How Scrum can help improve productivity

If you are struggling on whether to go or not for SCRUM, here is an article that you may found worth for a read.
https://www.scrumalliance.org/community/articles/2015/june/why-scrum

if you are wandering how can SCRUM help my organization, this article may give you some hints.

new Scrum framework poster

This is taken from SCRUM Alliance, which I found that it is worth to read.

Drop the old scrum poster, say hi to the new one. :)

The Scrum framework in 30 seconds

- A product owner creates a prioritized wish list called a product backlog.

- During sprint planning, the team pulls a small chunk from the top of that wish list, a sprint backlog, and decides how to implement those pieces.

- The team has a certain amount of time — a sprint (usually two to four weeks) — to complete its work, but it meets each day to assess its progress (daily Scrum).

- Along the way, the ScrumMaster keeps the team focused on its goal.

- At the end of the sprint, the work should be potentially shippable: ready to hand to a customer, put on a store shelf, or show to a stakeholder.

- The sprint ends with a sprint review and retrospective.

- As the next sprint begins, the team chooses another chunk of the product backlog and begins working again.

- See more at: https://www.scrumalliance.org/why-scrum

Consideration before adopting SCRUM

This article explain well on the key points you should clarified, be sure that you don't have those thinking before jump into SCRUM.

https://www.scrumalliance.org/community/articles/2015/january/consideration-before-adopt-scrum.aspx

Why is time boxing so important?

Why is time box important in SCRUM?

-        If we don’t have an idea on how many time some ceremonies/activities will be taken, it is hard for the participant to plan their next activities.

-        Some people will talk/discuss endlessly while others will lose interest. When more people get bored, they become less motivated.

-        Time box is a way of managing the time as well as a motivation to keep moving because you know the next event is coming soon or this event is going to end soon and therefore will get more serious and paying extra attention just to try to gain more benefit out from this time.

-        Time box is like mapping the objective to a time frame. Not all the time related to productivity but sometimes is about how you can spend it with more meaning values.

what should I do as a new SCRUM master?

I once ask myself this question and search in the internet. I cannot find a list. After being a SCRUM Master, I understand that there is no list of criteria or check list to check. I list a few things that I think what a Scrum master should have or could have or good to have, based on my own experience and observation.

1. Open minded.
- take comments, observe yourself. I often make jokes to my team members saying that I or they should have a retro for themselves. Then I mention a few points, in a funny ways. For example, via the work, I found that I did not escalate certain issues on time, I will make a joke sounds like this: "I will make a retro to myself, the first point will be "must highlight person A to person B as soon as this problem is reveal. " Now, everybody will make a smile and of course, you can also point person A, saying, "so, next time please alert me ASAP when you hit impediments so that I can escalate you faster. That will be my 'what to improve' 's point. Now, you shown that you learn from mistake, also remind others to raise impediment earlier.

2. Sensitive and understanding.
- have to accept and understand that your team members and yourself are human. Just like Christina Perry's song, we are only human, and I bleed when I fall down. Be sensitive to other people's feeling. Doesn't means you have to put others at first place, but to be more considerate. Consider everyboy's feeling, when you create a happy team, everybody is working happily and productivity will increase by itself.