3 Common Questions Scrum Masters Are Asked

The Scrum Guide is great for telling Scrum Masters and teams what to do, but unfortunately it does not explain why. It also does not tell us what not to do. 

As agile professionals, it’s important we understand why we are doing what we do. We will often get challenging questions through our career from both Scrum teams and stakeholders.

It’s not enough to just say “It’s in the Scrum Guide”. 

In this article, we will look at some of the most common questions Scrum teams and stakeholders have when it comes to understanding agility. 

Why do we have to attend Sprint planning?

This is an extremely common question. It’s also a fair question. In traditional projects, the planning would usually be owned by the project manager. The project manager would consult with key stakeholders and the specific dev leads to create a plan. 

However in Sprint planning, much more people are involved. This allows the entire team to better understand why they are doing what they are doing. 

Jeff Sutherland says in ‘Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time’ that great teams are transcendent. This means that great teams are aligned to a common goal and have a purpose that goes beyond the individual. 

Small teams can perform much better when aligned to a common goal. When developers understand the why behind their individual task, they can oftentimes think outside the box and perform better. Sprint planning allows the whole team to see the bigger picture. 

Do we need to do retrospectives?

Similar to Sprint planning, some developers may see the time spent on retrospective as better spent on testing or additional coding. 

Kaizen is a concept from Japan that has its roots in Japanese manufacturing. It’s the idea of continuous improvement. Rather than introducing new processes, one should incrementally improve and fine-tune existing processes to deliver better quality and increase productivity. 

Kaizen has strongly influenced agile principles and practices. One of the principles of the Agile Manifesto is: “At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.”

Scrum teams should be open and honest about what they are doing, reflect and discuss how they could do it better and accordingly make changes to their processes and practices. Hence, why it is called a retrospective.

Retrospectives allow your team time to critically think about ways to improve processes they regularly complete. By spending time reviewing these processes, your team can begin to discover ways to increase productivity. 

Why do we have to deliver a valuable, usable increment each Sprint?

In order to properly implement Scrum, teams need to evaluate the previous Sprint before beginning another. If you don’t, you are directly contracting the Scrum Guide. 

The Scrum Guide says each Sprint is like a “short project” and for good reason. Teams are generally motivated by delivering something of value, especially when facing a looming deadline. 

From experience, teams are often energized when coming towards a release. If nothing of value is being completed by the end of each Sprint, the project could be dangerously drifting toward a cliff edge. 

By delivering a valuable increment at the end of each Sprint, you are helping to drive motivation and increase momentum. This creates a sense of achievement while simultaneously inspiring confidence in stakeholders because they can see something tangible being completed. 

It also serves as a learning experience for the Scrum team. If a team has deviated from requirements, they have ample time to do some course-correction early on. Misunderstandings can quickly be addressed. The increment will help stakeholders visualize and clarify future requirements.  

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