Scrum is founded on empirical process control, and transparency is one of the three pillars.
Each of the Scrum Roles exist to also raise transparency to the other Scrum Team members and the product's stakeholders. If you feel that there is a lack of transparency for any aspect of your initiative, check who is best placed to bring the needed clarity.
Note: transparency is way more than bringing “visibility”. It is about reaching ”a common understanding”.
Last one in the list: the Scrum Master and Transparency.
Bring common understanding about what?
- (my personal favourite) How effective is the Scrum Team? Do they have clear goals, and how frequently are they reaching these? What about the impact of these goals for the business and its customers and users? Do they feel a positive impact? How clear are the Product, Sprint, and quality goals to the team?
- Why Scrum? What is Scrum? Why and what is the theory behind Scrum? Why and what are the Scrum Rules? Why and what are the Scrum Values? Why are all these existing (which we are covering in these short reads...)
- Which interactions between the stakeholders and the Scrum Team are helpful, and which aren’t? Why is this?
- ...
Bring common understanding to whom?
To the entire Scrum Team and the stakeholders
Summary:
Your Scrum Master is expected to bring a common understanding about the effectiveness of the Scrum Team.
Prompt:
Have a conversation with your team about
- What does Transparency mean to you and your team?
- And how can the Scrum Master raise Transparency? How can you improve on this?
I hope you find value in these short posts and if you are looking for more clarifications, feel free to take contact.
If you want to take a deeper dive into the core concepts we are covering in this blog series, then surely check out our Professional Scrum MasterY workshop. We have some scheduled in the coming period.
Don't want to miss any of these blog posts? Have the professional Scrum foundations series weekly in your mailbox.
