How to defend against the 10 things that drive ScrumMasters crazy. Learn about the four evil root causes and how to overcome them.

1. How to defend against the
10 things that drive your
ScrumMaster crazy
Marc Löffler (@scrumphony)

2. @scrumphony

3. Handout ...?
http://blog.scrumphony.com/2010/10/how-to-
defend-against-the-10-things-that-drive-your-
scrummaster-crazy

4. Who ever heard
about the 10
things?

5. Who already faced
one or more of the
10 things?

6. Who was driven
crazy by them?

7. Warning!!!
I may speak too fast....

8. There are no
simple solutions
for complex
problems...

9. How I collected the 10 things...

10. Scrum But(t)

12. They
drove
me crazy

13. I collected them,
wrote them down
and created a blog
article out of it...

14. What I found out...

15. The 10 things
that drive your
ScrumMaster
crazy and their
possible causes

16. No. 1
Keep doing tasks that are not
part of the sprint backlog.

17. Disturbances from outside of the team...

18. „We always did it this way...“

19. No. 2
Hide your impediments. They
will for sure vanish on their
own.

20. The lone wolf...

21. The ScrumMaster is incapable...

22. No. 3
Don’t talk to the PO during
the sprint. Never.

23. PO is not available...

24. Not used to...

25. No. 4
Ignore the definition of DONE
when finishing your tasks and
backlog items.

26. No one checks it...

27. This is your
DoD!

28. No. 5
Stand in front of the sprint backlog and say
“I’ve nothing to do” or “None of the tasks are
for me” (even better if 90% of the tasks are
still open).

29. Fear to learn
something new...

30. Snugness...

32. No. 6
Prepare for the Sprint Review
5 minutes before it starts.

33. Lazyness...

34. Last minute changes...

35. NOT

36. No. 7
Don’t split your tasks into smaller
ones even if you know they will
take the whole sprint.

37. „This task is not splittable...“

38. Don‘t want to be tracked...

39. No. 8
Be late, always.

40. Notorious late comers...

41. „The meeting doesn‘t
matter to me...“

42. No. 9
Ask the ScrumMaster continuously
which task you should do next.

43. Used to push instead of pull...

44. Missing self confidence...

45. No. 10
Disturb any scrum meeting by
starting multiple additional
discussions on different topics or
phoning somebody.

46. Not focused/involved...

48. In the end everything
comes down to the four
evil root causes from
hell!

50. Fear
Face your fear to get stronger as you thought you could be.

53. What can we do
about it?

54. Teach them...

55. How to kick off your new Scrum team...?

56. Kick them out of their comfort zone....
Fear
Face your fear to get stronger as you thought you could be.

58. Step out of your comfort zone...

59. Involve them...

60. Pull don‘t sleep...

61. „I‘ve been with this company long before you were born..“

62. Get their commitment...

63. Rotate moderator
role...

64. Use Avatars...

65. Involve them...

66. Intrinsic motivation is the key...

67. Apathy is like cancer...

68. Build a product vision

69. Interview the team members...

70. Invite for a workshop...

71. Try 20% time...

72. Still somebody left...?

73. These are the team members who really want to
drive you crazy...

74. What can we do
about them?

75. Fight!

76. Questions...?

77. Thanks for your attention
Contact details
Sybit GmbH
Marc Löffler
marc.loeffler@sybit.de
http://blog.scrumphony.com
Twitter: @scrumphony
http://blog.scrumphony.com/2010/10/how-to-defend-against-the-10-things-that-drive-
your-scrummaster-crazy