Scrum Master's Guide to Project-Based Scrum Teams
Things to do and "not-to-do" when working with a Scrum team working on a fixed term project.
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On to this week’s question!
Q: I am writing out of desperation. Last week I lost my job. I was working as a Scrum Master with this company for 3 years. 5 months ago, I got appointed to a team working on a critical project. This was my first time being a Scrum Master for a project-based team. No idea what I did wrong. The feedback I got was, "I came across as too prescriptive.” I hope you can help me find where I went wrong.
First off, big virtual hug 🤗
Losing a job sucks, no sugarcoating it. But, here you are, looking for answers Instead of just sitting in the 'why me?' zone. That’s huge!
Way back when I was still a rookie Scrum Master, I got similar feedback. Thought I was guiding my team, but turned out I was kind of bulldozing them with my 'guidance'. Oops. But that hiccup? It reshaped how I did things and made me better.
The journey of a Scrum Master is like navigating a maze. You’re bound to hit a few dead ends. What counts is how you backtrack and find a new path. So let's figure this out together, okay?
Product-Project dilemma
The first thing that you need to understand, which I understood the hard way, is that your role as a Scrum Master changes with every new team. This understanding is more significant in your case since you didn’t just move teams.
You moved from a product-based Scrum team to a project-based Scrum team.
That’s quite a transition!
The role of a Scrum Master in a “product” team is not the same as the Scrum Master role in a “project” team. It may come as a surprise to some, but it is true.
Moving from a product to a project team involves a change in “your” mindset. A switch in your mind needs to be flipped. For me, this “flip” happened when my mentor explained to me the difference between a product and a project, specifically with this particular example.