Scrum Master

GDOT Scrum Master & Agile CoachLocation: 600 W Peachtree St NW, Atlanta, GA 30308 (2-3 days onsite)Client: State of GAConsultant pay: W2 onlyUnder broad supervision, manages projects through full life cycle from project definition through implementation of project deliverables. Creates collaborative partnership with all internal and external team members to accomplish the deliverables.The Scrum Master Coach role for Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) IT Division includes facilitating and teaching IT Team Leads how to effectively run Scrum events, to reinforce GDOT-adopted Agile principles, to manage incidents continuously and effectively, to analyze and remove impediments, and how to guide teams in both the Scrum and Kanban frameworks to create productivity. This hybrid role requires strong facilitation and coaching skills to help Team Leads to empower groups to self-organize, use ticket tracking tools correctly, reinforce processes, and enhance collaboration while delivering value in alignment with IT leadership prioritization. Key responsibilities include guiding IT Team Leads in daily management of project and operational backlogs, fostering continuous progress on prioritized items, and teaching IT Team leads to apply both Scrum and Kanban practices with reporting to optimize workflow efficiency.Local Candidates onlyHybrid Work Schedule: 2-3 days onsiteAgile Certifications Required (Scrum Master certified at minimum)Candidate’s responsibilities to Facilitate and Coach at GDOT IT• Facilitate events to foster IT Team Lead Scrum and Accountability Training:Train and support IT Team Leads in leading Scrum events such as daily stand-ups, planning, sprint planning reviews, ticket tracking board clean-up activities, and retrospectives with the intention of IT Team Leads becoming proficient. The Scrum Master/Coach will assist with ceremony refinement to promote best practices for items such as story writing and task prioritization and participation. The collaboration with the IT Team Lead will also ensure that they become organized, informed, project tool proficient, and assess meetings to ensure relevant team members are present and informed of prioritization of their items ensure buy-in, alignment, and project success. The Scrum Master Coach uses their daily observations to facilitate trainings, education, and documentation to reinforce all incorporated best practices to ensure team accountability, tracking of project/ticket progress, the awareness, acumen, and participation of IT Team Leads.Coach teams and Train IT Leads to Coach Teams:Coach alongside IT Team Leads, with the intent of demonstration and training, to ensure that team members are well versed on both Scrum and Kanban principles and practices to foster self-organization and continuous improvement. Hold team leads accountable for working on items that align with IT leadership priority, which includes operational team supporting developer scrum team success. Train teams to be empowered to address issue, make recommendations, and manage incidents as a team working toward the same goal of success and remediation.• Analyze and remove impediments:In daily scenarios, using communication and project management tools, train IT Team Leads to manage incidents and to identify and remove blockers that hinder the teams’ progress. Identify when dependency analysis is necessary and incorporate that into a plan to handoff to GDOT IT to incorporate into their ceremonies.• Manage backlogs daily:Collaborate with the Technical Leads and IT Management to train on keeping and maintaining a clear, prioritization-aligned, and well-managed product backlog.• Promote continuous improvement:Facilitate continuous improvement through retrospectives and help teams implement actionable changes that are scheduled and are in a process where they will not be ignored.• Reinforce process adherence:Redirect IT Team Leads to adhere to the chosen Scrum framework (Sprints for developers and Kanban for infrastructure/operations) best practices, including implementing and incorporating Kanban’s operational functionality that creates flexibility, WIP limits and the documentation of repeatable tasks that can be used to improve throughput.• Foster collaboration:Coach Sprint Teams and Kanban Teams to work collaboratively to ensure communication to work toward an eventual successful incremental deployment.• Drive team effectiveness:Focus on improving the team's overall effectiveness and ability to deliver high-quality products by documenting all training for IT Team Leads and best practices in a living Working Agreement for teams to refer to when there is ambiguity around team/team member roles and best practices.Skills and qualifications (Candidate must have at least 5 years’ experience working with Agile Teams)Strong knowledge of both Scrum and Kanban methodologies and their underlying principles.• Excellent facilitation, coaching, and mentoring skills. This includes documentation of items taught to ensure a working agreement is tracked and updated with expectations and a commitment to best practices for those being trained.• Ability to analyze, identify, and resolve team impediments and conflicts.• Experience in managing and prioritizing backlogs that align with IT Leadership priority.• Strong communication skills to facilitate collaboration among team members, technical leads, architects, project managers, security team, and stakeholders.• Understanding of how to apply Kanban's core principles, such as explicit workflow, visualizing work, and limiting work in progress.• Understanding of how to apply Scrum Team best practices to ensure successful daily scrums, collaboration, alignment, risk analysis, and participation for ongoing team dynamics that facilitate successful iterative deployments.• Servant leadership mindset, focusing on team needs and enabling them to be self-organizing.• Proficient in Atlassian Suite (Jira, Confluence), ServiceNow (ITSM and Agile Modules), MS Teams, and Office365.• Agile Certifications Required (Scrum Master certified at minimum)Experience working with Agile Teams Required5 Years