What’s a Scrum Master and Why Do You Need Certification to Become One?

Adding a scrum master certification to your qualifications can give your salary a much-needed boost.

Scrum masters generally earn about $82,556 per year. If you already have software development management skills you can boost this figure to as much as $126,317.

Are you ready to take your people skills and knack for organization to the next level? Here’s how.

What Is Scrum Methodology?

A scrum is a self-organized platform used for working in a team. The process is usually employed by software development task forces but can apply to any business project.

How it works is that each member of the team takes on a specific task to meet project deadlines. The team makes these decisions among themselves, not a specific leader or project manager.

At the outset of the scrum procedure, the team meets to discuss completion dates for each item required to complete the project. The term for these stages is ‘sprints’. Each sprint has a specific time-frame – usually a month.

During each sprint, team members hold daily scrum meetings to discuss their progress.

Procedure for Scrum Meetings

The daily scrum meeting has a time frame of only 15 minutes. During this time, each team member describes their progress as follows:

• What they achieved the day before
• What they aim to achieve today
• Any impediments that they have encountered

In this way, the whole team is aware of each member’s progress and can offer help if needed.

During a scrum, there is no discussion on how to overcome these impediments. A fellow team member may volunteer to assist after the meeting, but not while it is in progress.

It’s easy to see how a scrum meeting can run over the allocated time unless the format is strictly followed.

The Role of the Scrum Master

Every scrum relies on a team the scrum master for two things. Firstly, to keep order in the scrum meetings and secondly to deliver feedback to the product owner.

A scrum master acts as an intermediary between the team and the product owner. This eliminates cross-communication and keeps the product owner informed of progress. They also ensure that inter-team communication is on par.

Scrum Master Responsibilities

Essentially, this team member acts as a servant to the team, doing everything possible to ensure that they can complete their tasks on time.

Some of their duties could include small things like adjusting the temperature in the room to optimize productivity, to big ones like ensuring the team has the technology they need to flourish.

Learning how to become a scrum master helps you to understand the team’s needs and learn how to assist them.

Does this sound like a job that suits your personality and work ethic? It’s easy to get scrum master certification in San Diego, Seattle, or wherever you are, by means of online courses.

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