Organizations, their intent and current challenges

An organization is an entity that acts as a hub, where functionally different units connect together and
deliver related services or products that are needed by people or other organizations in the society.
So, to keep the balance between increasing and ever-changing demands of consumers and the
existing capabilities of an organization to fulfill those demands, it is essential to keep harmony between
the deliveries of demands in terms of a service or product and the effective capabilities of what is
delivered. However, due to rapidly improving technology and improved social connectivity, it is also
essential to meet the need in a stable and sustainable way.
Beyond streamlining a process, what is more important is continuously meeting the needs of an
individual as a consumer, or even an organizational need, at a sustainable pace. It is equally important
to satisfy those needs immediately, with quality and a structured delivery of every component of the
product.
In today's changing world, with social stimulation going on at every moment, it is impossible to use
traditional methods to deliver needs as quickly as markets turn. This impacts the harmony between
both demands and deliveries. When this harmony of continuous delivery and rapidly changing
demands breaks, quality is usually what is compromised.
To overcome these challenges, organizations now focus more on continuously delivering and
integrating small, workable pieces that retain quality and satisfy immediate needs. To do this,
organizations are adopting Scrum, a framework that can be easily made to address most of the
business challenges.

What are the 3 immediate milestones for an organization to sustain?

Increase collaboration to create a vibrant, positive wave of continuous delivery

Retain the highest quality of a delivered product to satisfy customers

Support finding more profit on investment with a Lean method of delivering

How can Scrum help achieve these three objectives?

Scrum is an alternate framework that delivers in rapidly changing environments to minimize possible
business threats. Scrum is a very lightweight framework that runs within time-boxed boundaries and
brings a rhythm of a sustainable and seamless flow of delivery to minimize the impact of risk and
uncertainties, using a set of roles, ceremonies, and artifacts. It unfolds two important sides of an
effective delivery:
1.

Bringing a rhythm of continuously delivering quality-rich products or services

2.

Delivering a workable increment in every short cycle for quick review and further revision

This enables us to engage in a better customer relationship, with greater customer satisfaction, by
meeting current business needs. It also lowers the risk of uncertainty by progressively elaborating both
the need and continuous feedback on the desired need.
The aim of continuous delivery is to bring more collaboration to create a vibrant, positive wave of
delivery.
Scrum follows an iterative approach in delivering an increment. It comes out of silos in delivering all
functionalities in a single build, and so it uses multiple builds per release -- even multiple builds per
day in extreme cases. These multiple builds create a positive effect on the team as well as on
management, and they lower uncertainties. This brings confidence to management and all
stakeholders.
Continuous delivery is a stable process, governed by the Scrum framework. The ScrumMaster plays
an important role in enabling this Scrum framework, from its pilot adoption to successful execution. A
ScrumMaster in an organization never controls the process, or does he or she impose it on anyone.
However, the ScrumMaster role always ensures delivering the best means to fit the current situation.

How does a ScrumMaster move from a role of enabling to becoming a thought leader in an
organization?
1.

Scrum community enabler: A ScrumMaster is involved in Scrum communities both internal

and external to the organization, bringing an improved Scrum philosophy to everyone involved.

2.

Scrum awareness driver: An awareness drive can be both formal and informal, through talks
or seminars, blogs or white papers. The ScrumMaster thrills at driving Scrum awareness at the
individual, team, and organizational levels.

3.

Strong collaborator: The ScrumMaster holds a larger interest in bringing together all
stakeholders for project delivery success, collaborating in Scrum communities for Scrum success,
and building collaboration within all team activities for better delivery, mostly in a distributed
environment.

4.

Great motivator: The art of pushing things to happen is part of the role. Motivation always
creates a healthy environment. During a project, the execution team may run out of energy while
focusing on deliveries. So to retain the productivity of the team, the ScrumMaster should help
create a positive environment by motivating and promoting team-bonding activities to keep morale
high.

5.

Opacity reducer: Transparency is one of the hygienic factors for project success. More
transparency reduces uncertainties and so lowers known risks. The ScrumMaster always pays
attention to bringing transparency to the sprint and to release-level planning with the team and
other immediate stakeholders. Even during Daily Scrum calls, opacity is greatly reduced.

6.

Strong connector: Between dependent stakeholders, the ScrumMaster acts as a centralized

connector, uniting sponsors, product management, deliveries, and operations. A project's success

always depends on various external as well as internal factors. These might be at the application
level or in the infrastructure or within business layers. The ScrumMaster makes sure to connect all
of these during various Scrum ceremonies, and he or she maintains that connection to ensure the
success of the project.
7.

Quiet force: An invisible and indirect force behind the success of the Scrum team, the
ScrumMaster is a (comparatively) silent leader, with great action. The ScrumMaster should have
the quality of proposing rather than directing prescriptively. It is always important to find a balance
between being prescriptive and proposing.

8.

Loud protector: Protecting the team from external influence is the prime responsibility of the
ScrumMaster. Influence can come from senior management, other teams, or even an internal
team member, with any of them pushing to change the direction of the sprint plan. In such a
situation, when there is a conflict over sprint goals, the ScrumMaster acts as a loud protector and
pushes away all obstacles.

9.

Harmonizer of delivery cycles: In the Scrum framework, delivery happens in a small cycle
called a sprint, which follows a time-box and delivers a workable increment of a product. The
ScrumMaster helps maintain harmony within the sprint and tracks other dependent applications for
uninterrupted deliveries.

10.

Driving force behind Scrum practices: A ScrumMaster is passionate about bringing Scrum
changes to the team and the organization.