I wasn't clear with my little bit about a required degree. I am sorry. In
stating what degree would be good for a Scrum Master I was trying to
indicate that a technical degree was not a better fit for the work of a
Scrum Master. Therefore, technical skills are also not required for the
work of a Scrum Master.
To tell a true tale:
Years ago I met an amazing project manager on a team of volunteers for a
big community event. This person was the project manager for the team. They
made charts, spreadsheets and detailed time lines. They pushed people for
results, often pushing too hard and creating frustration for themselves and
others.
I got to know them better, learning that they were trained in marketing but
had been a project manager for IT teams for some years. They had several
certifications from PMI. As they learned I was a Scrum Master and then
Agile Coach, they asked me questions. How did planning work if you didn't
plan everything up front? How do you get people to do things if the
self-organize? And so on.
Over the years they began to apply some Agile and Scrum ideas to their work
and the teams at their work. They began to see results. I pointed them to
books, like Coaching Agile Teams and Agile Estimating and Planning. They
devoured these books, often messaging me about difficulties and successes.
One day they report that one team agreed to go "full Agile" as an
experiment. In less than a year that team, with this person as Scrum
Master, became the most productive and valuable in their organization. This
led to the person teaching classes, getting Agile training and moving the
entire IT department toward Agile ways of working.
This very person is now an Enterprise Agile Coach at a large financial
services company. They are certified in teaching several Agile frameworks
and as a coach in the same. They are happier at work than they ever had
been. This person had no professional programming experience. They simply
were good at the people side of things. And they had the discipline to
learn and grow in a new direction.
"How does one who hasnât done it know what itâs like to appreciate the
sweet elegance of a well crafted piece of code and live as a craftsman,
while working under schedule pressure and perhaps in unsupportive physical
surroundings?"
People who don't code can create well crafted other things and live as a
craftsman in their own sphere. It is not only technical people who feel
schedule pressure and unsupportive surroundings. As long as someone is able
to see the similarities in experiences of different work, I think they can
be helpful to those with skills other than their own.
"Certainly one can do a lot if one takes to heart the people they serve.
And that quality is barely correlated with career path."
Yes, I agree wholeheartedly!
Post by Michael Wollin ***@mercurysw.com [SCRUMDEVELOPMENT]I donât believe I said any of that, Alan. Iâm inviting you to share about
one of these people and how they mastered the craft.
Think about writing a job description for a Scrum Master. You decide that
candidates must have a Bachelor's Degree in order to qualify. What courses
of study, what degrees would be most beneficial to the work of a Scrum
Master? I don't think computer science or mathematics or various
engineering degrees are the answer.
I have known many excellent Scrum Masters who have come from project
management backgrounds. A few have come from marketing or business
backgrounds. Many have come from technical fields, too.
Alan
Post by ***@hotmail.com [SCRUMDEVELOPMENT]Excellent question, Michael. I used to think âdecades into my pastâ that
âthe only wayâ âcareful! Bigotry alarms at full capacity hereâ somebody
could ever know and ever teach about something is by the sole means of
direct experience. Period. Simple. End of discussion.
Nowadays, âsince about 28 years agoâ, I reflect that the subject matter
of knowing and the subject matter of being able to teach or help others
turned out to be not that simple. And the discussion is wide open, and the
debate keeps very active among authorities on those subject matters.
There are cases where somebody can, in fact, learn a lot from the
experiences reported by others and by pure sheer thought based on sound
theoretical schemes. So, now I think that a fully functional Scrum Master
âor anybody, for that matterâ can, in fact, help others effectively without
the sole means of direct experience.
Does it make sense?