So, you have become a certified Scrum Master but what does this mean. To be honest with you, I would Not hire anyone who only has just the scrum master certification because that is only a two days course that provides a minimal understanding of Scrum framework.
Also, if you try to lead a team only with Scrum Master training and no other experience or research, then I can guarantee you that you will fail and probably this will mean that your organisation will be put off from trying Agile methodology again for a very long time.
So, what can you as a new Scrum Master do?
First, Find a mentor. I can’t emphasise how important it is to have a mentor and someone to go to for advice and help.
Second, I will recommend every new and experienced Scrum Master to at minimum read the follow 5 Books.
1: Essential Scrum: A Practical guide to the most popular Agile process. by Kenneth Rubin
This Book gives an in-depth guide to Scrum Framework and how to use Scrum in the real world. This book tackles issues like idle work and technical debt.
2: The Scrum Field Guide: Practical Advice for First Year. by Mitch Lacey
This book is full of real live example and stories. It also gives particle advice for the real world problems. As an example, it tackles issues like not getting dedicated team members in Scrum team. This book will save you from many pitfalls that any certified scrum master will face in his or her first few years.
3: Scrum Mastery: from Good to Great Servant Leadership by Geoff Watts.
This is one of my most favourite books. This book shows how you can become a great scrum master and the first thing I do to my mentees is to give them a copy of this book and ask them to read it cover to cover. This isn’t a step by step guide to Scrum framework but more covers how a scrum master should do things.
4: Succeeding with Agile: Software development using Scrum by Mike Cohn.
Mike Cohn is one of my favourite Agile authors, and I regularly visit his blog, and I have read all his books. This book is excellent, and it is split into five major parts, but overall it has 21 chapters. First part is about getting started with Scrum. The second part discusses Individuals within the Scrum team. Third part full focus on teams as a whole. The fourth section is dealing with organisational challenges faced by Scrum Masters.
5: How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie.
This book cover the soft skills that every Scrum Master Must have. A detailed review of this book can be found on my blog in book review section. http://www.agileguru.xyz/agile-blog/book-review/how-to-win-friends-and-influence-people/
One thing that we should be doing as Scrum Masters is to improve ourselves and keep learning continuously. The Third Richest man in the world Warren Buffett on average reads 800 to 1000 pages a day and this has been a major key to his success.
I wish best of luck with your path to being a successful Scrum Master and feel free to get in touch with me with your suggestions and advice. I am always happy to help my fellow Scrum Master.
Succeeding with Agile: Software development using Scrum – Agile Guru
[…] Mike Cohn has an exquisite style of writing that is very easy to read, and Mike can communicate some tough concepts in a very simple way. This book is one I do recommend to all the Scrum master to read. Mike has shared lots of excellent ideas and advice in this book. This book is 400 pages of compressive guide for Scrum Masters to lead an Agile team. This book is not for someone who is new to Scrum, and if you are new then you should look at my following post for more resource for new Scrum Masters […]