hi my name is daria welcome to scrub master video series where i give you practical tips on how to
build awesome teams in today's video i wanted to talk about the new scrum guide 2020 the changes
that have been made and more importantly how does it actually affect you as a scrum master and what
you should start doing right now given that the new changes have just been released let me start
this by saying that scrum is still scrum yes you will see a lot of changes in the new scrum guide
but at the end of the day the values principles and the foundational concepts of scrum are still
there these things didn't change what did change is that scrum guide became much less prescriptive
and more concise to the point so instead of having 19 pages in the scrum guide now you have only 14
minus the title page of course it means that you will have much more opportunities to try and
experiment with new techniques that are not really part of the scrum guide that are not described
meaning that the scrum guide just gives you the framework really much less prescriptive
and you will need to figure out with your team how can you implement those concepts
and what practices and tools you want to use for example the concept of the three questions
in the daily scrum has been completely removed from the scrum guide so you no
longer have an excuse of just asking the three questions and you need to start thinking about
what should your team be talking about in the daily scrum to make it much more productive and
effective in the same way the recommendation around the team size from three to nine has
been also removed it is more about the scrum team being small enough to reduce the complexity and
of coordination but also big enough to actually complete the substantial amount of work
usually less than 10 right but the prescription around that size has been removed at the same time
the scrum guide now gives you more precisely the rules of the game now you can't really
skip some elements because maybe they weren't defined as clearly before or they weren't
explained as key elements of scrum now they're clearly written down in such a way that you cannot
just pass through them for example the sprint goal is a commitment and the sprint goal is
its own element very clearly defined in scrum the same is the definition of done the definition
of done is also a commitment very very clearly defined by scrum so you cannot really just skip
those items and if your team technically is not following with those elements it's not actually
creating those elements as they are implementing scrum they then are they really doing scrum
that would be the question but i do not really want to go into the details of all of the changes
that have been made in the scrum guide you will see a lot of information about that in different
resources videos and blog posts that are coming up from trainers however what i do want to talk
about is how does this new scrum guide actually impact what you should be doing as a scrum master
so how does it impact you as a scrum master for your team and i have three key points to highlight
number one stay up to date you are the embodiment of scrum in your organization
and for your team so you need to know scrum to be able to be a great scrum master
so you gotta read the scrum guide note the changes do some research read additional blog posts that
explain why those changes were made and understand how does it actually apply in your context are
you missing some key elements of scrum that you quickly need to start implementing in your team
that will be an important point for you so you cannot just sit around and say well i know scrum
from 2017 and this is the scrum that i will be implementing remember scrum
didn't change it just became much more specific and precise while also being less prescriptive
so it's an opportunity for you to go back and understand the key elements of scrum
and start making sure that your team is actually following scrum
as it was intended from the very start number two you can no longer hide behind your team
the scrum guide version 2020 is very specific around the fact that the scrum master does not
only work with the team but the whole organization so let me read from the scrum guide itself scrum
masters are true leaders who serve the scrum team and the larger organization and then from
the next part in the scrum master definition scrum master serves the organization in several
ways including leading training and coaching the organization in its scrum adoption
notice the focus on the word leading here right you are a leader that drives the scrum adoption
in the organization planning and advising scrum implementations within the organization
once again if it seemed like something an agile coach in your organization we usually do
now it is clear here that it is the scrum masters role to actually do that there is
no separation between someone who works with the organization and someone who works with the team
it's the scrum master it's you helping employees and stakeholders understand
and enact an empirical approach for complex work this is very very specific to you working with the
stakeholders it might be management sponsors whether it's middle management or executives
it's on you and then removing barriers between stakeholders and scrum teams
those barriers we're talking about here are often communication barriers and misunderstandings
between stakeholders often middle management right and the team the scrum team doing the work
so it's once again on you as a scrum master to jump on it and that is how the scrum was always
intended it's just much clearer now around your involvement in the organization not only the team
and number three you are accountable this scrum guide is much more specific around
what scrum master is accountable for so let me read from the scrum guide to be more specific
the scrum master is accountable for the scrum team's effectiveness they do this by enabling
the scrum team to improve its practices within the scrum framework here is we see the focus on the
fact that the scrum master is not there just to coach the team create good morale or environment
they are accountable for how well the scrum team is actually doing
and also their continuous improvement right you are accountable for making sure that your
team continuously improves this is not new it has always been there it's just much more specific now
you can just skip through it and then another thing that i wanted to highlight that is a
difference from the other scrum guide the previous version is this the scrum master is accountable
for establishing scrum as defined in the scrum guide if you look at the previous version it
used to say the scrum master is responsible for promoting and supporting scrum as defined in the
scrum guide you see the difference in wording here right responsible no longer just responsible you
are accountable and no longer just promoting and supporting scrum establishing it making sure that
people understand and actually enact it right so here's the important difference that makes you
much more accountable for your really your role within the organization and the team if i go even
a step further to look at what this scrum master is accountable for in the scrum team section it
clearly says the scrum team is responsible for all product related activities from stakeholder
collaboration verification maintenance operation experimentation research and development and
anything else that might be required because the scrum master is a clear part of the scrum team
and the whole scrum team is responsible for those activities you as a scrum master are
also responsible which ones you'll be taking on well that depends on your skill set how you
work with the team and what other roles you help the team fulfill if you're only really playing
the scrum master role for example you're not a developer well you still have some very important
points to to work with when it comes to the product related activities right it might be
related to the product quality through the definition of done and encouraging
the team to improve it it might be through the spirit of experimentation making sure that
the team understands how to better conduct the experiments and anything that can be there may be
working with the stakeholders remember removing barriers between the stakeholders and the team
once again this is a product related activity that would help the team be successful so
you're accountable and responsible for that alongside the scrum team in general
so here are my key points but the question remains is this all new well no as you've seen through
this video i talked about the fact that the scrum guide principles and key concept didn't change
it's still scrum they're just much clearer now these things are not new they're always
have been intended maybe they're misunderstood we had some misconceptions around some of them
at the end of the day we still need to focus on what's really important and this is how scrum
was designed and we need to follow through with all of those rules and elements because if we're
not following the rules are we really playing the game of scrum or are you playing something else
you have a lot of work to do now as a scrum master don't you so what are you still doing here let's
wrap up this video with some action points for you knowing what you know now after this video
after reading the scrum guide or understanding some of the differences what are some of the key
actions bold steps that you need to take asap really to be more successful as a scrum master and
to help your team and organization be successful with scrum leave your answers to this question in
the comments below so that we can share what you think we should be doing in this with the scrum
master community if you like this video give this video a thumbs up and subscribe to this
youtube channel and if you're watching this at scrummaster.com then make sure to subscribe to the
newsletter where i'm sharing additional insightful tips and personal stories as well as some special
offers with my newsletter subscribers i hope to see you in the next video cheers and scrum on you