SAFe Scrum Masters Starter Guide

Introduction

Welcome to the team!

You are now the SAFe® Scrum Master on an
Agile Release Train (ART). Congratulations!

You’re probably excited to get started and look forward to being part of
something BIG. If the butterflies are beginning to set in, don’t worry, this
guide will help you understand the key steps you need to take in the first
30-60 days to be viewed as a capable SAFe Scrum Master.

Before we begin, please note that this guide is a handy checklist

of the primary responsibilities and activities expected of you as a
Scrum Master. It will set you and your team on a path to success. In
many examples, we will use software development teams to explain a
concept. However, know that many other types of teams, like marketing,
compliance, regulation, training, or other areas of innovation are using
SAFe in similar ways.

The guide will not cover the critical values, principles, and key agile
mindset training you will need to bring the most value to the ART in
your role as a Scrum Master. Refer to the Scaled Agile Website for a
review of the Lean-Agile mindset.

SAFe and Scaled Agile Framework are registered trademarks of Scaled Agile, Inc.

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The First Days

During your first few days on the ART, you may You might be wondering
notice that you are part of a large organization how I can add the most
building multi-faceted products with many
value to this organization?
moving parts. You may see anywhere from
5-12 teams talking to each other, working out
dependencies, and negotiating estimates. Let’s dive in.

What you are witnessing is the proper

application of the SAFe framework, a framework
designed to help large organizations simplify
the process of building complex systems.

3
Get Familiar with the SAFe Big Picture

The SAFe Big Picture1 website shows the core of the Scaled Agile Framework®. The website helps
you answer questions about why specific processes are done as well as how they should be
carried out. The Big Picture is also an excellent resource for clarifying roles and responsibilities for
each of your agile team members.

Speaking of roles, let’s talk about your role, the SAFe Scrum Master.

Helpful Hint: One of the

first things you need to do
is familiarize yourself with
how to access information
from the Big Picture on
the Scaled Agile website.
We recommend you click
around the interactive Big
Picture and read some of
the articles provided.

SAFe and Scaled Agile Framework are registered trademarks of Scaled Agile, Inc.

1
(The Scaled Agile Framework, 2020)

4
Learn Your Responsibilities
and Clarify Your Strengths

When you first access the Big Picture, it can be

challenging to pinpoint precisely where to begin
your learning. The best place to start is to first learn
the responsibilities you have to the team. Click on
the Scrum Master role on the Big Picture and scroll
down to the Responsibilities section. There you will
find a bulleted list of actions that every SAFe Scrum
Master should be ready to accomplish. Review the
list of responsibilities and identify those that speak to
your strengths. Also, make a note of the duties you
are unsure about or where you might require some
additional development.

Remember that you were selected for this role because

you are already a leader with valuable experience and
essential skills. Clarifying and evaluating your strengths
will provide you with a clearer picture of where you
need to develop and grow in your journey. Use this
information to build an improvement plan for yourself.

5
Build Your Improvement Plan
Extra Credit: With
your improvement plan
complete, spend some
additional time clicking on
Now that you have learned more about your responsibilities and identified the key events in the SAFe
your strengths, it’s time to build a quick improvement plan that you can Big Picture. Try to identify
revisit weekly. Use a tool like PowerPoint Timeline to define your actions the SAFe Scrum Master’s
role in each of these events.
and set target dates for yourself. Be sure to set aside time each week to Check with your Release
do additional research, take online classes, or reach out to mentors who Train Engineer (RTE) to see
may know more about the topic and can guide your learning. The key is to if you guessed correctly.
be accountable to yourself for your improvement as a SAFe Scrum Master.

SAFe Scrum Master Self-Improvement Plan Example

June July August September October

What is a Lean-Agile Leader?

Leadership Identify Ways to Build-in Quality
How to Remove Team Impediments

How to Facilitate Facilitate Daily Facilitate Iteration

Facilitation Meetings Standup Planning
SAFe Principles SAFe Principles
1-3 4-6

Learn About Team Dynamics

Team Learn Conflict Management
Building Identify Team Building Exercises
Team Coaching

Calculate Team Capacity

Measuring
Results Set Kanban WIP Limits
Track Team Velocity

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Scrum Master Responsibilities Checklist
Make the Process Visible
Facilitate Sprint Planning
Calculate Team Capacity
Estimate the Work
Load the Sprint
Facilitate Daily Standup
Attend Scrum of Scrums
Report Progress
Coordinate Sprint Demo
Close the Sprint
Conduct Retrospective
Support PI Planning
Support Inspect & Adapt Workshop
Learn Agile Games
Teach the Agile Manifesto
Celebrate with the Team!
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Make the Process Visible

Once you have spent some time understanding where

you are in your Scrum Master journey, it is a good idea to
spend time determining where the team is in their journey
by making their process visible.

Here are some good questions to ask them.

- What methodology are we using?
- What is our iteration calendar?
- How do we calculate capacity for each sprint?
- What is our work estimation approach? Helpful Hint: If instead of
sparking great discussion, these
- Are there any rules around how high we load the iteration? questions leave your team quiet
- How often do we conduct retrospectives? and disengaged, it is time to
recommend a process yourself
- What questions do we ask during the Daily Standup? and help the team understand
- What is our role in the Inspect & Adapt workshop? it. Of course, you never want
to define a process without
your team’s input, so they will
Assume the team already has a process. These questions eventually have to provide
help you determine where there may be gaps. If the their feedback. Once you have
team has not already done so, document their processes received their responses, you’ll
and make them visible in the team’s work area. Keeping have a great place to begin. This
visuals available to the team can be an easy way to keep is an evolving process, and over
time it becomes much easier.
them on track.

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Facilitate Sprint
Planning CALCULATE
TEAM CAPACITY
PULL SPRINT
STORIES

Now that you have learned the team’s process, it

is time to schedule a sprint planning meeting, a
2-6-hour event where the team breaks down user
stories it plans to complete during their iteration. WORK WITH THE PRODUCT OWNER
Be sure to leave plenty of time for breaks and TO DETERMINE THE ORDER IN WHICH
lunch! THE STORIES SHOULD BE WORKED

Keep the team focused by choosing five stories

that the team should plan first. One at a time,
encourage the team to discuss each story. Ask for
clarification of requirements, and size each story
using story points. On software development teams
ASSIGN THE STORIES BREAK DOWN
(or any other similar team), encourage developers
to have any technical conversations that might help TO EACH DAY OF TASKS FOR EACH
them further break down the work. The more the THE SPRINT STORY
team understands the story during planning, the
faster they can design and build it during the sprint.

Once the stories have been broken down and

estimated, you’ll want to begin adding the stories
to the sprint and formulating your iteration goals. SIZE THE LOAD THE SPRINT
Still, before you do that, you’ll have to understand STORIES UP TO 80-90%
how to calculate capacity. AND TASKS CAPACITY

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Calculate Team Capacity
Determine which team members
are developers and testers.
To calculate your team’s capacity
accurately, you’ll first need to understand
how many team members are going to
contribute to completing stories during
the sprint. Keeping this in mind, do not
include the Product Owner or Scrum
Master into capacity unless these team
members are going to complete backlog
items during the sprint.

Now that you know how many

8 Count the developers and testers.
Give each of them 8 points for
contributing team members you have,
assign each person a point for each day
every 2 week Sprint. they will work during the sprint.
POINTS
For example, if your team cadence is
Subtract a point for each day a person is two weeks sprints, this is what a team’s
- scheduled to miss for vacation, holidays,
conferences, all-day planning, etc.
capacity calculation might look like:

3 + 4 = 7
Add up every individual’s capacity DEVELOPERS TESTERS TEAM

+ to arrive at the total team capacity

for the Program Increment.
MEMBERS

7 x 8 = 56
TEAM DAYS IN A POINTS OF
MEMBERS TWO-WEEK CAPACITY
SPRINT

10

Calculate Team Capacity
You might be asking yourself if there are ten
days in a sprint, why were only eight points of
capacity assigned to each person? This lower
number is because the first and last day of
every sprint is dedicated to planning and sprint
closure activities, respectively. These are non-
productive days for your team members and
are subtracted from the total capacity. The
same rule applies to days off like vacations,
holidays, and sick days.
Remember to calculate capacity for each sprint
in the Program Increment (PI) to give a full
picture of team capacity for the PI. When you
are done, capacity should look more like this.
Sprint 1 – 56 Points
Sprint 2 – 44 Points
Sprint 3 – 37 Points
Sprint 4 – 56 Points
Total Team
– 56 + 44 + 37 + 56 = 193 Points
Capacity for the PI
Estimating the Work
Once capacity is calculated, you need the team
to estimate their work. The purpose of work
estimation is to help the team decide how much
work they can do in each iteration or time period.
There are several approaches to work estimation,
but one of the most common is Agile Planning
Poker. A quick Google search provides you with
information about how to play.
Another less common approach is White Elephant
sizing, which you learn about in a SAFe Scrum
Master training class. A great video breaking
down the benefits of using this approach can be
found here.
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Loading the Sprint

Once you have the backlog estimates, you can begin

working with the team to load the sprint. Loading
the sprint refers to assigning work to the sprint only
according to what the team has decided they can
accomplish within the iteration.

A good rule of thumb is to only load your sprints up

to approximately 80-90% of the team’s capacity. This
practice leaves about 10-20% of capacity to handle
surprises that come up throughout the sprint. Some
teams require more or less than this figure, but part
of being agile is planning for unknowns that teams
only discover as they begin working.

80-90%
Helpful Hint: While working this out, be sure to ask the team if they
have other duties like production support responsibilities, a backlog of
technical debt, or other work they may have forgotten to estimate before
they commit to any deliverables for the sprint. Your role (and goal) is to
help the team estimate accurately and load work sustainability. OF THE TEAM’S
CAPACITY

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Facilitate Daily
Standup
Whether your team is doing Scrum, Kanban,
XP, or something else, the 15-minute Daily
Standup is a powerful tool that helps your team
communicate with you and each other. The key
to success in this meeting is facilitating it so the
team stays within the 15-minute time box. This can
be challenging, especially for teams with a lot to
discuss.
This is where the Meet After
+30
MINUTES comes in. When scheduling your
standup meetings, go ahead, and
schedule an additional 30 minutes
of separate meeting time for
those who have additional needs
for more discussion. This meeting
allows the team to complete the
standup in 15 minutes but also provides them with
extended time for necessary discussion.
3 Simple
Questions
Encourage the team to answer these
three simple questions in the standup.
1. What did I do yesterday?
2. What will I do today?
3. What impediments may prevent me
from meeting our team sprint goals?
These questions provide you with excellent
insight into the team’s progress and clarify
where they may need some help.
Helpful Hint: If the team seems disengaged
or a bit lost during the daily standup, get them
back on track with a pre-set agenda showing
their iteration goals. Once the team can
visualize what they are trying to accomplish, it
should help them re-engage in the discussion.
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Attend Scrum of Scrums What has the team accomplished since
the last Scrum of Scrums (SoS) meeting?

During the Scrum of Scrums, the ART Release Train Engineer

(RTE) is going to want to know what your team accomplished
since the last meeting.
What does the team plan to
accomplish by the next SoS meeting?
Be prepared to share answers to the following questions from
the Scaled Agile Framework2 with the RTE:
- What your team has accomplished since the last meeting?
- What your team plans to achieve by your next meeting?
- Whether your team is experiencing blocking issues?
- Whether you will be blocking any other teams? What blocking issues is
the team experiencing?

You gather all this information from your team’s Daily Standups.

Helpful Hint: While your team is explaining their progress, keep Will the team be blocking
a notebook handy so you can take notes on some of the critical
information you need for the Scrum of Scrums meeting. If the team any other teams soon?
has not shared the information you need, ask them about it. Let them
know you are trying to prepare for the Scrum of Scrums meeting
where you represent them and their progress toward their goals.

2
(The Scaled Agile Framework, 2020)

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Reporting That Tells a Story

“Not “Pushed to “Defects Dependencies “Sprint Goals

Deleted Added
Accepted” Next Sprint” Logged” Resolved Completed”

ITERATION 1 2 1 1 1 0 1 3
ITERATION 2 0 0 0 1 1 2 4

ITERATION 3 1 0 0 0 1 1 2

TOTALS 3 1 1 2 2 100% 89%

RISKS One of the team's stories requires new technology the team is not familiar with. May take a bit longer to complete.

ISSUES The team does not have the required equipment to conduct smooth demonstrations to the customer.

ACTIONS The product help guide must be reviewed and edited before launch.

DEPENDENCIES The team is dependent on the legal team to help them define the contract.

15
An essential aspect of the Scrum Master’s Reporting progress isn’t just about metrics, either.
responsibility is to help others understand what To help your team remove impediments, you also
is happening with the team. This responsibility need to be able to explain to your stakeholders
should not be taken lightly. As the Scrum Master, what risks or issues the team is facing. You need
you know your team best. It is your role to share to manage open action items, dependencies on
your knowledge about your team with key other teams, and cost considerations. The key
stakeholders. Your team is depending on your is to arrive at the best combination of metrics,
communication and progress-tracking skills to progress, and impediment reporting that tells your
represent them accurately. team’s story in a way that helps them trust you as
their Scrum Master.
Tracking metrics like the number of stories
loaded at the beginning of the sprint, percent
of accepted, and the number of stories added
during the sprint will, over time, provide you with
a comprehensive view of team performance.
This information helps you tell the team’s story
to key stakeholders who are expecting progress
updates.

Eventually, your goal is to understand the team’s

velocity, which is a measure of how many story
points the team can realistically complete in a
sprint. The team’s velocity will eventually replace
the notion of capacity for the team. Ideally, the
team knows they can complete a certain number
of points per sprint, and if people are out, that
number goes down. The activity becomes less Helpful Hint: The Scaled Agile Framework
about accurately doing math and more about website provides you with a full list of metrics
helping the team “intuitively” understand what you should track each week.
they can accomplish together.

16
Coordinate the Sprint Demo

According to the Agile Manifesto, the primary measure
of progress for an Agile software development team is
the delivery of working software.3
The team needs to demonstrate their working software
to their customer and gather feedback. The team must
also evaluate the feedback and translate it into actions
or more backlog items that help move the product in
the right direction.
A Scrum Master’s responsibility is to ensure this demo
is coordinated, that all criteria for the demo is defined,
and that the team has all technical issues worked out
prior to conducting a successful demonstration. In a
SAFe context, demos may be done in front of large
groups of stakeholders. To ensure the best outcome,
the team should plan a demo rehearsal.
Another part of your role is
to remind people that they
are responsible for certain
aspects of the process. For
example, during the demo, it
is the Product Owner who will
accept the stories as done while
the Product Manager accepts features. Be prepared
to answer questions regarding team roles using the
information you learned from exploring the SAFe Big
Picture website.
Once the demo is complete, the Scrum Master should
look back at the team’s stated iteration goals and validate
that what was demonstrated matches what was planned
for the sprint. If this was not the case, the situation needs
to be discussed at the team Retrospective.

Helpful Hint: The Scrum Master should also coordinate and validate that someone is taking
notes on the outcomes, feedback, stakeholders present, and any decisions made during the demo.
If you complete this step, you’ll avoid some uncomfortable requirements misunderstandings later.

3
(The Scaled Agile Framework, 2020)

17
Close the Sprint

At the end of the sprint, it helps to plan time to

formally “close” the sprint with the team. If nothing
went wrong, sprint closure is a great time to
celebrate team wins. If something did go wrong, the
retrospective helps the team understand the issues
better and know what they need to do to improve
performance next sprint.

There is no set format for a sprint closure, but there

are a couple of key activities to do.

First, any work not completed during the sprint

should be rescheduled for evaluation and planning
in the following sprint. If you are using a tool to
manage the backlog work, with the team to move
the unfinished items to the next sprint.

Second, define an action plan for the next Sprint

Planning meeting, including what should be done
with the unfinished work. Getting organized helps RESCHEDULE DEFINE AN
you execute Sprint Planning more efficiently. UNFINISHED ACTION PLAN
WORK FOR NEXT SPRINT
That’s it! Your sprint is now officially closed, and your
team is taking a fresh approach to the next sprint.

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Conduct the
Retrospective
During the Retrospective, the team should discuss
the outcomes of the sprint. You’ll want to find out
if the team is working well together or if there are
conflicts between key team members. For software
development teams, you’ll need to ask if they are
integrating their code regularly and resolving any
resulting issues quickly. You’ll also want to understand
if the team was able to complete their goals.

Three questions that help facilitate

this discussion are:
1. What went well?
2. What didn’t go well?
3. How can we improve?

The key to making the retrospective work is

documenting the information the team has provided
and then creating related actions in the team’s
backlog. Creating these improvement actions moves
the team from a state where they are talking about
improving to making improvements. Providing the
teams time to improve can create a powerful shift in
mindset from just building software to deploying high-
quality code the first time.

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Creative
Retrospective Ideas
Sometimes retrospectives can become boring. If this happens,
the team relies on the Scrum Master to understand how to pull
them out of the rut. Research new ways to ask the teams for
important information.

Just a simple google search gives you a load of ideas such as:
- Appreciations
Ask the team if someone helped them this sprint.
- One Word
Have each team member use one word to describe their
experience with this sprint.
- Rate the Iteration
Ask the teams to rate the iteration on a scale of 1-5.

You can find more ideas here:

https://agilestrides.com/blog/40-ideas-to-spice-up-your-
retrospective/. Try to find some creative retrospective ideas
and then share with us what you found!

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Support PI Planning

PI Planning can be a bit noisy and busy, but your team can plan REMINDER:
effectively and efficiently by doing a few key things. Deliver realistic Sprint Plans and a
Program Board. Load work to 80-
First, you must timebox your team. Teams tend to think the
only time they get to discuss a feature is during PI Planning, but 90% of Capacity. Feel good about
that’s not true. They have multiple Sprint Planning events during your commitments.
which they discuss features in detail and break down the work.
The goal of PI Planning is to get as much planning as possible At the end of the PI, celebrate
done within a specific timeframe, usually 1-2 days. as a team! A potluck, movie day, or
bowling outing are always fun team
Next, you’ll need to help your team understand the event
agenda and when they are expected to present information. celebration activities.
Scrum of Scrums, Draft Plan Review, and Final Plan Review
occur at specific times of the day, and you need to be ready with
the information requested by the RTE. For help understanding
the specific information being requested by your ART, speak
y
da
with your RTE, who can help you understand what questions
they will ask and what kind of information they expect. ie
ov
Finally, be ready to help the teams get what they need. If
m
they need a breakout room to have some quiet planning time,
schedule the space ahead of time. If they need planning poker
po
cards or planning materials, be sure these are available. Be sure tlu
the expected PI features and corresponding information are g ck
available to them as well. w lin
bo

21
Inspect & Adapt INSPECT & ADAPT WORKSHOP

The RTE is looking for feedback from the

entire ART so they can drive an improvement
backlog for the leadership team.

Be an active participant in this activity and Encourage teams to Provide

you can help ensure the RTE is focused on participate in the problem- Retrospective
solving the right problems. solving workshop feedback as input

Ideally, provide them with your team

Retrospective feedback, encourage your
team members to speak up during the
Inspect & Adapt workshop, and then hold
the RTE accountable for showing the
progress of these improvement actions over
the course of the PI.
Help the RTE make sure Ensure that any agreed
You, the Scrum Master, are an active part improvement items are to improvement items
of the RTE’s success. included during the PI are demonstrated at
regular demo meetings

22
Learn some
Agile games!
Arguably, one of the more difficult things
about being a Scrum Master is getting a
team of 6-12 people to understand an Agile
concept in approximately the same way.
Games can help your team arrive at common
understanding much faster.

Search https://www.scrum.org/forum/
scrum-forum/5611/games-agile-and-scrum
to find some new and exciting games to
play with your team. The Penny Game is a
common one to introduce first. The idea is
to help your teams understand concepts like
product development flow, strengthening
requirements gathering, work estimation, etc.

23
Remember the A Scrum M a ste r ’s role is to
m e m b er this!
Agile Manifesto help us re

With variations in communication styles, working REMEMBER THE AGILE MANIFESTO?

styles, preferences, emotions, skill sets, etc., it can
be challenging to guide teams in the right direction.
The beauty of a team is that every individual comes Individuals and over processes
with their own set of strengths. The difficulty of a interactions and tools
team is that every individual on the team comes
with their own set of strengths! It is no easy task over comprehensive
to keep everyone on the same page, which is why Working software
documentation
the Scrum Master’s role is so critical to the team’s
success. Your role is to help the team remember the
Agile Manifesto when they have gotten too busy to Customer over contract
remember it. collaboration negotiation

The Agile Manifesto is a simple but powerful set of

guiding values that are intended to help the team
keep the team focused on the right behaviors. As a
Scrum Master, you are responsible for first modeling
the behavior implied by the manifesto and then
helping your team members model the behavior.
Responding to change over following a plan
That is, while there is value in the items on the
right, we value the items on the left more.

In other words, the success of an

Agile team begins with you.

24
Resources

The Scaled Agile Framework. (2020, 4 08). Lean-Agile Mindset.

Retrieved from Scaled Agile Framework: https://www.
scaledagileframework.com/lean-agile-mindset/

The Scaled Agile Framework. (2020, March 6). Scrum Master.

Retrieved from The Scaled Agile Framework: https://www.
scaledagileframework.com/scrum-master/

Greenleaf, D. (2016, July 26). White Elephant Sizing, Faster than

Planning Poker. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=L94URgiPSGA

The Scaled Agile Framework. (2019, 12 31). Program Increment.

Retrieved from Scaled Agile Framework: https://www.
scaledagileframework.com/program-increment/

Manifesto for Agile Software Development. (2001). Retrieved from

Agile Manifesto: https://agilemanifesto.org/

Other Resources

Retrospective Ideas
https://agilestrides.com/blog/40-ideas-to-spice-up-your-
retrospective/.

Agile Games
https://www.scrum.org/forum/scrum-forum/5611/games-agile-and-
scrum

25
About Sila

Sila is a technology and management consulting

firm with specialized insight into what it takes
to establish and grow a successful SAFe
organization. Our trainers are consistently looked
to by our clients for help developing a Scaled
Agile strategy; and executing and growing ARTs.

Helping leaders answer the question, “Where

do my people fit into this new SAFe world?”
is our specialty. We think SAFe is a pretty
extraordinary framework and we very much look
forward to sharing it with you.

More information contact us at

agile@silasg.com