What’s a Scrum Master?
Find your freelance Scrum Master on Malt. Their mission? To motivate teams, overcome problems and ensure the success of a project.
A Scrum Master is a project manager who uses agile methods. Transparency, inspection and adaptation are its 3 main pillars.
All you need to know about freelance Scrum Masters
What does a Scrum Master do?
A Scrum Master ensures the successful application of the Scrum method in a product team typically consisting of developers and a Product Manager. A scrum method is an agile operating method that aims to make the members of the product team work autonomously, with as much interaction as possible.
The Scrum Master’s role is not to lead the team with which they collaborate, but rather to support it in reaching defined objectives. They ensure everyone’s involvement, protect the team from external disturbances and guide them in finding solutions. They are also tasked with leading ‘Scrum Ceremonies’. They must be diplomatic and empathetic and have teaching skills to be able to train a team in Scrum agile methods.
They therefore are not a Project Manager, although the roles are often confused. They do not determine, for example, the allocation of tasks within the team, the schedule to be followed nor on the choice of solution for resolving a particular problem. They should be seen as a project facilitator and an integral part of the product team. Furthermore, unlike an Agile Coach, whose presence within the product team can vary according to needs, the Scrum Master is present with the team on a daily basis. They tend to work closely alongside Product Managers, Product Owners , Developers, and Agile Coaches themselves.
Why hire a freelance Scrum Master?
A freelance Scrum Master can help you with your project if you’re faced with the following challenges:
A lack of communication between different members of your team.
An inability to incorporate new demands into the project when project development has already begun.
A lack of visibility into the progress of the current project.
What’s a sprint and what are its stages?
To apply the Scrum method, the Scrum Master will use sprints. These are time-limited periods at the end of which the team must be able to deliver a product. During each sprint, the team is focused on the implementation of tasks found in the ‘backlog’. These are each related to a feature. At the end of a sprint, a new sprint begins until the end of the project.
Sprints usually contain the following steps:
Daily scrum meeting: This meeting allows all team members to follow the progress of the sprint and to help each other. It allows the Scrum Master to identify possible sticking points and move past them.
Sprint review: This stage is at the end of the sprint and is used to review the project’s progress and present the developed features. A demonstration version is made available.
Sprint retrospective: During this meeting, the Scrum Master will allow all team members to have their say in order to obtain feedback and identify areas for improvement for the rest of the project.
How to choose a freelance Scrum Master?
Beyond previous experience and reviews, a good freelance scrum master must have several characteristics.
Development knowledge: Without being a technical expert, the Scrum Master must be able to understand the work of a team of developers.
Instructional leadership: In order to change working methods that are sometimes structural, they may have to convince the management bodies of a company. Their work can therefore in some cases go beyond the strict scope of the project.
A capacity for dialogue and transparency: The Scrum Master must be able to step back from a situation to defuse conflicts, motivate the team and communicate on the progress of the project.
