Jeff is the author of Actionable Agile tools (available on Amazon, and direct from the author at bit.ly/aatbook). He joins us on this series of Q&A shows to answer questions you’ve submitted. You can submit your questions via our survey (short, about 2 min to fill-in) or by tweeting us @scrumpodcast with #agilejeff.

In this episode, we talk about the importance of technical excellence and how to help teams adopt that mindset.

How to explain the need for Agile coaching and Scrum Masters

I’ve worked in teams, and organizations that were “going down the path of Scrum theatre”. They pretended to do Scrum.

The problem is I wasn’t happy with it. I saw team and PO complaining about “all these meetings”, only to find out that management had a whole set of meetings on top of the Scrum meetings to “follow-up”. In other words, to have reports in the format they wanted, instead of working within the framework of Scrum.

I tried influencing Management that organization needs Agile/Scrum Coaching, but it was constantly overlooked.

Scrum Masters and their work in coaching teams is a critical support aspect for teams adopting Agile. In this episode, we discuss how we can help the organization understand the value that Agile coaching and Scrum Masters bring to the teams.

Resources and tools

• Blog post by Jeff Campbell on why Scrum Master is a full time job.
• We also refer to a tool included in Jeff’s book: Hiring Retrospectives. Jeff’s book, Actionable Agile Tools is available on Amazon and direct from the author.

About Jeff Campbell

Jeff Campbell is the author of Actionable Agile Tools, a book with practical tools and practices to help you amplify your impact as a coach and Scrum Master

Jeff is an Agile Coach who considers the discovery of Agile and Lean to be one of the most defining moments of his life and considers helping others to improve their working life not to simply be a job, but a social responsibility. As an Agile Coach, he has worked with driving Agile transformations in organizations both small and large.

Jeff is also involved in the Agile community and is one of the founding members of Gothenburg Sweden’s largest agile community at 1500+ members www.scrumbeers.com, and he also organizes the yearly conference www.brewingagile.org.

You can link with Jeff Campbell on LinkedIn and connect with Jeff Campbell on Twitter.