Scrum Master - Cape Town at Momentum Metropolitan Holdings Limited

Role Purpose    

• Lead scrum teams in Agile development, guiding them towards product releases within set guidelines, ensuring clear communication and team organisation, product backlog maintenance and release planning, and facilitating core Agile ceremonies and practices.

Requirements    

• Relevant post graduate degree with role applicable certifications
• Certified Scrum Master
• 5 years’ relevant experience as a Scrum Master, Programme Manager or Agile Coach (essential)
• Exposure to IT and product and business process development and impementation (desirable)
• Insurance industry experience (desirable) 
• Understanding of the product lifecycle
• In-depth understanding of Agile methodologies, and up-to-date knowledge of industry standards and best practices
• Knowledge of numerous well documented techniques for filling the intentional gaps left in Scrum (E.g. Burndown techniques, retrospective formats, handling bugs, etc.)
• Understanding of standard software development roles and responsibilities as well as product development and business process development
• Experience of managing multiple feature development in one backlog
• Communication skills
• Interpersonal skills
• Business acumen
• Facilitation skills
• Persuading and influencing skills
• Problem-solving skills 

Duties & Responsibilities    
INTERNAL PROCESS:

• Ensure relevant teams are practising core Agile principles of collaboration, prioritisation, team accountability, and visibility in accordance with relevant standards.
• Support the product development process, the Product Owner and the scrum delivery team to ensure delivery of solutions and product releases. 
• Facilitate Agile ceremonies of sprint kickoff, daily stand-ups, sprint review, and sprint retrospective in order to meet business requirements.
• Track and communicate team velocity, sprint progress and maintain process documentation in accordance with best practice standards.
• Use appropriate communication channels within the scrum team to create a trusting and safe team environment.
• Assist with backlog maintenance and the facilitation of defects/bugs resolution to achieve and meet business needs.
• Participate proactively in developing and maintaining team standards in order to maximise team performance.
• Mitigate external disruptions and distractions, whenever possible, to ensure optimal team effectiveness. 
• Support and educate Product Owners on maintaining the product backlog, actively managing this and preparing for next sprint.
• Monitor and ensure that items planned for the sprint are focused on, and unplanned work is identified and raised with the Product Owner to manage expectations and delivery.
• Provide the team with relevant prerequisites before sprints to enable them to deliver against expectations. 
• Identify key dependencies and manage them closely to ensure delivery. 
• Monitor and raise issues / blockers / risks early so they can be mitigated or cleared, enabling the team to deliver optimally.
• Track and ensure that delivery takes place according to the definition of Ready and/or Done.
• Optimise the velocity of delivery and focus on continuous improvement to enhance delivery and meet business needs. 
• Facilitate discussions leading to collective decision-making, goal setting and conflict resolution within the team to ensure optimal team functioning.

CLIENT:

• Provide authoritative expertise and advice to clients and stakeholders.
• Build and maintain relationships with clients and internal and external stakeholders.
• Deliver on service level agreements made with clients and internal and external stakeholders in order to ensure that client expectations are managed.
• Make recommendations to improve client service and fair treatment of clients within area of responsibility.
• Participate and contribute to a culture which builds rewarding relationships, facilitates feedback and provides exceptional client service.

PEOPLE:

• Develop and maintain productive and collaborative working relationships with peers and stakeholders.
• Positively influence and participate in change initiatives.
• Continuously develop own expertise in terms of professional, industry and legislation knowledge.
• Contribute to continuous innovation through the development, sharing and implementation of new ideas.
• Take ownership for driving career development.

FINANCE:

• Identify opportunities to enhance cost effectiveness and increase operational efficiency.
• Manage financial and other company resources under your control with due respect.
• Provide input into the risk identification processes and communicate recommendations in the appropriate forum. 

Competencies    

• Adopting Practical Approaches
• Directing People
• Managing Tasks
• Establishng Rapport
• Resolving Conflict
• Taking Action
• Convincing People
• Team Working