PeopleCert SCRUM Master II

Introduction: PeopleCert Scrum Master II

1 Agile and Scrum

Introduction to Agile and Scrum

• Understand the Agile project management style and the Agile Manifesto
• List and understand the Scrum values
• List and understand the Scrum values

Use of an Agile Approach

• Know the Stacey Complexity Model and its use

• Know the Stacey Complexity Model and its use

• Apply the Stacey Complexity Model to determine whether a given project should be considered for traditional or adaptive development approaches
• Determine whether a given activity is considered "doing Agile" or "being Agile"
• Explain the difference between "doing Agile" and "being Agile"

2. Skills Required by a Scrum Master

Servant Leadership

• Describe servant leadership
• Explain the responsibilities of a successful servant leader
• Describe the characteristics and qualities required to be a successful servant leader
• Identify possible violations of Scrum by a product owner or stakeholder who is applying excessive time pressure, as well as explain how to address them

 Facilitator

• Explain the methods a Scrum Master uses to be a successful facilitator
• Describe the responsibilities of the Scrum Master when facilitating the different events of the Scrum framework to produce a well facilitated event
• Describe each of the five stages of facilitating an event: Preparation, Role Understanding, Timekeeping, the event itself, Wrapping up
• Describe four techniques for facilitating group decision making

Coaching

• Describe the three key steps to becoming a successful coach within the Scrum framework
• Describe each of the three coaching responsibilities of the Scrum Master: The Individual, the Team, the Organization
• Explain each of the steps in the Scrum. Master's coaching model, Prepare, Learn, Establish, Accept, Specify, Embed (PLEASE

Teaching and Training

• Explain the main goal of teaching and training the Scrum framework
• Describe the key elements of teaching and training the Scrum framework
• Explain the differences between facilitating, teaching, mentoring, and coaching

Communication

• List the four key aspects of effective communication
• Describe the Scrum Master's role in team communication
• Explain how to increase the effectiveness of communication
• Explain how to increase the effectiveness of team communication
• Describe the main philosophical differences (unemotional, emotional, linear, freeform) between the four communication styles (analytical, intuitive, functional, personal) and explain the advantages/disadvantages of each

Listening

• Describe the three levels of listening and the benefits of reaching the second and third levels
• Describe the three levels of listening and the benefits of reaching the second and third levels

Impediments

• Describe how impediments negatively affect a Scrum project: efficiency, effectiveness, business alignment
• List the three impediment categories: blocker, hindrance, and landmine
• Be able to categorize any impediment into one of the three impediment categories
• Describe at least three common organizational impediments outside the scope of a team that can affect the effectiveness of Scrum teams
• Describe possible tactics for removing impediments
• Analyse a list of impediments and provide possible solutions for each one

Problem Solving and Root Cause Analysis (RCA)

• List possible root cause analysis techniques
• Describe what happens during a root cause analysis

Organizational Change and Transition Management

• Explain the difference between "change" and "transition"
• Describe the benefits of transition management
• Describe the practical observations for leading and managing change

Additional Skills

• Describe the additional skills required of a Scrum Master: Manager of the Scrum framework and processes, Agile and Scrum expert, Knowledge of other frameworks and best practices, Continual learner, Direct assistance to the team as appropriate provider
• List the additional management responsibilities of a Scrum Master
• List the characteristics of a successful Scrum Master

3 Team Dynamics

Team Development

• Describe each the five phases of Tuckman's stages of group development
• Explain the role of the Scrum Master in each stage of the five phases

SelfOrganizing Teams

• Describe each of the seven principles that guide a self-organizing Scrum team
• Explain the benefits of and need for selforganized teams
• Describe the necessary ingredients of a successful Agile team
• Explain the three common. misunderstandings of self-organized teams

Co-Located and Virtual Teams

• Define the term “virtual team”
• Describe the challenges faced by a virtual team
• Describe the attributes of a good colocated team environment
• Provide examples of how the attributes of a good co-located team environment can be extended to virtual teams
• Explain possible solutions to addressing the lack of face-to-face synergy in virtual teams
• Describe the impact of cultural differences in a distributed team
• Describe each of the four small cultural differences that create a lack of cohesion
• Explain each of the measures and indexes used to analyse significant cultural differences that create a lack of cohesion

4 The Scrum Framework

Scrum Events

• List and explain the steps involved in Scrum Events
• Describe the timeframe for each Scrum Event
• List which artifacts should be used
• List the key sprint information radiators: The task board, The sprint burn-down chart, The daily Scrum board, The niko-niko calendar, The Scrum velocity improvement chart, The release bar-style burn-down chart, The release parking-lot chart
• Describe the purpose of each of the key sprint information radiators

Strategic Alignment: The Business Case

• Describe how the business case and project charter are developed, including the key elements of a good business case

Product Backlog Refinement

• Explain why the product planning level is identified before the release planning level
• Explain how the product level behaves when there is a new project versus an existing project
• List the four different forms that requirements are gathered in
• List the guidelines used when requirements are added, modified, or removed from the product backlog
• List the three conditions under which a requirement can be added to the product backlog
• Explain how including a bug list board can ensure technical debt is managed down

List the release level triggers

• List the release level triggers
• Describe the components in the development of the overall release plan and how they are driven by scope and time
• Explain the concept of deployment and release points including the rolling wave approach

The Sprint

• Explain why the sprint layer of the planning onion is iterative and formally repetitive
• List development practices that will help Scrum teams deliver a high-quality product increment and reduce technical debt each sprint
• Explain the difference between one-part and two-part sprint planning
• Describe how the sprint planning meeting should be concluded
• List each of the four dimensions used for brainstorming in the sprint retrospective and the three questions asked of each dimension to ensure a thorough sprint retrospective
• List the four questions asked during the daily Scrum and explain how this ensures transparency, inspection, and adaptation
• Describe the purpose of the daily execution event and explain the role of the Scrum Master

5 Visual Management

Visual Management

• Explain the objectives of visual management
• List the key information radiators: The task board, The sprint burn-down chart, The daily Scrum board, The niko-niko calendar, The Scrum velocity improvement chart, The release bar-style burn-down chart, The release parking-lot chart
• Describe the purpose and identify the inputs for each of the key information radiators

6 Scaling Scrum

The Purpose of Scaling Scrum

• Describe the need for and purpose of scaling Scrum
• Describe the goal of scaling Scrum

 Roles in Scaling Scrum

• Explain the role of a chief product owner and a product line owner and describe the differences between the two roles in Scaling Scrum
• List the main responsibilities of the chief product owner in Scaling Scrum
• Explain the role of a chief Scrum Master
• List the main responsibilities of the chief Scrum Master in Scaling Scrum
• Explain how the dedicated integration development team functions in scaled Scrum

Scaled Artifacts and Events

• Describe how to scale the product backlog for multiple Scrum teams
• Identify reasons why multiple teams working on the same product backlog must have a shared and consistent definition of “done
• Describe how to scale the release plan for multiple Scrum teams/multiple products
• Describe the practice and purpose of big room planning to the release kickoff meeting
• Describe the practice and purpose of rolling look-ahead planning
• Describe the practice and purpose of the Scrum of Scrum meetings