Scrums of Scrum Master - Job summary
Scrum of Scrum Masters are key leadership positions in a global organization and part of the Agile Excellence Chapter. They play a key role when Agile at Scale is required.
Scrum of Scrum Master:
- guide the Team of Squads focusing on creating high value releases
- partner with Product Owners to ensure strategy and execution alignment
- work with all the different squad Scrum Masters to synchronize and coordinate the work of the Team of Squads
- are key facilitators and primarily responsible for facilitation of Team of Squads rituals & key events
- drive continuous improvement by coaching Team of Squads and Squad members in Agile methodologies to maximize efficiency and self-improvement, and drive change management.
- identify, escalate, and help find resolutions to Team of Squads obstacles
- master Agile processes and fine tune them to the Team of Squads needs (e.g., mixing Scrum & Kanban to manage maintenance & development) while providing tools, methodologies (Inc. Visual management) and relevant KPIs/dashboards to accelerate Team of Squads delivery.
The Scrum of Scrum Master may be one of the team’s Scrum Masters or a person specifically dedicated to this role.
Scrums of Scrum Master - Job’s responsibilities
Enable execution in alignment with the strategy and backlog of a Team of Squads (ToS) (e.g., product / platform / sub-system etc.)
- Work with Product Owners and other stakeholders to help ensure strategy and execution alignment of the backlog of a Team of Squads
- Guide Team of squads on priorities and scope
- Help Team of squads focus on creating high value releases
- Ensure adherence to guidelines and best practices recommended by the Agile Excellence Chapter
- Assist with decision-making by facilitating feature estimation by Team of Squads
- Provide progress status and escalate impediments on a regular basis
- Provide input on resourcing to address critical bottlenecks
- Highlight and follow the adherence to guardrails at Team of Squads level and alert Product Owners
- Maintain a high-level overview of key milestones & interdependencies of the Team of Squads (such as but not limited to EP/KP...) more than the limited view of the increments and iterations
- Provide visibility on predictability trend over the current iteration planning
- Ensure the Team of Squads tracks external commitments
- Ensure homogeneous end to end backlog structure across the Team of Squads (EPICs, capabilities, user stories, ...)
Identify and manage interdependencies.
- Map interfaces between Teams of Squads
- Ensure synchronization / map architecture between Squads (products, bricks, integration, sub-assy) of the same or different leagues
- Facilitate the governance and Team of Squads rituals across Squads to foster synchronization (weekly/monthly)
- Support the squad’s efforts to continuously improve communications and relationships with other squads
- Assist teams in delivering value on time, communicate with stakeholders, escalate impediments, help manage risk, and drive relentless improvement
Foster effective working relationship between Product Owners, Agile Squads, and stakeholders
- Ensure Team of Squads members understand and embrace Agile values and use suitable Agile at Scale frameworks.
- Establish and communicate the annual calendar of Agile rituals
- Ensure product backlog is easily accessible and understood by the Team of Squads and other stakeholders
- Ensure Product Owners and stakeholders participate to events when needed
- Where needed, facilitate interaction between Product Owners, Team of Squads, and stakeholders to ensure all sides get an opportunity to share their concerns and motivations
- Ensure Product Owners and Team of Squads actively participate in decision making regarding commitment to scope and schedule
- Identify techniques for product goal definition and effective product backlog management
- Propose and deploy practices/tools/events to foster improvement of team efficiencies at Team of Squads level.
Support the Squad Scrum Masters
- Ensure Team of Squad's progress & performance metrics are in place consistently across the Team of squads and well understood
- Create and sustain an environment of trust and openness among all teams of squads
- Ensure Team of squad’s goal and efforts are aligned with Team of Squads goals
- Ensure Teams of squads are focused on excellence in product quality and customer value
- Ensure Teams of squads take kaizen events (e.g., retrospective) seriously and puts a sincere effort to follow up on action items
- Ensure retrospectives are in place at Team of squad level.
- Work with Chapters & communities of practice to deploy best practices & tools (set-up relevant KPI's and visual management on backlog, risks, planning, etc.).
Help remove impediments at Team of Squads level.
- Help manage risks and dependencies between Teams of squads, understand the impact, create a sense of urgency, and implement effective risk response plans
- Ensure Teams of squads get necessary trust and support from Management to work effectively and remove obstacles
- Ensure Teams of squads can respond to required changes and new unplanned requests in an effective manner
Promote Agile values.
- Promote Agile values, culture, and practices
- Promote continuous improvement and challenge status-quo
- Enable Team of squads to improve efficiency and quality of deliverables by following Agile development best practices (definition of 'done' & 'ready', team predictability etc.)
- Motivate Team of squads and embody a positive and constructive mindset on top of Agile values and culture
- Secure and promote the values of the selected framework & self-organization
Qualifications and Experience
Bachelor’s degree in electrical / Electronics / Instrumentation / Computer Science engineering:
5+ years in Embedded Product Development / Project Management experience in Hybrid Agile Methodology would be advantageous (Viz. IoT Gateways, Energy Meters etc.)
Strong facilitation techniques in particular to synchronization of activities on Electronic design, Firmware development and Plastic encloser development activities.
Ability to build and lead Teams of squads in a matrix.
Knowledge of Agile frameworks (i.e. Scrum, Kanban), and in-depth knowledge of at Agile at Scale frameworks (i.e. Hybrid Agile, SAFe, Scrum at Scale, Nexus), certification will be added advantage.