Values drive behaviour. Therein lies the importance of the Scrum Values, for different people and roles involved in Scrum. Having explored the Scrum Values from a Product Owner perspective and from Stakeholders perspective, I want to now consider the Scrum Values from the Scrum Master’s perspective.
1. Commitment
- Scrum Master commit to implement agility and enact the agile principles through Scrum
- Scrum Master commit to act as Servant-Leader, coach, mentor, teacher to anyone seeking to understand Scrum
- Scrum Master commit to help teams grow autonomy, ownership and accountability
- Scrum Master commit to uphold transparency and help others uphold transparency
- Scrum Master commit to promote the importance of reliability and high quality in the products and services delivered
2. Focus
- Scrum Master focus on people and their self-development in becoming better professionals
- Scrum Master focus on the safety of the environment for the Development Teams, Product Owner and Stakeholders to collaborate
- Scrum Master focus on the continuous improvement of development practices, products being developed and organizational culture
- Scrum Master focus on the Development Team’s ability and empowerment to Pull work (over Push)
- Scrum Master focus on the effectiveness and purpose of the Scrum events
3. Openness
- Scrum Master show openness for working with Product Owner, Development Teams and stakeholders
- Scrum Master show openness for learning from other Scrum Masters and the wider Agile community
- Scrum Master show openness for receiving feedback from the Development Team and Product Owner, particularly during the Sprint Retrospective
- Scrum Master show openness by listening to understand first instead of listening to respond and act
- Scrum Master show openness by admitting missteps and invoking openness in others through vulnerability
4. Respect
- Scrum Master respect the decisions made by the Development Team, Product Owner and Stakeholders in their respective domains of accountability
- Scrum Master respect the collective intelligence and self-organizing capability of the Development Team
- Scrum Master respect the Development Team and the Product Owner in their direct collaboration and avoid being the bridge between them
- Scrum Master respect stakeholders in sharing expectations in terms of valuable and quality product delivery
- Scrum Master respect the complexity, unpredictability and uncertainties ingrained in software and product development
5. Courage
- Scrum Master show courage in highlighting transparency issues
- Scrum Master show courage in removing impediments for the Development Team
- Scrum Master show courage by challenging the status quo and existing organisational processes that are at odds with the new ways of working
- Scrum Master show courage by challenging traditional predictive planning and similar practices in a complex environment
- Scrum Master show courage by enacting Scrum and keeping players from breaking the rules of the game
