Software the Agile Way....

There are number of articles written on Scrum Master role and responsibilities. Most of the articles talks about the behavioral  aspects which is definitely expected in a Scrum Master. As this is a Leadership role, people skills are needed to help coach the team. While these skills are needed, I want to talk about the technical skills which a Scrum master should have which can further grow a Scrum Master. If these technical skills  are known to Scrum Master, then it will help in better understanding the problem which your team is facing and this can also help in resolving any blocker that your team may have. This does not mean SM will debug and start resolving the issues on his own. SM with these tech skills will ask questions which can uncover the unknown areas and can lead to solution. here's the top technical skills which I strongly recommend a SM to have: Tech stack- Be aware of the tech stack your team is using. Your team may be using Java /python/.NET for the ba...

Why Scrum is easy to understand because: It does not talk anything new. We are still talking about software development lifecycle phases. We have clearly defined roles here with their responsibilities. Simple to understand ceremonies. Ceremonies have clear objectives defined.  but it is difficult to master because: Roles described do not follow as per the definition,  Ceremonies are happening but are not productive, not timeboxed. People still have difficulty in understanding the ceremonies within Scrum we follow mini waterfall Management do not value much on coaching and cultural change People do not understand that it is lightweight  so what must be done to master Scrum: Deploy the RIGHT people in the roles defined. Management should be committed to follow Scrum and they should get the coaching first.

S mall releases -  By the end of each iteration( 2 to 3 weeks long)  the team is responsible for delivering working, tested code that can immediately be put to use. The p lanning game -  Prior to the start of each iteration, the team and customer plan the iteration. This involves selecting the highest priority stories that can be completed in the iteration and then identifying the specific tasks necessary to complete the story . R efactoring -  Refactoring (Fowler 1999; Wake 2003) refers to the restructuring or rewriting  of code so as to improve the code without changing its external behavior.Refactoring is one of technique used by XP to replace upfront design. T esting -  XP puts the tests right up front in a practice called test-driven development (Beck 2003; Astels 2003). On an XP project the developers write automated unit tests and the customers write acceptance tests, which are often automated either by the customers themselves or ...