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How to become a Scrum Master?

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Top Answer
Talent.com talent.com
Answered February 26 2021
Career Expert at Talent.com
The key to becoming a Scrum Master is experience working in an agile environment. Agile is a workplace mindset that replaces the traditional waterfall way of working. It prioritizes people, teamwork, and cross-functional projects. Any workplace can adopt an agile mindset, but it most common within the technology/software industry.  

There is no set career path to becoming a Scrum Master, but a background in information technology or human systems can be useful. 

After a few years working in an agile environment, you can take an online certification course, which will satisfy most employers that you have the foundational skills necessary to be a Scrum Master and that you have the core knowledge of scrum that can be developed in many different industries. 

Several online organizations offer Scrum Master certification, notably the Scrum Alliance, the organization built by the founders of the scrum methodology.  

Once you are certified, you can seek work as a Scrum Master. Some organizations may advertise these roles under different names, such as iteration manager or agile coach, so it is wise to set up job alerts for various keywords.  

What skills are required to become a Scrum Master?

Scrum Masters are not team leaders, but they work as facilitators and guides to help build consensus and accomplish the project’s goals. 

Communication
  • Scrum Masters need top-notch communication skills to work with team members, build consensus, and help remove any roadblocks the team may have. They should also be skilled at visual communication such as mind maps and flow charts, as they may be working with people from different linguistic backgrounds.  

Facilitation
  • For there to be effective team communication, there needs to be productive and meaningful discussion. This is where the Scrum Master’s facilitation skills are necessary to ease meetings and highlight key ideas and tasks.  

Technical
  • While a Scrum Master is not expected to be a developer or a programmer, they need enough knowledge in the area to communicate efficiently with the people in these teams. The same goes for UI/UX design. They need a working knowledge of these disciplines to work with designers and communicate their needs effectively. 

Business
  • The Scrum Master needs to understand how the project is serving the needs of the business, either by serving an internal client in another department or external clients. They also need to understand how the project will make the business more profitable in the long term. Therefore, a certain amount of business knowledge (profit margins, return on investment, etc.) is needed to be a good Scrum Master.  

Easteregg!