Coaching and Mentoring

5 minutes 5 Questions

Scrum Masters also serve as coaches and mentors, both to their team and to the wider organization. They educate everyone on Scrum principles, practices, and benefits. Moreover, they help team members grow and learn through feedback, encouragement, and challenges. They also guide organizations in Sc…

Exam Guide: Coaching and Mentoring within the Scrum Master Role

Importance:
Coaching and Mentoring are key to the Scrum Master role. They enable the Scrum Master to facilitate individual and team growth, helping them work effectively within the Scrum framework. It is crucial for Scrum masters to be proficient in these areas in order to foster a productive and self-organizing team.
Definition:
Coaching involves assisting the team and individual members in problem-solving and decision-making. It focuses on the development of skills and capabilities. Mentoring, on the other hand, involves providing guidance, sharing knowledge, and offering advice based on past experiences.
How it Works:
A Scrum Master acting as a coach facilitates discussions, encourages self-organization, and helps the team to improve their skills and work practices. As a mentor, the Scrum master shares their knowledge and expertise, offers advice, and supports the team in navigating through obstacles.
Exam Tips:
Answering Questions on Coaching and Mentoring:
Understand the difference between coaching and mentoring. Use real-life examples to demonstrate your understanding of these concepts. Keep in mind that a Scrum master's role is to facilitate and support, not to lead or dictate. Be aware that the ultimate goal of coaching and mentoring within the Scrum context is to help the team become self-organizing.

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PSM I - Coaching and Mentoring Example Questions

Test your knowledge of Coaching and Mentoring

Question 1

The Product Owner applies pressure on the development team to increase the number of story points they commit to in a sprint claiming that velocity needs to be increased. As a Scrum Master, how would you handle this?

Explain to the Product Owner the importance of sustainable pace and that increasing velocity should come from improvements in the team's efficiency and not by increasing the workload. Recommend splitting larger user stories into smaller ones to artificially inflate the velocity, giving the illusion of increased productivity without genuine improvement. Propose to the Product Owner that adding more team members might increase velocity, without emphasizing the short-term productivity loss or the potential for communication overhead. Suggest conducting a Sprint Retrospective focused solely on increasing velocity, not considering the team's current capacity and the risks of burnout.

Correct Answer: Explain to the Product Owner the importance of sustainable pace and that increasing velocity should come from improvements in the team's efficiency and not by increasing the workload.

While it's vital for a Scrum Master to support the Product Owner and the development team in understanding and optimizing their workflow, the Scrum Master's role also involves protecting the team from burnout and ensuring that improvements are sustainable. The correct answer addresses the need to educate the Product Owner on the importance of a sustainable pace and that legitimate increases in velocity stem from the improvement of the team's effectiveness and not merely from increasing the quantity of work. The wrong answers, while plausible actions, either do not directly solve the underlying issue, introduce potential new problems, or go against Agile principles of sustainable development, continuous improvement, and maintaining a simple and productive working environment.

Question 2

You are a Scrum Master and you observe that the team has begun to over-rely on you to solve even minor impediments, which you believe they can handle themselves. How should you coach the team to become more self-organizing and independent?

Assign specific roles to each team member for dealing with different types of impediments, to ensure a structured approach to problem-solving. Organize a training session on advanced problem-solving techniques and tools that the team can use to address impediments more efficiently. Although this approach provides the team with more tools, it indirectly suggests that they currently lack the skills to handle impediments, which may not address the underlying issue of over-reliance on the Scrum Master. Encourage the team to brainstorm and discuss potential solutions among themselves before seeking external help, reinforcing the idea of shared responsibility. Schedule daily check-ins where the team must report progress on impediments, thus ensuring a constant flow of communication about issues.

Correct Answer: Encourage the team to brainstorm and discuss potential solutions among themselves before seeking external help, reinforcing the idea of shared responsibility.

While all the wrong answers involve actions that could theoretically help a team become more independent in handling impediments, only the correct answer directly encourages the team to take initiative and work towards solutions collectively without immediate external intervention. This approach fosters a stronger sense of team autonomy and self-organization, core aspects of the Scrum framework. The wrong answers, although practical in some scenarios, either imply direct intervention by assigning roles or scheduling check-ins, or indirectly assume a deficiency in the team's abilities that needs to be addressed through training.

Question 3

The Development Team feels overwhelmed with the complexity of an upcoming Sprint and facing doubt about their capabilities. As a Scrum Master, how could you boost their confidence?

Propose to the Product Owner to assign some of the sprint items to external consultants to lighten the team's load. Encourage the team by highlighting their strengths and areas of improvement suggested in the last retrospective. Suggest postponing the Sprint until the team feels more confident about handling the complexity. Organize a technical training session immediately to enhance the team's skills in areas they feel less confident about, even though it might delay the Sprint start.

Correct Answer: Encourage the team by highlighting their strengths and areas of improvement suggested in the last retrospective.

The correct approach involves leveraging the strengths and improvement areas identified during retrospectives to boost confidence without altering the sprint schedule, offloading responsibilities, or causing delays. It supports continuous improvement and resilience within the team, aligning with Agile and Scrum principles. On the other hand, the wrong answers either introduce dependencies (external consultants), suggest avoidance of the challenge (postponing the Sprint), or propose solutions that might cause immediate delays and potential stress (organizing immediate training).

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