Coaching card example

1. Coaching card: Team reports to ScrumMaster
Context:
Team members report to the ScrumMaster in the daily stand-up. Excepting one or two senior engineers, the others do not ask or
volunteer information. The ScrumMaster takes a very controlling role in the meeting, walking everyone through the three questions.
When needed, he tells the team what the managers are saying, doing and thinking about some issues (“Manager N.N. called the
customer yesterday and they will decide... so don’t do anything before you get an e-mail.”). He is quick to delegate work and ends
the meeting by asking if everyone has “enough work for today”. The ScrumMaster is a former Project Manager and took his CSM
around 8 months ago.
Hypotheses:
1) We think that the ScrumMaster has not internalized the mechanisms that he is expected to use. He may have difficulties
understanding the role and the dynamics between ScrumMaster and Dev Team.
2) The ScrumMaster is used to being the hub of information between “managers” and “coders” and is afraid of losing that
position.
3) The team may be afraid of taking responsibility and is happy to hand it to the ScrumMaster.
4) There are indications that the managers see the dev teams as a cost sink rather than a value source. That is, the managers are
more concerned about how the coders spend their time rather than what they produce.
Goal:
The goal is to make the team members talk to each other rather than the Scrum Master and to plan their Sprints and workdays as
a team.
Metrics:
Leading indicators:
• What percentage of questions in the stand-up are posed by the Scrum- Master compared to team members?
• How often do the team members say “us” and “we” rather than “me” and “I”?
• How often does the ScrumMaster NOT ask if everyone has work for the day?
• Ask the ScrumMaster to skip a daily stand-up. Silently observe the meet- ing when the ScrumMaster is not present. Do the
interactions change?
Lagging indicators:
• All work items are pulled by team members, not pushed by the Scrum- Master
• The ScrumMaster listens more than he speaks
• Managers interact with the team directly, not through the ScrumMaster
Coaching Tools:
• Teach the ScrumMaster in the role.
• Role-model for the ScrumMaster. Offer to run the daily stand-ups a couple of times, then explain to him what you did and why.
• Gently move the ScrumMaster outside the circle in the daily stand-up. If team members still turn towards the ScrumMaster, move
him all the way behind the speaking team member.
• Talk to the ScrumMaster to find out what stakeholders he is reporting to. Then systematically meet all stakeholders and work
with them to replace the reports with transparency.
• Help the team create a pull policy.
• In a safe setting, discuss with the ScrumMaster how he feels about the changed responsibilities, then help the ScrumMaster choose
the right path forward.
• Educate managers on value-focus vs. cost-focus and the implications of each.
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