(Spacing is weird)
Interested in learning how to become a Scrum Manager? You’re in a right place!
Scrum is a simple, incremental framework for creating and distributing complex products. The Scrum methodology challenges assumptions of the conventional, sequential approach to product development and empowers teams to self-organize.
Scrum is a project management framework focused on software development. Companies have since applied Scrum principles to other areas, such as research, sales, marketing, and cutting-edge technologies.
The Scrum process begins when the product owner, or customer, approaches the Scrum team with a specific need. From there, the product divides into several parts, which the team prioritizes and works to address in short sprint cycles.
The team holds meetings after the sprint: the sprint review, then presenting their work to stakeholders and requesting feedback. During the sprint retrospective, the stakeholders reflect and improve.
One of the critical roles of a Scrum master is using the Scrum framework in an agile project. The primary facilitator is responsible for setting up meetings, enhancing team dynamics, and maximizing production by removing stumbling blocks.
How To Become a Scrum Manager in 5 Steps:
- Learn Scrum management fundamentals
- Get familiar with the Scrum management processes
- Study your line of business and industry
- Develop your projects to build Scrum skills
- Create a portfolio to showcase your Scrum work
Step 1
Learn Scrum Management Fundamentals
Improving your knowledge of the agile project management methodology is the first step if you want to become a Scrum manager. Agile project management uses repeated actions to determine a quantifiable return on investment. The agile method, which is also regarded as iterative, places a strong emphasis on customer interaction and communication. An agile project manager modifies the project plan, responds to changes, and incorporates stakeholder feedback. Scrum is one agile project management philosophy framework used to implement agile principles.
The next step when trying tp become a Scrum manager is to learn about the Scrum framework. The term “Scrum” comes from rugby, where teams huddle and push against one another to begin or restart a game. The phrase refers to the daily meeting that all project team members attend in the Scrum framework to review progress made the day before and make changes for the following day.
To prepare for the Scrum certification course, you should have a solid foundational understanding of the Scrum framework, and numerous resources assist you in learning the basics. In addition, the training company might require you to pass a test before enrolling in the Scrum certification course to ensure you comprehend the fundamental ideas.
Once you’re confident in the basics of the Scrum framework, complete a Scrum certification course. The certification course is a three-day in-person or online event comprising a minimum of 8 hours of instruction. A certified Scrum trainer reviews the fundamental principles of agile management before teaching critical concepts about the scrum framework.
These concepts include a Scrum team’s accountabilities, roles, and events. You’ll learn how to guide a team to practice the Scrum principles through organization and support. With discussions, exercises, and case studies from the real world, a Scrum certification course enables you to put what you learn into practice. There are several Scrum Master certifications, such as a professional Scrum master through Scrum.org, a certified Scrum Master through ScrumAlliance.org, and Scrum Master by Scrum. Inc.
Step 2
Get Familiar with the Scrum Management Process
Scrum managers or Scrum masters are a buffer between the team and any distracting influences. They are not traditional team leaders or project managers. The Scrum master coaches the team in Scrum theory, leads essential sessions, and promotes team growth to ensure that they follow the Scrum framework. To further emphasize these opposing viewpoints, the position also has the title of a team facilitator or servant-leader.
The role of a Scrum master includes assisting product owners in keeping the product backlog up to date. This ensures an understanding of the required work and enables the Scrum team members to keep moving forward. They coach the team in delivering high-quality features for the product while adhering to the Scrum principles. The team also includes other members of the organization and essential stakeholders.
So, let’s discuss some of the primary responsibilities of a Scrum master. Certified Scrum masters promote self-organization and cross-functionality within a team, and they do this by organizing team meetings to ensure ongoing progress.
As you learn each step in the Scrum management process, you’ll understand how these steps create a greater whole and how the decisions you make today affect how the future unfolds within the company.
A good Scrum management certification course helps you develop your technical skills and the high-level brain-storming it takes to recognize market opportunities and user needs. By completing your training, you should have experience stirring the entire product lifecycle, managing multiple teams, and creating a dispatch plan.
Step 3
Study Your Line of Business and Industry
A Scrum master’s position doesn’t only involve managing an agile development team. They work with all sectors of an organization and ensure the application of agile training and Scrum practices.
The three critical roles in scrum project management are the product owner, Scrum master, and Scrum team. The product owner, who is in charge of overseeing the business component and acts as the project’s first stakeholder, leads the effort. The team works to accomplish whatever the product owner has in mind. The Scrum master, who collaborates with the product owner to form and manage the Scrum team, is a mentor to the other team members.
The Scrum master facilitates processes and collaborates with the Scrum team. They try to prevent potential inefficiencies that might impede the team’s progress. The Scrum team consists of skilled individuals collaborating to produce outcomes under the goals. The team, led by the Scrum Master, may also consist of analysts, developers, and product testers.
Becoming a Scrum master is not an entry-level position. Most Scrum masters learn a robust set of technical skills and are in a place to make the jump to a professional Scrum master. Knowledge of software development is a crucial element of being a Scrum master. Excellent communication skills and a software design, testing, or development background are great places to start.
That said, experience in many different tech areas is a great asset on your path to becoming a Scrum master. Having a background in development, UI or UX design, sales and marketing, data, or even business serves you well in the role of Scrum manager.
To make a career change and become a Scrum manager, you’ll need a broad set of transferable skills from other related fields.
Step 4
Develop Projects to Build Your Scrum Master Skills
After learning the basic skills required to see the Scrum management cycle through, start gathering your practice projects and continue reinforcing your skills and gaining more experience.
With a Scrum master certification under your belt, you should demonstrate your abilities with individual steps by writing scenarios, building prototypes, conducting user testing, and running analytics.
Although working on individual steps of the process may not result in a completed cycle, it still allows you to practice brainstorming and strategic thinking. It also proves your ability to write, catch your mistakes and recover from them, and achieve the outcomes you set out to achieve.
The Scrum process is collaborative. To develop relevant skills, you’ll want to connect with those who are like-minded and eager to demonstrate their skills. Pairing with others, such as coders, product managers, or even test-users, not only enables you to put together more ambitious projects but helps you develop some of the most critical skills a Scrum master should have. This includes communication and collaboration.
By taking a professional Scrum master course, you’ll develop and apply these soft skills in your new role. There is difficulty in gaining practice using these skills on your own. Scrum management connects people or departments, tackles different tasks, and joins them to support a common goal. The responsibility of this role is enormous, and it’s about helping a team, not telling them what to do.
Step 5
Create a Portfolio to Showcase Your Scrum Framework
If you’re applying for your first Scrum master position, creating a portfolio is a primary tool in showing off your talents to potential employers. It includes your Scrum master certification and any project management institute that you’ve worked with in the past.
Job searchers must try to stand out and impress employers in a competitive employment environment. Candidates have many opportunities to create a good impression, from targeted resumes and cover letters to interview practices.
A career portfolio displays your technical know-how and aptitude. It’s a practical method for emphasizing successful projects, work examples, recommendations, and expert knowledge in a format that’s simple to understand.
Portfolios come in two formats: digital and physical. Digital portfolios are personal websites, whereas physical portfolios are hard copies assembled in a binder. Most hiring managers prefer a hard copy of your portfolio, so be sure only to put relevant information and keep it simple.
There is no standard format for creating a portfolio, and this is because the work of Scrum managers varies depending on the roles they’ve held and the organizations they’ve supported. Instead of attempting to include everything, use your portfolio to highlight your strengths as a Scrum manager. This entails concentrating on the projects you’re proudest of while also utilizing those projects to highlight your best qualities.
By thinking about how it conveys the contributions you made, the difficulties you faced, and the innovative solutions, you came up with to handle them, make sure your portfolio presents each piece. To demonstrate how you approach your work to potential employers, think about how you might use your skills to tell a story.
Organize your portfolio so that it’s easy for a potential client or employer to navigate and digest. It should have a clean, pleasing design highlighting critical information and showing off your best work.
That said, now is the time to get that portfolio in front of potential employers. Find Scrum management positions on various online job boards. However, according to working Scrum masters, networking within or outside your organization is preferable when applying for a job posting.
How Much do Scrum Masters Make?
According to Glassdoor and LinkedIn, there are over 154,000 job openings for Scrum masters as of June 2022, and the average salary is $108,369. There are many opportunities for career advancement in this industry.
That said, salaries for Scrum masters vary depending on skills, experience, and where you work. Scrum masters earn between $120,000 and $170,000 per year. That said, agile coaches, who train teams in Scrum and other Agile software development approaches, earn $140,000 to $200,000. Scrum masters and Agile coaches working as contractors make $120 to $160 an hour.
Different sources and surveys show that Scrum master salary ranges and averages are less consistent than other jobs. Examples of such jobs include other programming, computing, and technology jobs. This is due to variations in the role and qualifications in Scrum master roles.
How to Become a Professional Scrum Manager With No Experience
Although not a requirement, most employers favor applicants with a bachelor’s degree in business administration, information technology, or a related field. A college degree also makes it easier for you to get on-the-job experience, another qualification appearing on scrum master job listings.
Without a qualification, there’s a good chance that you’ll start small as a Scrum master. You’ll take on the responsibility of managing a single Agile team, guiding them through sprints, and providing support in a way that enables them to produce value.
The initial squad has personalities that get along well and are on the simpler side. You want to start in a situation where you succeed, and you’ll start your career as a Scrum master in a position where you are part of one squad.
Over time, you’ll add complexity to the role. A Scrum master works with several Agile teams, playing various roles throughout their career. Once they master their craft, scrum masters need challenges. Once you have learned the role of one squad, you anticipate the next step and perform it for others.
If you’re fortunate enough to be an expert in the Scrum master role, use your skills to advance your career as an Agile Coach or mentor.
A knowledgeable and experienced Scrum master is very valuable. Companies require mentors, and they need Agile Coaches or Scrum masters to change how they carry out their work.
You get to demonstrate what you’ve learned while also doing it in a way that advances your career. In addition to performing the duties of a Scrum master on several Agile teams in the same organization, you may also serve as a mentor or Agile Coach for a novice Scrum master.
A Scrum master is great because they have many options at their disposal. You do a lot with Scrum once you take on the role of Scrum master and learn Agile and Scrum. The abilities are transferable to jobs such as mentoring, coaching Agile teams, being a product owner, and more.
You should consider the Scrum master position as an opportunity to hone your Agile and Scrum skills. Take advantage of the opportunities that the Scrum master role presents as it develops and thrives.
Another way to demonstrate to potential employers that you are knowledgeable about the Scrum framework is to obtain an industry credential. The Certified Scrum Master (CSM) program from the Scrum Alliance is one of the most well-liked choices for Scrum masters. You start developing the practical skills that enable you to lead teams as you study for the certification exam.
What Does it Take to Become a Scrum Manager?
A capable leader maintains order. A competent Scrum master is necessary for this fast-paced era where agile methodologies have become a more popular framework. Well then, what constitutes a good Scrum master?
A Scrum master oversees the team’s compliance with the Scrum process’s guidelines and rules. A Scrum master also coaches the team to overcome obstacles and improve. With so much responsibility, a Scrum master must be a winner to carry out the necessary tasks.
Here are 8 characteristics all great Scrum managers possess.
- Excellent Communication Skills
A Scrum master’s primary responsibility is always communication, which is crucial when an organization first implements the Scrum framework. A Scrum master should have excellent verbal and written communication skills. They coordinate with managers during each process to ensure the following Scrum practices.
Scrum management communication doesn’t involve giving orders to other team members. A Scrum master needs to pay close attention and understand when his team members discuss their progress and roadblocks. If one lacks the listening skills necessary to understand the issue, it’s challenging to arrive at a solution.
- Reputable
A Scrum master is the team’s liaison with management and other teams. A good one should speak up for them when necessary or in times of emergency. This job role does not come with any inherent power, and they are in charge of assisting the team in adopting and using the Scrum process.
The benefit of being a trustworthy Scrum master is that you win the respect of your team members. Once established by the Scrum master, team members listen more, make fewer mistakes, and contribute more to the team’s success.
- Meticulous
A Scrum master needs to be meticulous and detail-oriented as it is their responsibility to devise means and strategies for putting solutions into practice. Being a good project manager or Scrum manager is one thing, and understanding and navigating the critical technical issues in an agile software development environment is another.
- Multitasker
A Scrum master handles multiple tasks together, even if it takes on unfamiliar tasks. A good manager must adjust to keep everything on schedule. Problems and issues arise when least expected and almost always all at once.
Being resourceful is a component of being able to multitask. scrum managers should find quick solutions to issues. They should use whatever is available and look for clever ways to address the situation to reduce, if not eliminate, impediments. When confronted with these circumstances, the Scrum master should shift into another mode.
- Dedicated
Even though a Scrum master’s job may not require 24-hour workdays, they must give it their all. When an obstacle is overcome, their work is not finished. Some hurdles require days or weeks to remove, so you’ll need the dedication to follow the process of doing so.
For example, you wouldn’t get something immediately if you asked your manager to allocate significant resources for the entire team. There are numerous meetings and conversations between the parties concerned.
The project’s Scrum master should commit for the entire time frame. Switching Scrum masters in the middle of a project disrupts the team members.
- Influential
Why is influence a desirable trait in a Scrum master? Being an influential leader in a team benefits the team much more than issuing orders. A Scrum master needs to impact both the team and external parties.
A Scrum master must first persuade the team to give the scrum process a fair chance, and team members act more as a result. Scrum masters persuade the entire team to experiment with novel techniques like pair programming and test-driven development.
Second, a Scrum master must exert influence over people who are not on the team. A Scrum master may need to persuade the operations manager to allocate resources to the team or explain the value of Scrum to company executives to convince them to try it.
However, Scrum masters must exercise their sway without resorting to the “because I say so” attitude. The ideal Scrum master should know corporate politics, have experience making decisions within an organization and benefit the business.
- Collaborative
A competent Scrum master makes sure that the team has a collaborative culture. Team members should feel supported when they bring up issues and concerns that are the subject of open discussions. Team members should be free to express thoughts that may solve current problems.
In addition, team members must feel comfortable and not intimidated by their Scrum master or other team members in this environment, enabling them to accept and give feedback to other team members.
- Composed
It’s possible to assist your members with the process, address issues later, and remove an obstacle. At times, things get chaotic, and an effective Scrum master must remain calm in the face of chaos.
A good Scrum master does not flee when problems appear. They must think and come up with solutions even in the most chaotic situations. While they might not resolve the current issue, they prevent it from happening again. The capacity to foresee problems and stop them from happening is a valuable supplementary skill for a Scrum master.
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