A Good ScrumMaster is Hard to Find

A Zen master famous for his collection of wooden Buddhas once said, "Enlightened people are everywhere but a good wooden Buddha is hard to find!"

Really good ScrumMasters are hard to find because they get promoted to VP of Engineering or head of a business unit or run off and start their own company. Why? The math is simple. As soon as someone demonstrates s/he gets twice the results of anyone else in the company, management starts the promotion process. Because they are experts in leading cross functional teams, they can take on anything in the company.

So you have to recruit these people on the way up or get them in the middle of a career change when they will work for less. An excellent way to bring new leadership into the company and to get Scrum started at the same time is to pay a little more for a talented ScrumMaster and give them the first team. Or try recruiting a Director of Engineering level ScrumMaster to lead your Scrum of Scrums. This role must deliver releases of product on an accelerated schedule and needs broad experience.

I know a guy with over 15 years of experience at IBM that just became a Certified ScrumMaster and is looking for a consulting opportunity to build his ScrumMaster resume. Send me email if you have any interest.