What you need to learn about being a Scrum Master, but will never get from a CSM course

No matter how many courses you attend, there are things that, as a Scrum Masters, you only really learn the important lessons on the field. Doing the work.

One of the reasons I don’t think certification courses are enough for Scrum Masters that certifications courses very often focus on the rules and regulations of the job, but not on the problems, the hardships and the obstacles we face, day-in, day-out when we try to do a good work as a Scrum Master.

So, what can we do when courses aren’t enough?

We collect and share experiences. We build a very large toolbox of techniques and practices!

That’s why I loved the idea by Yves Hanoulle (Yves on Twitter) of creating a book of tips, simple, yet practical tips by Agile Coaches, Scrum Masters, and other Agile practitioners.

I loved that idea so much, that I contributed to it, and even started recording an Audiobook with Yves by interviewing the people who wrote those tips. In that audiobook, we go beyond the tips they wrote for the book, and explore what triggered them to write that tip, and what led them to learn that hard-earned, practical lesson.

You can learn more about the book and the audiobook here, however, I wanted to give you something concrete right now. Something that includes, what I consider the 2 most important heuristics I’ve learned as a Scrum Master.

In this handout, I have the following:

• The 3 biggest problems Scrum Masters face and talk to me about when describing their challenges (we did a survey of the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast audience and this was what came out of it)
• A checklist to help you identify people who are already great team players, so that you can help them, and get their collaboration right off the bat when you come to work with the team
• What is the specific domain of expertise for Scrum Masters. An expertise we must deliberately develop over time.

All of these, and more. I’ve also included the Table of Contents of the current version of the Tips from the Trenches – Scrum Master edition book, so that you can see who has contributed to the project, and shared their hard-earned lessons with you so that you can learn in a few minutes what took them decades to learn.

BONUS!!!! Don’t miss these extra tips! ?

Starting now, you will also get 15+ tips from some of the best interviews on the book. By signing up to get the Table of contents, you will also get a 5 email series, that delivers great tips every day, for five days. Get these actionable tips from some of the best interviews on the Audiobook!

Don’t miss this, grab the “Two simple heuristics that will solve (most of) the problems you face as a Scrum Master” handout and the table of contents of the great and insightful “Tips from the Trenches – Scrum Master edition” book.