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A day in the life of a Scrum Master

Scrum Master is the most important part of Agile teams. Scrum Master holds the responsibility for managing and maintaining communication between team members. One of the most important qualities of a Scrum Master is to learn continuously, either through association with every meeting, reading books, listening to podcasts, or discussion with other Scrum Masters.

Certified Scrum Master training provides an understanding of Scrum and helps in learning practical ways to apply the knowledge on your team. CSM training is an interactive and engrossing learning experience. Certified Scrum Master certification aims to provide professionals with an idea and knowledge of the methodologies and values of the scrum.

Responsibilities of a Scrum Master:

1. Setting up goals.
2. Motivating and helping the team to stay focused.
3. Follow up on Scrum Events.
4. Removing obstacles.

Here is a look at what an ordinary day would look like in the life of a Scrum Master:

• Planning: First and foremost, the thing, to begin with, is planning and preparation for the things lined up for the day. It includes preparing oneself physically and psychologically. This can be done by formulating a to-do list that includes checking emails, scheduling and facilitating meetings.
• Sprint Planning: Sprint Planning involves planning for meetings, discussions, motivating the team members or checking backlog discussions that include putting items in the backlog and preparing the backlog list.
• Goals: Setting up goals for the day or upcoming week and discussing them with the team members. It is important that a Scrum Master double checks with all the team members and ensures that all of them have understood their roles and duties.
• Stand-up time: It is a 15-min time period where the Scrum Master asks three questions to the team member,

1. What did you accomplish yesterday?
2. What do you plan to accomplish today?
3. Are there any impediments?

Scrum Master has to make sure that stand-up time does not take longer than 15 minutes. Scrum Master has to stay alert throughout the process and jot down all or any impediments.

• Enable Daily Scrum meetings for the team: Arranging Daily Scrum meetings for the team members.
• Attend meetings: The next thing lined up for an SM is to attend all the meetings lined up for the day. They can be with Product Owners, Developers and other Scrum team members. Meetings with PO are basically for prioritizing items for the backlog list.
• Dealing with inconsistent members: This requires a conversation with all the team members who are not updating the boards and are not consistent with the work. Helping the team members to solve their issues and bringing them to work up to the teams’ expectations.
• Arrange to follow-up meetings for detailed discussion after daily scrum meetings: Follow up meetings are arranged in order to discuss certain things with the team members and ensure that the team members have a clear idea about their duties.
• Impediment tracking and clearing: As soon as the meeting gets over, the Scrum Master has to check on the impediment list and figure out ways to clear those impediments. Impediments could be both internal and external. In case of internal impediments, the role of SM is to encourage and motivate team members to solve the problem. Whereas, in the case of external impediments, the role of a Scrum Master is to help the team by taking responsibility for the impediment.
• Check on the team: Scrum Master has to make sure that the team is working as per requirements or not. Anything required by the team members for the project should also be provided to them.
• Rethink about the entire day: Whatever goes on during the day has to be remembered at the end of the day so that no important things are forgotten. The Scrum Masters can have an idea of how many goals for the day they have accomplished.
• Summary report of the day: keeping a summary report of the day helps in evaluating the progress of the team and maintaining records for the project.

Even though the Scrum Master leads the project, he is not the only person who is responsible for the project outcomes. It takes a lot of effort and consistency to become a successful Scrum Master. This is where CSM training can also help an individual. Therefore, give your best and get proper training and become a successful Scrum Master.