The best way to understand what an Agile retrospective is to get it straight from the horse’s mouse - the two authors [Diana Larsen and Esther Derby] who co-wrote the book : Agile Retrospectives. The presentation below provides a great introduction to the discipline, practice and philosophy of Agile Retrospectives.
The main role in Agile Teams is Scrum Master or Process Coach. The KRA or responsibility for this role is simple : be the custodian of Agile or Scrum. The Scrum Master or Process Coach [hereafter referred to as Scrum Master], basically guides the team’s use of Agile [Scrum], helps them identify obstacles or barriers to their success and work with them to overcome these obstacles or barriers. In essence, the Scrum Master helps the team become great at their use of Agile [Scrum] and makes good teams great. And how exactly does a Scrum Master do this? The Scrum Master does this without coercing, brainwashing or directing the team in doing all this as well as preventing anyone else from doing the same. The Scrum Master would work with the team as a whole and each member of the team as well, to identify issues, raise them openly, face them and then find out innovative ideas and solutions for them. The Scrum Master would typically do this during the Sprint at:
Sprint Planning - The focus here is to get the team to estimate and commit fairly to the requirements. Hence, the Scrum Master would:
Invite subject master experts after discussing with the team but not allow them to over rule the team.
Keep product owner from influencing teams committment to upside
Keep the team from undercommitting
Have everyone in the team participate rather than having only one or two members as active
Daily Stand Up - The focus here is to keep the stand up to 15 minutes, team focused collaboration opportunity as well as identify any obstacles quickly. Hence, the Scrum Master would:
Note obstacles raised by team members and work with them over the sprint to overcome these
Keep the stand up less than 15 minutes
Have stand up start and end on time
Encourage members with obstacles to seek help or collaborate after stand up
During the sprint : The focus during the sprint is to keep the team stable. Hence, a Scrum Master would
Stop product owner from making any changes
Work with product owner on her availability for team to answer questions and provide feedback
Work with the team to ensure motivation and committment
Sprint Review : During the sprint review, the goal is to keep the team from presenting non-working artifacts or product owner from assessing team performance unfairly. Hence, Scrum Master would
Arrange the room and other facilities keeping team focused on developing working software
Get the product owner and other stake holders
Present the agenda
Moderate any discussions, if needed
Sprint Retrospective : In addition, the Scrum Master would be a central point during Retrospectives. The goal during Retrospectives is to help the team identify patterns and practices that helped them do well during the sprint, ones which did not help them or stopped them from doing well. Hence, the team identifies what worked well that was already working well, what worked well that was not working well, what is not working well [was working well, or was not working well even before]. The team then identifies some solutions and ideas and committs to trying these out over next sprints.
Hence, we can see that Scrum Master is its roots in servant leadership. Like with every other role in Agile or Scrum, this is a role rather than a designation. Hence, for one project the team can decide on having one person as a Scrum Master/ Process Coach and for another, some one else. The Scrum Master does not necessarily need to be a technical geek but someone who can understand team issues and can effectively facilitate and counsel enabling good teams become great.
