The Scrum Master School 2021

The 2nd edition of intive’s Scrum Master School has officially come to an end. It has been an exciting journey through the world of Agile, with the aim to promote the agile mindset and enable a career switch for those participants who are willing to become future Scrum Masters within intive.

The course attracted 90 participants from all over the world and offered in total around 180 hours of training, taught by 5 different class coaches. The idea, introduced last year by intive’s Scrum specialists Maciej Mrozik and Michał Kordas, has since evolved into an international initiative with multiple small-sized groups, dedicated to, as they have both stated, "sustaining the agile spirit". 

From the start, the main goal of the Scrum Master School has been to foster useful practices embracing the agile mindset, deepen the understanding of Scrum and provide a professional growth springboard for employees who would wish to take on the role of Scrum Masters at intive.

"We just wanted to do something of value for our company, for our colleagues with whom we work, because (as you know) a good Scrum Master supports not only his team, but also his organization. We wanted to infect participants with the spirit of agility as we perceive it, authentic agility, which is not so much a framework as a state of mind. We’d quietly dreamed that after this course, there would be people willing to enter the path of a Scrum Master. And it did actually happen, which is the most beautiful reward for us.", said Michał Kordas. 

The new Scrum Masters

We are proud to say that the Scrum Master School has achieved its goals: Some of the graduates have become new Scrum Masters at intive and others have passed the Professional Scrum Certificate. Among our new Scrum Masters are Zuzanna and Marco, who shared their thoughts with us: 

"When I started the SM School, I didn't think I would become a full-time Scrum Master. At the beginning, I was a bit green at Agile. After 6 months, I left with a solid base of knowledge and a desire to know more about Scrum. My trainer, Martyna, showed us both the theoretical and practical side of the job. We were given plenty of exercises, and that practice made me confident I understood the topic, and also gave me the courage to discuss and explore various issues together with the group. A great trainer, great people, and a great experience.  Remember to try new things, learn, make mistakes and learn from them.”, said Zuzanna Kolińska, former Front Desk Team Lead, who has transitioned into a Scrum Master’s role.

"Overall, I had a great experience with the intive Scrum Master School. The lecturers were motivated and the discussions in the groups, at least in mine, were constructive and educational. My personal highlight were the classes with the invited guest speakers, who also did an amazing job teaching agile values and sharing their practical knowledge. As for the results, they speak for themselves: Just a couple of weeks after the final session, I took the PSM I assessment, and passed.", said Marco Edenhofer, Software Engineer.

Welcome to the agile board! 

The Scrum Master School course included theory combined with case studies, role-playing, quizzes, tests, Q&A sessions, and workshops. Additionally, it offered two extra sessions with guest speakers, well-known experts in the Agile arena: Radek Orszewski (meet.kanban) and Krzysztof Niewiński (More with Less).

The 6 months’ training would not be possible without our experienced and creative Agile practitioners: Scrum Masters, Agile Consultants and Coaches. Meet Maciej Mrozik, Michał Kordas, Martyna Dzięciołowska, Anna Jadach-Maciejewska, and Andrzej Piechocki. 

Maciej Mrozik has worked in agile spirit for as long as he can remember; he has walked the entire path from an IT developer to a manager. He has been professionally active for over 20 years, but discovered his true destiny several years ago, and became a Scrum Master, Agile Coach, consultant, and trainer; he loves all kinds of sports and runs a remarkably interesting podcast.

Michał Kordas is a die-hard idealist. Before becoming a Scrum Master and trainer, he developed products as a Product Owner, took care of projects and teams as an Agile Manager, and as a director was responsible for entire departments; he loves working with people, merging order with invention, and sharing his knowledge. He’s been in IT for 13 years. 

Martyna Dzięciołowska is a huge fan of waste elimination and optimization. She started her professional adventure as a PMO, and for the past 3 years has been working as a Scrum Master, focusing on effectiveness of teams and units. In other words, Martyna focuses on doing the right things right. 

As a graduate of the first edition of the Scrum Master School, Martyna shared with us a few insights on her professional journey: 

"My story began with attending a pilot version of the Scrum Master School back in 2018.  The program gave me an opportunity to step into the Scrum Master role immediately after the course, which absolutely opened my mind to a new adventure. Currently, I am a satisfied Scrum Master, working with teams on their effectiveness; I also acted as a trainer in the latest Scrum Master School edition, which offered me the privilege to broaden the horizons of the next wave of prospective Scrum Masters. I am totally in love with that initiative."

 Anna Jadach-Maciejewska  treats every aspect of work as an art that can be constantly explored and built up. A dedicated and enthusiastic trainer, fascinated by interpersonal communication, the process of defining right goals, elimination of waste and increasing teams' effectiveness, Anna has been a Scrum Master for about 5 years now.

Andrzej Piechocki is an eternal optimist, who originally honed his skills as a developer; however, he has been an ardent follower of agile methodologies ever since he can remember; he loves technology, innovative solutions, and passionate people. Almost 15 years in IT, currently a Scrum Master. He believes that "amazing people create amazing projects".

 "For me, as a class coach at SM, the School means, first and foremost, the pleasure of exchanging experiences. Learning based on examples from various projects provided by participants. An additional advantage was the opportunity to share knowledge and experiences with other trainers. I believe that the time at the Scrum Masters School contributed a lot to the personal development of both the trainers and the participants."

Feedback from trainees

Piotr Palus - Software Engineer:

“I’m so happy that I was a part of the Scrum Maters School. As a developer, I knew a lot about working in a Scrum team, but not from a Scrum Master’s perspective. It was good to organize your knowledge and learn even more. I think everyone should take this course to see clearly how important the Scrum Master’s role is. And I believe that I’m quite ready to become one some day.”

Rodolfo Cordero Sancho - Software Engineer: 

“In January 2021, we received a newsletter offering us the opportunity to participate in a training course for Scrum; the big difference in this case was, not only Argentina was to participate, but all employees in all countries of intive’s operation were invited. It probably wasn’t the first time that we were able to participate in an international training, with teammates from abroad, but it was the first time for me. So, on top of learning about Scrum, the Scrum Master School turned out to be also about sharing and learning from teammates from other countries. What can I say: We have excellent teachers with real professional experience. intive’s projects are not all entirely perfect, and there is always room to learn. And we can learn more if we learn from our mistakes and share what we have learned.”

More to come

The 2nd edition of the Scrum Master School has inspired intivers to undertake similar endeavors in other fields as well. 

The effort put into the preparation and running of the SM School has definitely paid off. The project’s success has empowered our agile leaders to do even more and better the next time around:

"Is this something we would do again? By all means, yes! Thanks to the initiative we have not only helped others to deepen the understanding of agility, but we have also helped ourselves – we have grown as agile leaders and that would not be possible without our dear trainees. So, thank you all for your energy: it has empowered us to empirically improve step by step.", summarized Anna Jadach-Maciejewska .

Would you like to know what is coming next? Stay tuned! We’ll keep you posted! 


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