Foreword by Gunther Verheyen

Mastering Scrum. Being proficient in Scrum. Ensuring Scrum is enacted, but without formal authority. Coaching people. Being a Scrum Master. How do you do that? Despite all the attention and focus it was given throughout the existence of Scrum, much confusion exists over the role of the Scrum Master. Some people proclaim the role is superfluous in the context of self-organization. Some people have trouble relating the servant-leader aspect of the role to their interpretation of the Scrum Master as an agile project manager. Some people stop expecting the Scrum Master to be a facilitator for the organization, as this doesn’t fit how many agile coaches present themselves. It is possible to read the Scrum Guide, to read the many books that exist over Scrum, to endlessly visit conferences and talks, or to theorize for many hours and days over the role and all aspects of the role. This may be highly valuable, but in the end remains somewhat academic. Where agility through Scrum is primarily gained on the workfloor, spending time with the Scrum Teams are confronted daily with the gracious complexities of software creation. Nothing beats exploration of the role by doing. And learning from doing. Go, start, play, find your own way, work with people, teams, organizations, departments, and managers in doing and explaining Scrum. This book, “A Scrum Master’s practical toolbox,” might be seen as part of the academic world (after all, it is a book) but it is goes beyond. It is a great support for anyone wanting to discover what it is to be a Scrum Master by doing. It does so by presenting and explaining practical tools for Scrum Masters, tools that support a Scrum Master in grasping the role, and its highly specific expectations.

Pick, choose, learn from the collected experience of Sergey, Illya and Alexei, and keep in mind what you are trying to achieve, keep in mind the purpose of the tool. And if you tend to get lost on this aspect, pick up the book again, and read through the context again that the authors have added.

“A Scrum Master’s practical toolbox” offers options, options from which Scrum Masters can select, and increase their understanding of their role as well as how the role was designed.

Gunther Verheyen

Directing the Professional Scrum Series, Scrum.org

Antwerp, September 2014