This session aims to understand the important role of Scrum Master in navigating the unfamiliar project terrain.

1. © Mindtree Limited 2014
Navigating Unfamiliar Project Terrain as Scrum
Master: A Roadmap
Avinash Rao

2. • Today, we will talk about …
• Program Managers.
• Leaders.

3. • Today, we will talk about …
• Program Managers.
• Leaders.
• And Scrum Masters.

4. • Some SM discussions …

5. So exactly what do I do?
• Coach set up and exits
• PO owns the backlog
• Developer develops
• Tester tests
• What is my role?

6. Aage bhi jaane na tu, peechhe bhi jaane na tu
• Developer  Sr. Developer  Tech Lead  Architect
• Associate Manager  Manager  Sr. Manager
• ?  Scrum Master  ?

7. Where is the SM’s power?
• As a Manager, I had the power to:
• Hire and roll-off
• Give out appraisals and hikes
• As an SM …

8. I was a great SM, but am I still needed?
• I set up the entire process
• Enabled the team
• After 6 months, the team works effectively with the PO …
• What am I now doing here?

9. • To answer these questions, we go back in history …

10. Stage 1 – Cost Arbitrage
• (and if you are as old as me you will remember)
• How do you replace someone with 20 years exp with a trained 3 year exp?
• Train on Java, .net
• Map tasks, create SOPs, KT documents
• The India story
Box Skills

11. Stage 2 – Project Delivery
• The ‘golden’ age of project delivery from India
• Iron triangle
Box
Scope, Timeline,
Quality

12. Phase 3 – ‘Make us successful’
• When projects became programs, at scale, suddenly it was harder to sell
• There was also this strange new role … ‘Program Manager’
Keeping score on
where things are?
A PMO can do that as
well
Running Cadence
meetings, actions, etc.
A PMO can do that Questions on:
- Role
- Career path
- Power v/s responsibility

13. • Suddenly we stopped talking about activities and started taking about
competencies

14. Program managers competencies
• Orchestration
• Connects, and utilize the connect to push the program through bottlenecks
• Had to create the frame instead of operating in one
• “Exercise judgement”
• Navigate based on the situation - depending on weather and situation
• Where is the box?

15. • Behaved like one more interesting category ... Leaders
• Managers, Box.
• What does a leader do?

16. • Scrum Master Boxes

17. Solving the ‘Tick the Agile Box’ problem
• Variants
• Agile can be done offshore! (BA as Proxy PO)
• Agile can be distributed! (Dev in one location and Test in another)
• Retain the same vendor structures

18. Solving the “Course Correct if Needed” problem
• “We don’t need to get Business to every Demo”
• “Release every 2 weeks to us, the real go live is after 6 months”
• Drop in to check progress

19. Solving the “Outcome” problem
• This is a 'make me successful' problem
• SM competency comes to the fore
• Some of the things SMs have done
• Raised issues
• Forged relationships so people listen
• Influence
• Truth telling
• Support to exec management
• That’s fine, but specifically, what does it mean?

20. Contour Mapping – Where SMs are Key
• Dealing with
Estimates!
• Dealing with
Bottlenecks
• Function view
v/s Capacity
view

21. India | USA | UK | Germany | Sweden | Belgium | France | Switzerland | UAE | Singapore | Australia | Japan | China
QUESTIONS?