defects).
PO
Sprint Planning – Part 1 (Team Commitment) 2/2

12. No. Guidelines Role Comments
Tasking
1 The following are launched prior to the meeting: (1) Capacity and
Velocity Planning spreadsheet and (2) Jira
SM
2 Team members provide all known tasks and estimate the task effort in
hours. Team members should be assigning tasks to themselves.
Team Member
3 Ensure task for each team member is not over their capacity as
determined in Sprint Planning Part 1.
SM
4 Ensure task are no more than 16 hours; if so, ask team members to
break it down if possible.
SM
Sprint Planning – Part 2 (Tasking)

13. No. Guidelines Role Comments
0 PRE-REQUISITES:
- Work with BSA to send out stories to be groomed 2 days in
advance of the scheduled team backlog grooming to allow
team members sufficient time for analysis.
- Ensure appropriate Business Rep(s)/SME(s) are
represented for clarification on requirements.
SM/BSA
1 Planning Poker link should be sent out to team members
prior to the start of the team backlog grooming session.
SM
2 Team is coached/reinforced to perform relative comparison
of new User Stories to past User Stories.
SM During estimation, display the baseline story(ies) to
team to be used for relative comparison.
3 Review the story and acceptance criteria with team to ensure
a shared/common understanding of the story and acceptance
criteria before estimation. If an item to be estimated is a bug,
have the tester provide detail/explanation.
PO/BSA Capture any additional stories/acceptance criteria or
invalidate any stories that are no longer valid through
the discussion.
4 After voting:
4aOutliers (the highest and lowest vote) are encouraged to
justify/explain their selected score.
SM
4bIf the voting/score is disparate, the Team is asked if they
would like a revote.
SM
5cIf the majority of the votes is the same score, the team is
asked if they are okay with that particular score. If not, the
team is asked to revote.
SM
6dIf team can't come to a consensus, the dev vote takes
precedence.
SM
Should happen weekly in preparation for Sprint Planning
Team Backlog Grooming

14. Daily Activities and Daily Scrum 1/2
No. Guidelines Role Comments
1 Keep reinforcing team to update the story and task state until it becomes a
habit.
SM
2 Backup Scrum Master(s) have been identified/communicated for the daily
scrum.
SM This is to ensure that when the primary Scrum
Master is not available, the backup person(s) can
take over the facilitation of the meeting.
3 Co-located Teams: Team members are standing up during the meeting if they
are co-located.
SM
4 Co-located Teams: Token (ball) is being utilized. Only the person holding the
token may speak.
SM
5 Impediments, both risks/blockers, are being communicated/
reviewed/updated daily among team. Scrum Master to update risk within Jira.
SM
6 Team is consistently providing status in the following format: 1) What did I do
yesterday? (Provide User story and Task)
2) What are my tasks for today? (Provide User story and Task)
3) Impediments? (Anything that is blocking/preventing you from performing
your tasks)
SM - If team do not have a task in Jira for the story
that they are working on, reinforce them to enter
the task(s) into the system. Note: the task should
only be entered against the stories that the team
has already committed to. Any unplanned outside
work will need to be deducted from their capacity
by reducing their % availability. Please make note
in the Capacity and Velocity Planning spreadsheet
when a team member % availability is less than
100% for future reference.
7 7
th
day of the Sprint - - Review the burn down chart and assess if the team is
on target to completion. If the burn down is not trending at or below the ideal
trend line, ask the team if they are running into any roadblocks, etc. to
completing the work that has been committed to.
SM Scrum Master should be reviewing the burn down
on a daily basis.

15. Daily Activities and Daily Scrum 2/2
No. Guidelines Role Comments
8 7
th
/11
th
day of the sprint - QA Checkpoint - Ask QA if need extra people to
help test.
SM If testing is falling behind, ask other team
members (Dev, BSA) if they have availability to
help.
9 4
th
/7
th
/11
th
day of sprint – Retro Checkpoint - Review and get status on Top 3
items from the Owner(s).
SM
10 13th day of sprint get update from team via email in regards to all known
vacation day(s) and day(s) off as well as their % availability prior to Sprint
Planning Part 1 for the upcoming sprint. Collect the information and pre-
populate the Capacity and Velocity Planning spreadsheet. During Sprint
Planning Part 1, get the confirmation from the team.
SM This will reduce the amount of time team will
have to spend in having to go through this exercise
during Sprint Planning Part 1.

16. Sprint Demo – Prep Work
No. Guidelines Role Comments
1 Ensure that the sprint demo dry run is scheduled a day before the actual
sprint demo
SM Needed to ensure completed stories function
as expected and any logistical considerations
(e.g. data setup) are understood
2 Team has prepared advance of the sprint demo to ensure: (1) data
setup/configuration and environment readiness and (2) the selected
presenter(s) have done a walk-through or dry run with the key roles,
namely PO, BSA, QA, and Devs.
SM/PO/B
SA/Dev/
QA
- Only completed stories are demonstrated.
- BA should collaborate with QA to understand
the defects and how to demonstrate it.
3 Send out a list of completed work items (both user stories and defects)
to ALL participants end of day.
SM This will ensure that everyone , especially the
Business and Stakeholders, has a chance to
review what are going to be demonstrated
prior to the Sprint Demo.
One day prior to the sprint demo

17. Sprint Demo – Day of Demo 1/2
No. Guidelines Role Comments
1 Lync Meeting and phone line are setup/launched 5 minutes prior to
start of the meeting.
SM
2 Ensure team members arrive or are online least 5 minutes prior to start
of meeting to reduce the disruption and noise during the demo.
SM/Tea
m
This will demonstrate organization as well as
respect to the Business and Stakeholders.
3 Only completed stories are demonstrated. Communicate to PO any
associated bugs related to the User Story being demonstrated.
SM to
Facilitate
BSA/Dev/
Architect
Technical Story:
Dev or Architect will read the story and
provide summary and run through the
demonstration if it’s demonstrable. Note: If
the story is not demonstrable, simply provide
the description and purpose of its
implementation (i.e. setting the foundation for
future stories).
4 Product Owner(s) accepts or rejects the stories according to the scope
of the story’s acceptance criteria. This will be done at the end of each
story demonstration. (Product Owner should have already seen the
completed stories prior to the actual sprint demo).
PO In some cases, BA will act as the Proxy PO and
accept or reject on their behalf.

18. Sprint Demo – Day of Demo 2/2
No. Guidelines Role Comments
5 BSAs need to take notes of new features/user stories that are uncovered
during the demo.
BSA Stories are input into JIra following the Sprint
Demo session
6 QA need to take notes of defects uncovered during the demo. QA Defects are input into Jira following the Sprint
Demo session.
7 After completion of the Sprint Demo, excuse everyone except for the
core team
SM
8 Review previous stories estimation to see if the team feels they were
sized correctly (was the story more or less complex than had previously
expected). If not, what should it have been?
SM/Tea
m
This will help team become better at
estimation for future sprints.
9 Excuse the team. Review the release burn down chart in Jira to ensure
that the team is on target for the release. If not, work with the Product
Owner to make adjustments to release plan
SM/PM
10 Based on the sprint demo outcome and feedback from the
stakeholders/business users, reprioritize the Product Backlog as needed.
PO

19. Retrospective
No. Guidelines Role Comment
1 4
th
/7
th
/11
th
day of sprint – Retro Checkpoint - Review and get status
on Top 3 items from the Owner(s).
SM