Who is triggering events

As ScrumMasters, I think we should tread lightly when it comes to setting up meetings in Outlook (or whatever system one uses for this). There is a misunderstanding out there that "facilitating meetings" means setting them up in Outlook, which just isn't the case. The ScrumMaster is not inherently responsible.

That being said, personally, I set up all the Scrum Ceremonies in our Groupware solution. But not because I'm the ScrumMaster, but rather because I can do it and it takes about 30 seconds of time each sprint, so it's just not that big a deal. But I know that if I don't do it, somebody else on my team will (which is important).

In other words: Don't sweat it too much, but do make sure the team knows it's not your sole responsibility and anyone can do it ;)

Agree with Julian. The Scrum Master is not the secretary of the team.

The Scrum Guide states : [the Scrum Master is] Facilitating Scrum events as requested or needed.

This sentence is often read as : The Scrum Master facilitates Scrum events, making him a secretary or worse, the owner of the meetings.

A good test is : how do the Dev Team & PO deal with meetings when the Scrum Master is out (holidays / seminar / sick...) ?

Thanks you guys for you getting back to me and your input.

I agree with you Olivier! When the SM is on vacation, how things are gonna work??

I know it is a few seconds to set up meetings through whatever the messaging system you are using. But I got the feedback from my team that it is 100% under my responsibility to set up meeting.

So I wonder how you would prevent on receiving such feedback? Who should you make aware of booking a simple room through your messaging system when you are away for example? (knowing that without sending out an invite, no events will occur, except maybe the daily scrum meeting)



When you are assuming a task for a while it is always difficult to explain that this task is not part of your role and I would like to know what is your approach with your team and if you have any advise?

Thanks,

Gregory

Have you ever asked a team member how they arrived at the assumption that booking rooms is your responsibility?

Think in terms of "specialization" and "silos".   Outside of specific responsibilities stated in the Scrum Guide, there should not be items/areas that are 100% responsibility of a single individual.   If your team is familiar with this practice (knowledge transfer, cross training, t-shaped skills, etc.), then you can use it to highlight the vulnerability to the team, to the organization, and to Scrum, of relying solely on you to set up and facilitate meetings.

If your team is not familiar with this practice, then this is a good opportunity to present it.

Personally as a Scrum Master, I am motivated to take on any tasks (ex: meeting facilitation) that free up the development team to focus solely on sprint work.   But that does not mean I don't work with the team to ensure that they have the means to carry on in my absence.

Why do the team need their Scrum Events setting up in Outlook at all?

What are the problems you foresee happening, if times and rooms are not booked?

Thanks Ian for gettign back to me :)

Personally part of the team in in India and the rest in Spain. So for me, it is challenging to gather the team if invitations aren't sent.

It sounds as though the dislocation of the team has reduced their ability to collaborate. Hence they need to be "gathered" by the Scrum Master.

That's an impediment which a Scrum Master ought to tackle. It isn't just a team problem though, it's more of an organizational one. Making the bookings in Outlook is just a short-term tactical fix. The real challenge is explaining the situation and its cost to the higher-ups. That's where a Scrum Master comes in as an organizational coach, although few may wish to hear.

I tend to agree with everyone here, but considering the scenario, i would say the organisation is struggling to adopt scrum. Meetings are the easiest things to set up. I believe it is the role of the scrum master to educate on these issues. Theres nothing wrong with a scrum master leading the way by setting up meetings and getting the dev team to decide how they want to set up their meetings in the future.For a startup, you will need to sacrifice yourself to do a lot of things and eventually slide the team into doing things for themselves.

I hope this helps