When a Scrum Master Needs to Hire a Manager, An Organizational Design Story | Karen Suarez

Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast: Agile storytelling from the trenches

Karen Suarez: When a Scrum Master Needs to Hire a Manager, An Organizational Design Story

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.

Karen shares her experience as the first Scrum Master in a company where development, QA, product, and deployment were all separate departments, resulting in a cycle time exceeding six weeks. She strategically approached transformation by first identifying interested individuals in other departments who were already collaborating with the development team. Karen formalized the Product Owner role by cultivating a relationship with someone from the product department who showed interest in working closely with the team. She created regular collaboration routines between QA and development, and gradually involved the deployment team by inviting them to demos and having developers learn deployment skills. When faced with trust issues between deployment and development teams, Karen recognized the need for leadership support and built a case for hiring a manager who could help bridge these departments, acknowledging that some organizational challenges require sponsorship beyond the Scrum Master role.

Self-reflection Question: In your organization, what departmental silos might be increasing cycle time, and who could be your allies in breaking down these barriers?

About Karen Suarez

Karen is a dedicated Scrum Master with a long experience driving agile transformations and fostering high-performing teams. She is passionate about continuous learning, and excels in aligning agile practices with organizational innovation.

You can link with Karen Suarez on LinkedIn.