Scrum Master - Johannesburg, Parktown at PPS

• The Scrum Master primary responsibility is assisting the self-organizing, self-managing team to achieve its goals by teaching and coaching team practices, implementing and supporting SAFe principles and practices, identifying and eliminating impediments, and facilitating flow.

Scrum Masters work with the extended Scrum Master community, including SAFe Program Consultant, Release Train Engineer, Product Owners and Architecture to increase the effectiveness of SAFe across the enterprise.

Minimum Requirements    
Education:

• Bachelor’s degree or Diploma in Computer Science or Information Science or Information Technology
• Certified Scrum Master (SAFe Scrum Master, Scrum Alliance)

Experience:
Essential

• 4 - 5 years’ experience leading teams as a Scrum Master in an Agile environment in IT, Financial Services or Consulting.

Preferred

• Experience as part of an Agile software delivery team as a Business Analyst, Product Owner, Agile Project Manager.

Knowledge and Skills (maximum of 10):

• Group facilitation approaches
• Good knowledge of servant leadership
• Scrum/Agile software development methodologies
• Software development
• Coding and designing
• Business Process and Analysis
• Product backlog understanding and management
• User stories knowledge

Duties and Responsibilities    
Facilitation, Coordination, Problem Solving, Continuous improvement, Maintaining Quality, Coaching.

• Facilitates events and the team’s progress toward team goals
• The Scrum Master is trained as a team facilitator and is continuously engaged in challenging the old norms of development to improve performance in the areas of quality, predictability, flow, and velocity. They help the team focus on creating increments of value each iteration and achieving daily and Iteration Goals in the context of the current Program Increment (PI) Objectives.
• Facilitates team events, including (where applicable) the Daily Stand-up, Iteration Planning, Iteration Review, and Iteration Retrospective ensures they are productive and kept within the timebox.
• Assists the team in preparation for key activities, including PI Planning, System Demos, and the Inspect and Adapt.

Coordinates with other teams

• The Scrum Master supports the team’s efforts to continuously improve communications and relationships with other teams. They frequently represent the team in the Scrum of Scrums (SoS), helping the team remain aware of opportunities to engage and improve program effectiveness (see Program Increment for more details).
• They also often help the team build effective relationships> with the System Team, User Experience, Architecture, and Shared Services.
• It is important to note, however, that the responsibility for inter-team coordination cannot be delegated entirely to the Scrum Master; every team member shares responsibility in that regard.

Problem Solving

• Many blocking issues will be beyond the team’s authority or may require support from other teams.
• The Scrum Master supports the team in addressing and eliminating these issues to improve the likelihood of achieving the objectives of the Iteration.

Continuous improvement

•  Helps the team improve and take responsibility for their actions; facilitates the team retrospective. Teaches problem-solving techniques and helps the team become better problem-solvers for themselves.
• Focuses on ever-improving team dynamics and performance and coaches the team in self-management.
• Helps the team resolve interpersonal conflicts and challenges and identify opportunities for growth.
• Escalates people problems to management where necessary, but only after internal team processes have failed to resolve the issue; helps individuals.

Maintaining Quality

• Fosters the culture of technical discipline and craftsmanship that is the hallmark of effective Agile teams.

Coaching

• The Scrum Master supports the overall adoption of SAFe across the enterprise by coaching stakeholders and other non-agile teams on effective interactions with agile teams, participating in the Scrum Master Community of Practice, and supporting the organization’s SPCs.
• The Scrum Master works with other Scrum Masters and stakeholders to help the team contribute towards improving the overall development Value Stream.