Scrum Master at Sanlam Group

What will you do?

• Act as Scrum Master for 3-5 Scrum teams with a focus on guiding the teams towards improving the way they work.
• Providing support to the Scrum Team using a servant leadership style and leading by example. This person should personify Scrum and Agile.
• Guiding and coaching the Scrum Team and its stakeholders on how to use Agile/Scrum practices and values to delight customers.
• Guiding and coaching the Scrum Team on self-organization to fill in the intentional gaps left in the Agile/Scrum framework.
• Facilitating all sprint events (planning, refinement, stand-ups, retrospectives and reviews).
• Supporting and educating the Product Owner, especially with respect to refining and managing the product backlog.
• Ensuring cross-team coordination.
• Removing impediments or guiding the Development Team to remove impediments by finding the right personnel.
• Maintaining relevant metrics that help the Development Team see how they are doing.
• Assessing the Scrum maturity of the Scrum Team and coaching them to higher levels of maturity, at a pace that is sustainable and comfortable for the team.
• Liaising between the Development Team and User Experience Designers to foster better communication between the disciplines.
• Building a trusting and safe environment where problems can be raised without fear of blame, retribution, or being judged, with an emphasis on healing and problem solving.
• Facilitating getting the work done without coercion, assigning, or dictating the work.
• Facilitating discussion, decision making, and conflict resolution.
• Assisting with internal and external communication, improving transparency, and radiating information.

What will make you successful in this role?
Experience and skills

• Grade 12
• Knowledge of the software development life cycle
• First level Scrum Master certification (PSM I, CSM) (advantageous)
• At least 2 years’ experience working as a Scrum Master
• At least 3 years’ experience working in an agile environment
• Knowledge of other approaches in the Agile space: XP, Kanban, Crystal, FDD, etc
• Knowledge of numerous well documented techniques for filling the intentional gaps left in Scrum (example: Burndown techniques, Retrospective formats, handling bugs, etc)
• Good skills and knowledge of servant leadership, facilitation, situational awareness, conflict resolution, continual improvement, empowerment, and increasing transparency
• The ability to distinguish between what "is Scrum" what is "not Scrum"
• Excellent communication skills in English in written and spoken form

Preferred Skills/Experience (advantageous)

• Experience being on multiple Scrum teams in a variety of different contexts (different team sizes, organizations, cultures, co-located vs. distributed, etc)
• Track record of continued and recent education in Scrum, including training, conferences, user groups, self-study, etc
• Knowledge and/or experience with widely successful agile techniques: User Stories, ATDD, TDD, Continuous Integration, Continuous Testing, Pairing, Automated Testing
• Experience applying a wide variety of well documented techniques for filling in the intentional gaps left in the Scrum approach (example: Burndown techniques, Retrospective formats, handling bugs, etc)
• Excellent mentoring skills

Key Competencies

• Problem solving
• Coaching and mentoring
• Facilitation
• Conflict management
• Collaboration
• Excellent oral and written communication skills
• Servant leadership
• Communication
• Assertiveness
• Situational awareness
• Enthusiasm
• Attitude of empowerment
• Attitude of transparency 

Personal Attributes

• Interpersonal savvy - Contributing dependently
• Decision quality - Contributing dependently
• Plans and aligns - Contributing dependently
• Optimises work processes - Contributing dependently