Scrum Master domain competence model — a proposition

I’ve been thinking about it for such a long time…

Now, a disclaimer:

• the following is based on the combination of my personal opinion, experiences & observations from DevOps, Flow Management, ITSM & Scrum fields
• I’m in the position of co-running my own company in a volatile & chaotic environment hence some insights
• I try to take a neutral point of view on the state of things, not subscribing to this or that agenda or approach

So, there has been a model describing 8 stances of a Scrum Master out there.

OK.

It’s not my point to criticize that as it’s only a model. As good as any other.

I wish to present my own model based on the combination of my personal opinion, experiences & observations.

Let’s start.

Scrum Master is a very vaguely defined role without any backing in the efficiency based on scientific research that I know of.

Taking into consideration that every business is unique and the owner has the right to do anything that s/he wants — the role may be hazier.

As an owner/co-owner/decision-maker you can do almost anything you want that’s related to your company. By extension, you can post a job advertisement that states anything you want.

So, how to possibly change the perception of the Scrum Master role? I’m not saying “improve” as in order to improve you’d need to benchmark against some default or current state of things.

I’d thus like to propose a potential competence model that one would need to consider when looking for a Scrum Master.

Just one disclaimer here —I understand Scrum Master as a managerial position. Possibly over other managers in the hierarchy, being the architect of the business & operations architecture that is being there to make more business for the company. It’s a pretty serious job.

Scrum Master as a Man-Servant Leader to god-managers? Nope. That’s not working in my opinion.

Scrum Master as a free particle hovering here and there without any real power to change things? Once again. That’s not working in my opinion.

Scrum Master as a care-bear being there to say that everything is going to be all right again, soon? Not at all.

If one is hired to do something then one needs to have every tool, permission & power to do that thing, be responsible for that, and be accounted for that.

So, to the model then.

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As I see it, Scrum Masters have one lowest common denominator:
- knowledge about Scrum

OK, and now — how to quantify that?

I… have yet to find a proper equation on that.

Besides the knowledge about Scrum, there are many other factors that need to be taken into consideration, such as:

• - technical knowledge — software v hardware v other domains, how that domain operates, and how to just be efficient in any of the given domains
• - business knowledge — domain (retail vs wholesale, vendor, business models), local, neighboring, global markets, etc
• - context knowledge — culture, cross-culture, etc, how different cultures operate, what are the boiling points, what are some good synergies
• - work-management knowledge — soft, work & people’s management, motivation, achieving business goals, responsibility, different work models and how they relate to Scrum
• - other assets — anything that does not fit into previous domains

And now, the rationale:

• - technical knowledge — every business is unique. What is the work that people do, what does it involve. Can an expert in electronics be an expert in the IT environment for example? Can an IT expert be a good agent in a Hardware domain? What is the usual workflow in the domain at hand, what are the tools, procedures, methods, practices, dependencies?
• - business knowledge — how does the domain operate in the market and how it manages to stay afloat? What are the business ins and outs, how the business does sales, does it need to care about user experience or not? How the business can potentially profit from a Batch based work approach such as Scrum? Can it even profit from such a work approach? The focus of work may be on $$$, UX, reputation, market coverage, maximum “bang for the buck”, market tactics as per creating a loss leader to boost other products/services, and many other factors. A new work unit may also be a combination of any of the aforementioned.
• - context knowledge — how do people from any given country operate in any given country? What are traditions, norms, laws, and taboos? How do they interface with other countries and still manage to do business? What is the internal logic that makes it work?
• - work-management knowledge — companies and by extension, people working in companies operate under some given or adapted model of work. Maybe it’s at the whim of the company owner, maybe not. Basically, some opinions and decisions may not be based on logic, yet they are true. Oh well. Still — if this or that company operates under some other model of work, be it — DevOps, ITSM, Flow Management, Six Sigma, Prince2, PMI/PMBOK or any other model of organizing work — it would be good to know how Scrum may improve the gains of that given company on the market if they’d decide to implement that work model. Thus — how to adjust Scrum to a given operating model to actually make it work and reap more profits from this approach to work.
• - other assets — anything that does not fit into previous domains, once again. Maybe one of your Scrum Masters is a good writer, a singer, or just has many Very Important Friends in High Places. Why not use that to boost your own business? Can we afford to have such a person onboard? Can we afford to now have such a person onboard? I don’t know. Maybe you know?

The whole model is merely a draft now. It may or may not be developed further by the author (so in this case me, Maciek Jarosz).

If anything — I’d like to listen to your opinions on it, have a good conversation about the draft model, and who knows, maybe argue over it (those are fun).

Enjoy and have a good one!

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Legal:

The author (Maciej Jarosz) retains full intellectual property rights over this model.

One is granted permission to use this draft in his/her own work in non-commercial and scientific research & publication as long as such person references the author (so, Maciej Jarosz) and the source where this draft model has been posted (so, Serious Scrum article base) with proper links, timestamps of access, recognition of authorship, etc.

One is not granted permission to use this draft in his/her own work for commercial purposes (including research & publication) unless given direct written permission by the author (me, Maciej Jarosz in this case).

If in doubt — please contact the author (Maciej Jarosz) directly.

Thank you for being fair.