SSM availability - SAFe 5 Scrum Master (SSM) Updated: 2023

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Companies today cannot afford to ideate, research, and develop a new product over a long period. The risk is that by the time the product is ready for launch, someone nimbler, faster, more agile, who is able to identify an opportunity and quickly bring a solution to life, has already taken the top spot in the market.

Experience:

• Degree or Diploma in Information Technology or a related field – (essential).
• Scrum Master foundation certification (i.e., Certified Scrum Master / Agile Certified Practitioner / Professional Scrum Master) or relevant Scrum Master training – (essential)
• +3 years’ relevant experience as a Scrum Master or similar role with solid experience delivering diverse IT solutions through the scrum software development methodology, driving agility within development teams, and managing sprints and backlogs in a variety of environments – (essential).
• Solid experience managing multiple scrum teams and feature development in one backlog and understanding of standard software development roles and responsibilities – (essential).

Experience should include one or more of the following IT functional areas:.

• Planning and Merchandising
• Digital Technologies / Ecommerce
• Retail and Functional Services
• Data and Analytics
• Business Engagement and strategy
• IT Financial Services

The purpose of the Scrum Master is to lead scrum teams in agile development and achievement of product goals, including defining and refining backlog items, planning and managing multiple feature developments, sprints/iterations, sprint reviews and retrospectives with the aim of delivering high-value increments that meet the Definition of Done. This role leverages solid scrum software development project management knowledge to contribute to the scrum method adoption and practice within the larger IT team within the domain, and guides the scrum team towards product releases within set guidelines, ensuring clear communication and team organization. The Senior Scrum Master advocates for scrum values and principles within the agile framework, remaining flexible and open to opportunities for the team to Boost their workflow. This includes removing impediments for the scrum team to ensure delivery of commitments according to set goals and deliverables.

This is a Servant Leader role that builds trust-based relationships, stimulates empowerment and transparency, drives commitment, encourages collaboration, flexibility, empathy and ethical behavior within the scrum team, stakeholders and the customers they serve. Furthermore, this role facilitates trains, coaches and facilitates scrum to the larger team by ensuring the scrum framework is followed. The nature of projects in this role are generally high impact within a domain and do from time-to-time impact other domains.

Desired Skills:

• Scrum Master
• Agile
• retail

Learn more/Apply for this position

When your organization begins using Agile methodology for projects in the development pipeline, success hinges of many things, but none more important than the team members themselves — their success and their buy-in. And in an Agile environment, if your software engineers are the players, then the Scrum Master is the team manager and is instrumental to achieve the results you want from your newly streamlined pipeline. With that in mind, let’s explore some of the skills and traits that make a world- class Scrum Master.

What Makes a Great Scrum Master?  
A great way to think of a Scrum Master is as the coach of the Scrum team. They are there to help the players succeed and to help the team win — where winning is understood to be achieving the business goals for whatever software development is underway while helping the individual team members get better. In a well-designed team, the two go hand-in-hand: individual and team success. Team cohesion and empowerment are the core of what great Agile teams do.

Scrum Master Skills
A Scrum Master needs to have many of the core skills expected in technical and leadership roles:  communication, adaptability, technical capability, and flexibility. These are important, but they are not what differentiates a good Scrum Master from a great one. What does differentiate a great Scrum Master is a strong analytical mindset and superb facilitation skills.

Facilitation skills are the close cousin of communication skills, but they are different in important ways. The Scrum Master should lead the Scrum process and offer ideas on how to Boost the effectiveness of meetings, discussions and Scrum events. They should also increase the transparency of the processes within the team. The Scrum Master advises teams on which techniques are helpful and which aren’t. Sometimes, the Scrum Master must take on the role of psychologist to manage the stress level of the team or to resolve conflicts.  Conflict resolution expertise is an added benefit in these situations.

The Scrum master provides support and coaching to team members. Scrum Masters help their dev teams, product owners and the entire organization understand what Scrum is and when (and how) it works best. Remember, the Scrum Master is not a manager. A Scrum Master is a servant-leader and should be an example of persuasion, the right approach, and process discipline (though with a firm grounding in the real world). Scrum Masters should push the team to maximize their efforts as a part of the team, through persuasion, and not using authority or ‘because I said so’ mentality.

Scrum Masters are typically not the technical mentor for software developers. This should be done by either a technical lead or software architect who is part of the team.  If an organization has a separate architect group or innovation team, these groups can also provide technical mentorship. Technical mentorship is something that every developer wants and eventually aspires to provide. The Scrum Master does not need to provide it, but if they know there is a vacuum, they should be helping to address it for the sake of the individual, team, and success of the business.

How to Acquire Scrum Master Skills
With all this expertise, you might be wondering how to acquire this unique skill set. Part of this is about practice and experience, where you can see first-hand how to become a more intuitive facilitator and leader. When it comes to Scrum specifics, the best ways to gain this expertise are continuous education (reading, classes, certifications, blogs, etc.) and practice. The best way to completely digest the Scrum Master’s roles and responsibilities is to read the “Scrum Guide” from the authors of the Scrum framework, Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland.

If possible, you should also seek the advice of experienced Scrum Masters within your organization. Large organizations may find it beneficial to employ not just one but multiple Scrum Masters. Seeking the mentorship of those more experienced than you can provide valuable insights. It can be advised to run training classes for aspiring Scrum Masters that teach both theory and practical insights from those doing the job day-to-day in a consulting setting.

Some of the more experienced Scrum Masters might have a certification attached to their title. The question is if certification is necessary to be a good Scrum Master or to acquire a Scrum Master position. In short, the answer is no, but it is highly recommended. Even the best self-taught or highly experienced individuals can benefit from certification.

The primary benefits of certification are a comprehensive understanding of fundamentals and fully articulating the ‘why’ of something. Knowing the ‘why’ is particularly important when you begin working with an individual or organization who is new to Scrum.

Often, people are attached to the benefits of earlier development methodologies. For these individuals, it is very helpful and important to articulate ‘why’ the Scrum Master (or product owner or team members) do what they do and why the Scrum Master recommends things be done a certain way.

However, if you decide to take the self-education route, you need to strategically select your educational resources in the appropriate way. Today, there is a bounty of Scrum courses, but not all of them are of high quality.

If you would like to save time, take a look at the courses from the founders of Scrum, found here. However, if you would like to save money, you can study independently and read “The Scrum Guide,” complete the  Scrum open assessments and read “Scrum and XP from the Trenches.” The quickest way to get up to speed is to read the books and to take a certification course of your own.

Scrum Master Skills are Every-Role Skills
Once you have acquired the skills and the certification, there may be concerns about pigeon-holing yourself into the Scrum Master role. However, the skills that are necessary to be a great Scrum Master are highly transferable to other roles. In fact, they are directly transferable in the sense that even non-software projects can be run with Scrum. They are also indirectly transferable, in that encouraging participation, commitment and buy-in are at the core of any team, regardless of the nature of the work.

Core principles, such as ownership or inspect and adapt, have universal value, as does the concept of servant-leadership, which has been espoused by many organizations, methodologies and leaders across the world in many different industries and pursuits.

However, don’t worry about needing to look for new positions any time soon, as the long-term outlook for a Scrum Master role looks promising. Software and technology are essential to nearly every business and Agile is at the core of most companies that develop software (whether that is a by-product of what they do). As a result, enterprises need Scrum Masters, many medium-sized businesses need Scrum Masters, and high-tech companies of all sizes need Scrum Masters.

Thus, experienced Scrum Masters with good knowledge and practice in Scrum should consider learning various Scaled Scrum approaches, such as SAFe, less, Nexus and Scrum@Scale. This will allow them to work and apply their knowledge on much bigger projects.

Once you’ve mastered Scrum, it can also be worthwhile to study other alternatives. By knowing about multiple Agile methodologies, you can easily try alternative strategies as needed for a project or support effort when the situation itself does not lend itself to Scrum.

Being a Scrum Master tends to attract a specific type of employee, but in studying the methodologies of Scrum and learning the tactics for facilitating and leading an Agile organization, anyone up to the challenge can take advantage of all the benefits that Scrum has to offer.

As a Scrum Master, you will help teams from our clients with their Agile way of working, more specifically help Scrum teams to thrive. This key position will put you in a central and challenging position, which offers a great opportunity to be highly visible within the client organization, create impact, further develop facilitation and coaching skills, and accelerate your professional growth.

We are looking for someone who:

• Is a natural listener and can work with several types of people in- and outside the team,
• Can coach one or more teams to Boost their collaboration and Agile way of working,
• Will challenge existing ways of working, and (help) implement improvements where necessary,
• Can explain why certain behavior or processes help or block the team,
• Knows how to collaborate with and challenge the Product Owner and other stakeholders,
• Is comfortable with organizing meetings, training or workshops and has good facilitation skills,
• Wants to play an active role in our internal Agile community,
• Will play an active part in developing and coaching colleagues to become a Scrum Master,
• Wants to play an active role in our internal Agile community,
• Will play an active part in developing and coaching colleagues to become a Scrum Master,
• Knows how to motivate a team to be at their best every day!

Your team

Accenture Technology leverages design thinking, industry insights and the latest digital and Security methodologies to help clients innovate, grow and Boost their businesses. Our expertise, capabilities and experience mean that our clients (including some of the biggest brands in the world) trust us to find the right solutions for their needs.

Together with our talented international colleagues, we focus on connecting the needs of businesses with the new possibilities that come with technological progress. Because that’s where the real challenges are: inventing and testing things that have never been tried before, getting new applications ready for roll-out, and ultimately guiding clients to select and implement the right technologies – including state of the art Security solutions – to transform their businesses.

Qualifications

• 4+ years professional experience as a Scrum Master;
• Certified (e.g. PSM1, SAFe 5.0 Scrum Master);
• Preferably some experience with Agile tooling (e.g. Jira, TargetProcess).

Learn more/Apply for this position

Agile scrum methodology is used by companies of all sizes for its ability to provide high-end collaboration and efficiency for project-based work. Agile and scrum are two different methods and can be used separately; however, their combined benefits make the agile scrum methodology the most popular use of agile. Here’s the complete guide to agile scrum methodology.

This article was written by Arlington Economic Development.

The Arlington Talent Program (ATP) is now accepting applications for its second year of providing paid, on-the-job learning opportunities to Arlington and Alexandria residents interested in launching a career in software development.

The innovative program is a partnership between Arlington Economic Development (AED) and Arlington-based software consultancy Exelaration. It is a new way to address the ongoing challenges of finding tech workers to fill open jobs in the region.

From Learners to Coders

The Arlington Talent Program’s initial year yielded remarkable results, including a 100% program completion rate and a 100% pass rate of SCRUM Master I Certification. Most participants have transitioned to full-time tech employment with their new knowledge of high-demand program languages (e.g., HTML/CSS, JavaScript, Ruby on Rails, Angular). The average pay and work rate for participants have increased by 26% and 38%, respectively, and will continue to rise as they gain experience and advancement. These achievements represent not just statistics but tangible transformations in the participants’ lives.

“The Arlington Talent Pilot Program offered me a great opportunity to enter the field with no formal and relevant background in IT, in addition to stellar mentorship on real-world projects to gain both experience and theoretical knowledge,” said participant Liam Cespedes, who was part of the first cohort and is continuing work on client projects.

AED and Exelaration designed this program to allow Arlington and Alexandria residents to enter the tech workforce without a college degree or prior tech experience requirements. The competitive pilot program accepted applications from dozens of individuals for each cohort, many of whom showed promise in the tech field but lacked those traditional resume credentials to find work.

AED and Exelaration are proud to have collaborated with partners at Capital Youth Empowerment Program, Bridges to Independence, Alexandria-Arlington Regional Workforce Council, and Virginia Values Veterans to advertise this program and ensure this unique opportunity reached underrepresented and underserved communities.

Applications for the next cohort are open through Nov. 26. Accepted participants will work full-time with Exelaration for 12 weeks beginning on Jan. 23, 2024. For more information or to apply, visit exelaration.com/arlingtontalent.

Opportunities for Businesses

Companies needing IT modernization and custom software solutions also benefit from the Arlington Talent Pilot Program. Companies receive quality work products led by experienced software developers and can save significantly with the blended billable rate by including learners on projects.

Arlington-based Agile technology firm Excella recently partnered with the program to expand one of its federal modernization projects. The Exelaration team works closely with the larger Excella team to upgrade enterprise software within a Ruby on Rails environment. In addition to the modernized software, Excella has the option of hiring learners who are now skilled engineers fully trained in their environment. “Competing for talent is hard, and this program gives us a proven way to add trained professionals to our teams, who help us meet our clients’ mission,” says Excella’s National Security Director, Allison Harvey.

The upcoming program adds more software engineering capacity to take on new company partners. “We especially love to work with Arlington companies, but we’re happy to work with organizations across the country looking to modernize their technology,” says Exelaration CEO Steve Cooper, who adds that the program is looking for additional client companies who could benefit from the work of these budding engineers.

Companies can connect with the program in other ways, too. Arlington Community Federal Credit Union hosted a lunch for the fall team inside their technology shop. This gave the emerging engineers a “day-in-the-life” view of what it’s like to have a tech job. Over kabobs and tacos, Credit Union CIO David Martinez and his team answered questions about the rewards and challenges of IT careers.

Companies looking to partner with the program can learn more here.

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