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One part from Scrum Guide needs further clarification

Last post 06:32 pm March 3, 2020 by Ian Mitchell
3 replies
Dejan Majkic
08:27 am February 29, 2020

Can you help me to understand this:

Scrum Master Service to the Development Team:

Coaching the Development Team in cross-functionality

My question is very simple, how come Scrum Master can teach Dev. Team in cross-functionality?

In order to coach dev team in cross-functionality he will have to be MASTER in every aspect of software development which nobody can do it (including process of conceiving, specifying, designing, programming, documenting, testing, and bug fixing involved in creating and maintaining applications, frameworks, or other software components...)

or maybe I didn't understand what is expected from SM in this matter.

Hope you can clarify it in more details.

Thanks

Dejan

Maarten Verreck
10:09 am February 29, 2020

The scrum master has to coach the team, but it's the team that has to organize the work. With that it's also the team that has to identify what skills are needed to be cross-functional.

In order to be cross-functional the team needs to collaborate and make use of eachothers skills. 

The scrum master coaches the team(members) to look beyond their (primary) skills and learn them to work together to achieve their goals.

On the skills part it is both the team and the scrum master who can identify that there are skills missing to deliver an increment according to the DoD. You don't need to master all aspects for that. If the team doesn't deliver, it will be visible and as a scrum master you can address that. This is an impediment that needs to be solved.

The scrum master coaches the team to investigate the cause and they can conclude that the team needs additional skills.  (by training, extra members or a (temporary) change within the team.

The scrum master can recommend that need to management

Simon Mayer
12:28 pm February 29, 2020

I have never worked as a UX designer or a tester. I have some of the skills, but am certainly not an expert, and don't come close to the levels of certain people I've worked with.

But I have been able to demonstrate the benefits of having a cross-functional team, and continuously coach the teams to spot bottlenecks or impediments that arise from a lack of cross-functionality.

I coach team members to articulate what they observe, and to run experiments aimed at resolving such problems.

Ian Mitchell
06:32 pm March 3, 2020

My question is very simple, how come Scrum Master can teach Dev. Team in cross-functionality?

Suppose cross-functionality wasn't there. What problems or impediments are likely to emerge, and how would a Scrum.Master act on these?

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