What should a new ScrumMaster be doing?

We are coaching at a new client, helping them transition to Scrum. As a result we have a group of totally new ScrumMasters. Any new role with new responsibilities is a challenge. As an experienced ScrumMaster there are many lists of what you should be doing all day everyday. But if you’re brand new and so is you team – it’s a bit like the blind leading the blind.

Our particular challenge was that none of our new ScrumMasters could understand how this could possibly be a full time role. They have 1 team each.

The first exercise we did was to ask them to write down all the impediments they had noticed in the first 2 weeks. Anything that they thought had slowed their team down. Anything they think might become a problem. Anything they had heard others say. We gave them 5 minutes in silence to make notes and then went around having each explain.

WOW! This worked so well! They had noticed a lot of impediments and potential problems. And they were big, hairy, scary ones. Next we asked – so if your job is to ensure impediments are removed, and we look at this list … do any of you still think this is a part time role? A few chuckles and looks of surprise, the exercise helped open their minds to the scope of the role.

We didn’t want to totally overwhelm them though – so we came up with the mindmap below of what they need to do in the first few sprints. If you can think of some others – please leave a comment for us 🙂

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