AdrianCarr.com ^1.0

I was a full-time Scrum Master for a team for over a year, and I loved it. During that time, I made some notes on things that helped me and our team. Maybe these will help someone else out there.

1. Learn as much as you can, as fast as you can. Subscribe to the Scrum Alliance discussion board, and learn from other people. When you come across a real nugget or gem, keep it. Over time, you will compile a very helpful list. Over time, you will become the "go-to" person for Scrum advice, and a trusted source of information.
2. Get the Product Owner integrated with the team. Despite what some people say, it works better if the PO is part of the team and sits with the team. This way, the feedback loop is shortened tremendously, both from developers and QA with questions, and from the PO to the team.
3. Encourage the team to understand the business needs. The team should know why they are doing this work, and have a sense of urgency about it.
4. Question needless processes and rules.
5. Meetings: Minimize them. Those present make the decisions. If the meeting isn't important enough for you to come, you don't have a say in the outcome.
6. Do the most important things first. Encourage team members to question each other when someone is working on something that is less important.
7. Get into a rhythm early and stick with it- have fixed sprint lengths, recurring reviews. reviews should be like clockwork- same time every two weeks or so. We had our reviews at 9:00 every other Wednesday. After a while, people expected them at this time.
8. Have retrospectives that work and be sure to implement needed changes.
9. Keep the team small. "Small" will vary according to the needs of the project. If in doubt, go with a fewer number of people.
10. Relentlessly expose things that slow you down. Do this in reviews, by posting things where they are very visible, by asking those who can fix them how long this waste will be tolerated.
11. Coach team members. Help them make choices that help the overall agility of the team.
12. Create team culture of simplicity.
13. Be purposeful about cross training. If there is anything the team does that only one person knows how to do, this is a problem, and you should encourage them to train someone else to do it.
14. Empower and encourage team members to resolve blockages on their own.
15. Have others step in as Scrum Master as needed for vacation days. This helps spread the knowledge around.
16. Create team culture of continuous improvement. Like Lexus: The The Relentless Pursuit of Perfection.