Is there any particular background required to become a successful Scrum Master?
The good news is, you don't need a specific background to become a Scrum Master. People having the skillset of Scrum Master can come from any field. The not-so-good news is, it's hard and takes years of skilful practise to become an effective Scrum Master.
So before discussing who can become an effective Scrum Master, let's understand the key skills required to perform the Scrum Master role, which are:
- Facilitation
- Teaching
- Coaching
These skills help you to leverage your existing background in helping the teams you serve.
10 most common backgrounds Scrum Masters have come from:
1. Program Manager, Project Manager
2. Program Director, Director of Delivery
3. CTO, CIO
4. Product Manager
5. Business Analyst
6. QA Lead, Test Manager
7. Technical Lead/ Developer
8. DBA
9. Customer Support Lead
10. Release and Operations Lead
It doesn’t matter if your background isn’t listed above, you can still become an effective Scrum Master by following this 5 point checklist:
5 point Checklist to become an Effective Scrum Master
1. Are you adept at influencing people?
2. Are you passionate to delight customers?
3. Are you driven by the motive of serving your team?
4. Do you have experience in the domain or the product that your teams are working on?
5. Do you understand Scrum well?
Depending on what background you come from, you may need to acquire new skills in the Scrum Master role and you may also need to unlearn some bad behaviours that may hinder you from performing the Scrum Master's role effectively.
Example:
If you manage Finance, If you Write performance appraisals, If the Scrum team members report to you, you may have to explicitly let go of that organizational power and authority to be able to serve the team as Scrum Master.
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