I am a Scrum Master. What now?

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My Way to Scrum Master Certification

Why become a Scrum Master?

When you work as management consultant in areas such as Operations Excellence and Process Improvement, the interface to IT becomes more and more prevalent. In my last project at the German Stock Exchange this trend has finally reached me, someone who was never really overly interested in software development or anything that had something to do with IT.

At the stock exchange we improved processes, hence SAP workflows had to be changed and all sorts of other IT systems that were affected by them. After having sorted those processes, I got in touch with IT and told them about our desire to “add things” to the SAP environment and they gave me a change request form to fill in. A change request form – I have never seen anything like this.  

This was a very useful experience for me, as I realised that whatever we wanted from an operations point of view needed proper translation into “IT speak”. It’s literally like translating from one language to another. It gave me an insight into the minds of programmers and how they see the world. It is very structured, but also very different.

The rest of the project remained very IT focused. I had to deal with more change requests and also with testing and finally implementing our solutions. I realised that I am actually interested in this kind of work; not so much in programming, but being the (translating) link between Operations and IT.

One day, the German Stock Exchange had an internal training session about the Scrum methodology and I happened to take part. I realised that this was something I was interested in and put it on the backburner. About one year later or so I finally became a Scrum Master.

What Kind of Training is available?

I had a look to see what’s out there in the market. Ideally, I wanted something cheap and quick where I could do everything from home; or maybe some course in and around London.

Classroom based courses are usually around 2 full days and cost anything in excess of GBP 1000. Some of them had no certification attached, just lectures. Online courses were less expensive and usually around GBP 800. All prices were net, without VAT. So basically, when not having a big corporation behind, it is quite an investment with a certain degree of risk involved, as one doesn’t know what one gets.

I got in touch with one training organisation that offered lots of degrees and courses. I got the sales person on the phone and she offered me an online course for GBP 795 plus VAT. Six weeks later I negotiated her down quite a bit. Bingo, when she quoted a new and acceptable price, I agreed and the day after I started my online seminar.

The course was very good and basically a narrated slide show, with questions in between and quizzes at the end of each module. I cannot complain, it was all done very professionally. It took me 2 days to go through the training. But mind you, I have been a project manager and management consultant for 20 years and this was not something overly new, hence I did not need too much time to think things through.

As advice I can only say, negotiate a training package; and if you have time, like I had, take this time to get into the better negotiating position. Time works for you!

Training Contents

The training was delivered in 3 modules. The first module was about the history of Scrum within Agile, the second module taught Scrum as a methodology, and the third module was the Scrum methodology applied.

What was interesting for me, scrum is quite rigid in its application (i.e. daily meetings, regular review meetings, strict roles and responsibilities for all people involved, charts, etc) but also quite flexible, because the outcome of the project is not fixed at the beginning (like when using the waterfall methodology). And especially me, who has grown up in ‘waterfall’ this was a really great insight and I can see how and that it works. So yes, I am all bought in.

I am not going to say more about training contents, as the Internet is full with this information.

Exam and Certification

I passed the exam easily and am now holding my certificate as Scrum Master. I am proud of that. But I am also happy that I did not pay the full price for it, as this would have been a rip off for a 2-day online course.

The exam consisted of (I think) 35 questions and one needed 24 to pass. I was somewhere in the 30ies. Questions were multiple choice, sometimes tricky, but generally very fair.

Lessons Learned

My first thoughts after having completed were: I’ve unknowingly already been a Scrum Master. Of course I learned something new, as described above, but I have used major parts of the scrum methodology throughout all my professional life.

When managing projects I always have short daily review meetings with the same agenda as a daily scrum meeting. I also implement those daily review meetings with my clients as part of Lean Management when on any Operations Excellence project.

The Sprint methodology is also not new. I call it Gate Management and is more or less similar. One can only pass from gate to gate after having successfully completed all tasks. One difference is, sprints are generally of the same time period, whereas gates can be more flexible.

I have used something similar to a burn down chart at my first project as management consultant back in 1997 when measuring achievements and savings in a purchasing department in Switzerland.

As project manager I usually take on tasks from and for my consultants to help them achieve their targets and deadlines. I also coach them regularly and train them in consulting methods.

But then, what’s new is the fact that I know now why waterfall doesn’t work. I also learned the benefits of self-organising teams and many other principles of Scrum and Agile. I am looking forward to my first experience of fully using Scrum as methodology.

How to go forward

So where does this leave me now? The day after I got certified I went online in order to look for Scrum Master projects. There are actually quite a lot. But as usual, there are problems; in fact there are two:

1) Everyone wants a scrum master with tons of completed IT projects; and obviously my projects only ever touched IT.

2) Everyone wants an IT expert who understands programming, etc; and obviously my background is not IT.

But then, I do feel it was good to have this new competency. I remember when I became a Six Sigma Black Belt I did not have an immediate Six Sigma project either and it will probably be similar this time and pay back over time.

Also, I want to specialise as “translator” from business/operations to IT and lead a Scrum Team from that side of the coin. I do feel this is a good niche to start from. The only thing it takes now it to look around and have a bit of luck.

Corporate Coaching - a new Business Concept?

The word coaching is often heard as a way out when managers are faced with managerial problems; or, privately, when people need a catalyst to help them dealing with seemingly insurmountable problems in their lives, the so-called life-coaching. And I am aware that this is only a very rough categorisation of the term. The idea I am pursuing goes beyond that and I am trying to combine both, coaching and consulting; let me call it Corporate Coaching.

As Performance Improvement Consultant, and I have been doing this for more than 16 years, one goes into clients’ companies and improves what there is to improve in order to gain financial and non-financial benefits for those clients – we install KPIs, implement planning tools, we close communication gaps and train management, etc, etc; the list is endless. Every Consulting Company promises a knowledge transfer from consultancy to client so that the latter would not be left alone and helpless after the project. But of course that is sheer marketing on behalf of the consultancy, hence rather fictional. There are a few concepts and methods of how to attain this knowledge transfer, but they are far from being as sustainable as they are promised and supposed to be.

So what should one do in order to ensure that all newly implemented management tools will remain within the company in a sustainable manner? That is where Corporate Coaching comes into the equation. It is a concept similar to “Help them so they can help themselves”. A coach is hired, he undertakes an analysis of the operation, detects where and how immense the problems are, he suggests a project, and in this very project, managers and key staff of the company will function as consultants or project manager. The coach is there to do what the writing on the tin suggests – coach! He will train project managers and consultants, set up the project and its governance, and play a vital role in the background.

Doing it this way, all the gained knowledge will stay in the client's company. Also, all management tools will have been developed by their potential users, hence ownership is guaranteed from the beginning. The role of the coach is to challenge and question all those tools and elements of the management system and give advice and steer; the client will get the desired input from the outside.

Advantages: Such a project would be a lot cheaper than any other consulting project and the results absolutely sustainable and not any less beneficial. Also, all participating managers and key staff would be trained extremely well and intensively and could tick off major items on their personal development plan.

Disadvantages: Unfortunately, such a project could take longer and should only be undertaken within smaller to medium-sized companies or departments within big companies. Due to the length of the project the cost pressure should not be too high and human resources deployed by the clients’ companies would need some spare time to participate.

I have been doing this for a few years, even successfully, but those projects came into life more out of sheer co-incidence. What I’d like to do is to discover the market a little and see if my ideas are any feasible. 

Otto Bock - The Analysis (1)

As usual, before a project starts we were tasked to do an analysis. They told me I was the designated project manager as I was the only one available who was a German native speaker. The project was supposed to be massive. I remember I was thrilled, scared, and excited at the same time.

The analysis was hell on earth. All of the consultants and I just hated it. Every day we slaved away for about 20 hours - DILOs, Brown Papers, interviews, and further studies, studies, studies... It was all not very well organised and we were never asked for our opinion and just had to deliver studies to feed the analyst.

Good news was, it was a strong team building exercise for us consultants. We stuck together and endured. The consultants told me I'd be a good PM running the show and they hoped I'd get it. At that time I was not overly sure if I wanted it anymore....

Otto Bock - The Start

Otto Bock is my most interesting project I have ever managed. In that project I got it all, extremely interesting work streams, a big team to manage, a good client, and colleagues who challenged my social and project management skills to the very edge of endurability.

My last project took me already 8 blog entries, be prepared to read throughout most of April about this one.

To start with a picture of the core team of consultants who were on the project from day 1 - Frank, Thomas, Viola and myself.

The Wheat

Stories about the good ones probably sound rather dull, but the vast majority of colleagues fall under this category (good, not dull).

One consultant hated his suit so much that every Friday when we drove to Vienna airport he stopped on the motorway, got more or less publically undressed and jumped into a pair of jeans and a t-shirt.

Some consultants, the Dutch ones, who were the majority on German speaking projects in those days, tried to teach me Dutch by buying me a Marco Borsato CD. If you are Dutch you know what a torture I had to go through.

Well, the good ones are the ones that help you out in times of need, don't act like sharks in a fish tank, are pleasant to be with on long project nights, and have a great sense of humour. That is one of the the most important features.

One thing I learned when hiring a consultant. After an assessment centre or interview I normally ask myself whether this would be a consultant who I would like to have breakfast with every day on a project.

Sorting the Wheat from the Chaff

Let's wash the dirty laundry first.

The best thing is to read my Milwaukee notes which is probably the worst which I have experienced as a junior consultant.

One of my early project managers made us juniors pay for his lunch every day. Don't forget, he was the one who decided whether we had work or not, so we paid for his lunch.

Also on on one of my first projects I got blackmailed. I have forgotten why she did it, but that was quite a shocker for me as brandnew consultant.

One project manager did not pay me for 2 weeks because I gave him some feedback about the way the client perceived him. He thought I was plotting. It took me months of internal rubbish till I got paid.

Talking about team-building, one project manager stayed in a luxury hotel whilst he let his consultants stay in an extremely cheap one far outside the city centre. He wanted to keep his project cost down so that he got a higher bonus.

The more I think about it, the more stories keep on popping up in my mind, but I will leave it with that. It only shows how inexperienced and actually stupied one is as junior consultant.

Consultants, a Special Breed

It is quite interesting to sit here and think about a certain aspect of the job and write down some thoughts. What kind of people did I meet?

First it must be said that us consultants, we are actually a strange bunch of people. We lead our private lives at the weekends solely, fly out every week to the projects where we then spend days together with our colleagues - we have breakfast together in the hotel, go to work, spend all day on the project, and in the evenings we all go for dinner. The only time we are alone is in the hotel room after dinner and before breakfast. One gets used to it though. But it is apparent how important good team-building skills of a project manager are.

Once you are a good team and well fuctioning the project is over and new teams of consultants build up on new projects, and the whole work of building a team, etc, starts all over again.

With 2 of my colleagues I managed to stay in touch over all those years. And funny enough, these are my 2 American colleagues Julie and Chad, who have become great friends. With the Europeans I managed to get in touch with a few again. Websites like LinkedIN, XING and Plaxo triggered this development; without them it would have been impossible. With a few of my old colleagues I am in a more or less regular e-mail contact.

Maybe I should write 2 more entries on here about good and bad examples of colleagues within that first company I worked with...

Milwaukee, the grand finale

I failed to integrate into the team. I found them all too old and dull to hang out with after work and did my own thing. I started to go to the gym and since I stayed in Milwaukee over the weekends, I got a nice bunch of friends who I obviously preferred to spend time with rather than that project team.

It was a fatal mistake. One day, Chad, the project auditor, arrived and did an audit. I told him the truth what was going on. In those early years I thought I were able to change something and turn the project to the better. In the project team nobody listened to me and my concerns. I was then already too far away from them. Plus I was the only foreigner who was also the youngest one. I manoevered myself into that corner.

That bully colleague from North Carolina called me all sorts of names and blackmailed me. My company did not give me a proper work visa for the US but urged me to enter the country with a "business trip" visa waiver form. So yes, I was an easy target for blackmail. The project managers sat in my management workshops and openly during the training called me a liar and unable to train.

So yes, things went extremely bad. I cannot even tell anyone how hurt I was and how terrible I felt. Now, in the aftermath, I know I learned from this experience. Such a situation would never ever happen to me again. And from a learning perspective I am actually glad it happened. I flew back to Europe and left that company. I moved to Berlin for a few months and re-orientated myself.

Milwaukee, the project (2)

Julie and I did a good job in defining the project training need, and we developed a pretty neat training and coaching programme. We wrote it down on that Brown Paper on the photo.

The project was in the healthcare sector and the client managed old people's homes and day care centres. We were tasked to "sort out" their headquarter's administrative operations. We worked in Accounts Receivables, Accounts Payables, HR, Finance, etc.

The project team was absolutely incompetent. The 2 project managers tried to prove who is the best of them, and the 3 consultants were something else. All were in their 50ies who seemed to have failed in real life and then became brand-new consultants. The worst was that Texan woman from Austin, who was an alcoholic, and how nobody on the project understood. Her breath smelled of alcohol in the morning. The one from Chicago was nice, but no experience whatsoever, the other one from North Carolina was a bully and told clients to "shut up" when talking to him.