[MUSIC] Welcome to Expert Viewpoints,
why become a Scrum Master? In this video, we will hear agile and
Scrum experts discuss why someone with a project management background would
want to become a Scrum Master or develop Scrum Master skills. You'll also hear which traditional
project management skills translate well into Scrum. Someone with a traditional broad
project management background might want to become a Scrum Master or develop
a Scrum Master skills for several reasons. The benefits include the opportunity to
work in an agile environment which are becoming increasingly popular,
enhanced ability to adapt to changing project requirements,
improved collaboration and team dynamics, increased focus on delivering value
to customers, and the potential for career growth and expanded job
opportunities in Agile organizations. The Scrum Master role offers the
opportunity to learn new ways of working outside of a normal traditional
waterfall approach and will allow you to grow your
project management skills. With Scrum, you will work in
a collaborative, adaptable and value driven environment and
approach to project management. As a Scrum Master, an experienced project
manager would be able to leverage their existing skills while
embracing an Agile mindset and enjoying the benefits
that come with Agile. Communication and facilitation skills and traditional project management
translate well into Scrum. It really depends on what
you want out of your career. If you love coaching people,
if you love making others better, and that you find that rewarding,
those are the benefits alone. If you enjoy helping your team build
the best product or service possible, best program possible, then this is
something you would definitely enjoy. If you enjoy teaching, facilitating,
the Scrum Master role would be great. If you enjoy solving problems,
you're going to get to do a lot of that. And you work very independently
in the sense that you do not have a structured day to day
set of tasks that you clock in, do the work, clock out, go home, it is going to be whatever you
need to do to support the team. More and more organizations are
transitioning to an Agile framework and developing Scrum Master skills will
no doubt help your employability. Also, I found using Scrum empirical
processes like transparency, inspection and adaptation with my traditional projects
greatly increased our chances of success. You'll be able to transition a number
of your soft skills like communication, organization and facilitation,
along with risk management and working with stakeholders. First, there is a significant
shift in project management to leveraging what refer to as adaptive or
agile life cycles, and Scrum remains the most widely
used adaptive methodology. This equates to a significant and growing
demand for experienced Scrum Masters. Next, according to a number of
recent studies, the need for Scrum Masters is increasing. Demand for Scrum Masters,
according to projections, will continue to grow, which lends
itself to some excellent job security. Next, the financial rewards are high. A recent study by scrum.org in
2022 surveyed Scrum Masters and calculated the average Scrum Master
salary at approximately $84,000 annually. As you gain experience, the good news
is the average salary increases, Scrum Master can be a hugely
rewarding role in many other ways. Scrum Masters assume a role of a servant
leader to help other people and the team achieve success. This is typically hugely rewarding in and
of itself. They also help organizations adapt to
changing business conditions and thrive. Scrum Masters with a track record of doing
this will remain in much high demand for many, many years to come. Some traditional project management
skills that translate well into Agile or Scrum, to be specific, include, but are not limited to planning,
project composition, risk management, communication, technical competence,
stakeholder analysis and engagement. Again, these are just a few. There are definitely lots more. Several skills in traditional project
management translate well into Scrum, including communication and
stakeholder management, planning and organizing, risk management,
problem solving and leadership. However, Scrum also requires
shift towards servant leadership, facilitation and
fostering self-organizing teams. The ability to coordinate people
really makes a big difference. If you can motivate others,
inspire others, make them believe in what you are doing,
you will be successful. And these are all things that you
have to do as a project manager. A lot of times nobody reports to you, so you're asking them to do more work than
they are already doing for their job. That happens in Scrum and
in project management. So if you're good at that, that skill
really will lend itself to your success. And most importantly, you really
should be an expert communicator and you should be able to get the team
to communicate with each other. A lot of times you'll find
that that is a struggle, that team members want to just go and
do the work. And you have to build
that team environment because it is a team job
to complete the project and there is no one person that
stands out over above the other. They all have their expertise in
the area that you're working on. But getting them to work as
a cohesive unit is one thing that really makes Scrum different
than project management. The majority of similarities
impact the soft skills area. Both project managers and Scrum Masters need to develop
solid facilitation techniques. Both are required to plan and
execute various meetings and events, or
as it is referred to in Scrum, ceremonies. Both need solid organizational skills. A project manager needs to ensure all planning is accomplished to pave
the way for a successful project. Likewise, a Scrum Master ensures
all planning is accomplished in an organized manner to pave the way for
a successful sprint. Effective communication is
critical to both roles. Both project managers and Scrum Masters
are required to interact with numerous stakeholders on a daily
basis to discuss a myriad of issues, eliminate blockers and
ensure everyone is on the same page. Last but not least, conflicts will occur
in both a traditional and Scrum project. Both roles need to effectively
promote functional conflict and diffuse functional conflict. [MUSIC]