How can I grow as a Scrum Master?
A good Scrum Master usually has a very full daily schedule. Depending on the agile status of the organization, these activities are initially related to team processes and in later stages to organizational and business processes. While the initial focus is on reconnaissance, mediation, facilitation and team self-organization, these activities can be scaled and extended to other areas as needed.
Therefore, there is not "the one" skill that a Scrum Master should improve. Rather, there should be an awareness of which skills can be used to deliver better results. Within a "storming phase" (Tuckman model), in which many conflicts can occur, the mediation and moderation skills should be used and, if necessary, deepened in further training, while in quieter times the agile transformation in the company can be driven forward. Whether and to what extent process-related seminars such as Scrum@Scale or Lean Agile Procurement then help with this is left to the Scrum Master in his or her particular situation.
Instead of recertification, there are a variety of options for continuing education, depending on interest. Often, experienced Scrum Masters tend to pursue a career as an Agile Coach, shifting the focus from team development to organizational development. More rarely, they also change roles and become product owners. Some Scrum Masters also strive for the Agile Leadership certification, as this also enables them to accompany and support the agile transformation in the company.
Mostly, however, the Certified Advanced ScrumMaster® Training is chosen as a professional consolidation. Here, Scrum Masters with at least one year of practical experience get the chance to delve deeper into the process-related challenges of their role.
In addition, the Certified Advanced ScrumMaster® training is also offered.
In addition, there is also the possibility of thematic trainings that relate to specific sub-areas of Scrum Master activities. These include trainings in Kanban, NLP, DesignThinking, Scrum@Scale or Scrum for Hardware.
All the same, there are also thematic trainings for Scrum Masters.
No matter which career and further training is chosen, the job of the Scrum Master is and remains a very varied field.
Are there any books you can recommend?
In addition to the generally known basic literature and various Agile Insights or online magazines, there are also books that we send to participants within the Agile Academy before the course starts. These are both well-known and smaller publishers, which we would like to present here in a small selection, in case you are thinking about becoming a Scrum Master.
- Scrum Mastery by Geoff Watts
- Succeeding with Agile by Mike Cohn
- Agile Retrospectives by Diana Larsen and Esther Derby
- Coaching Agile Teams by Lyssa Adkins
