Guess what they called a scrum master 20 years ago?
and why this matters to your career today :)
Let me guess…
Not a project manager? No.
An entertainer? No. Stop being cheeky.
A tea boy? Ok, ok, now you’re taking the piss.
But seriously.
Before the Agile movement with its frameworks and lightweight methods, there was a much simpler term to describe what people are doing in the community today (those of you who may call yourself a Scrum Master, Agile Coach, Kanban Practitioner, and more). Helping people go from analog to digital, helping teams find better ways of working, and helping companies develop or strengthen their delivery capability – that was already happening. By the way, for newcomers to this space, when I say “go digital,” I mean, for example, helping a company transition from physical documentation to software, from analog to digital, where paper-based records are converted into digital files that can be stored, searched, and managed electronically.
I first saw a Scrum Master without the name while working on the biggest trade floor in Europe. She was a lady who had been brought into our department to help us find “efficiencies.” As an uninterested grad handling aggressive requests from traders who were complaining about “this price is not matching that price on the system, fix it,” I never really paid attention to this newcomer.
But over time, I started to realize she was a pretty cool cat. Likeable, personable, and seemed like she wanted to help our team.
She was very keen to understand how our work in technology connects to a business need.
Helped us visualise how we delivered work to find opportunities to do things better.
Still got respect from the developers even though she was not a programmer, but had a good awareness of the technology in terms of concepts.
Could mix it up with management and the developers in our team.
Emphasised doing things to learn and not just churn.
Listened a lot and was great at listening to the needs of the team while finding a middle ground to help us make a decision.
After the first month of meeting Margaret in team meetings, while I was having lunch in Canary Wharf, one of the older developers explained that this consultant was brought in to help our department and shared some skeptics along the way. Yes, you heard it right, what we call a Scrum Master today – and you’ll see why this is super important for your career – was simply a consultant back then. Before my peers freak out, no, not one of those consultants from the big four, fresh out of university who create PowerPoint slides ;) I’m talking about people who have done the job and gone on to share their expertise with other teams.
Now I won’t pretend I didn’t know what consulting was, but I remember a book about consulting which sparked my interest. That book was by a guy named Jerry or Gerald Weinberg, and it was called something like "The Secrets of Consulting." It’s kinda like a guide for consultants where Weinberg gives insights on how to be successful, offering practical tips and strategies for building human relationships, solving problems, and ultimately achieving outcomes. Good read. What I found really interesting was the psychology he discussed in consulting—I’ve always had an interest in behavioral science. This book had a big impact on where I wanted to go in my career.
Go Big and Wide or Tall and Deep?
As I moved to other jobs and met more consultants (there always seemed to be consultants in these large change management programs in banks), I started to understand that you could be either a broad and shallow consultant or a narrow and deep one. The broad and shallow consultant has a wide range of knowledge across different areas but with less depth in each area. The advantage is that you’re well-rounded, versatile, and can make connections across diverse fields. The disadvantage is that you may lack the depth required for deep expertise in other areas. On the other hand, the narrow and deep approach focuses on gaining extensive knowledge in one area, making you an expert in that specific field. This specialization can be very valuable in certain roles or industries, but the downside is you may lack broader context and versatility.
For me, having this awareness and listening to other consultants explain, as well as reading books they recommended, was insightful. However, I didn’t explicitly choose either approach (broad & shallow vs. narrow & deep). It was more a case of being led by my interests and working with the opportunities in the market. For example, I started as a grad working various roles, help desk, application support, analyst roles, business analysis, project management, scrum mastering, delivery lead, and more. By 2014, I had acquired 10 years of experience in different roles across banking, which led me to my first consulting role.
Working with What You Can but Try to Guide the Direction You Go
The reason I highlight different types of consulting is that you might be able to be more purposeful about the type of consultant you want to be. But again, not all of us have the luxury of picking the exact job we want. So, the message here is that it’s all about the art of the possible and working with what’s happening in the market at the time. You might be able to exercise more control over the industry you pick and the type of domain you want to be in. For example, maybe you want to work in the gaming industry and be involved in software development rather than project management.
What Existed Then, Exists Now, Kinda
All of the roles you see in the Agile world today, in many ways existed back then with different names through consulting. Technology consultants, Management Consultants, Operations consultants, Strategy consultants. How does that translate, you know, what does that look like? Let me try to give you a rough map of all of these consultants to roles today:
Operations consultants - Dev/Ops person…think of successful organizations like Continuo
IT Consultant - eXtreme programming developer…think software craftsman, Kent Beck
Strategy consultant - Experienced Product gurus…think Chris Matts, Marty Cagan
Management Consultant - Scrum, Kanban…think anyone who is skilled in developing capability which may well touch on all of the things above!
Disclaimer: I am not saying these roles map perfectly; they don’t. I also want to make it clear, a management consultant from 2003 is very likely different from those in 2024 in terms of skills and knowledge they bring. But there is nuance here, there were consultants way before Agile went mainstream that have those skills and knowledge that are popular today (think iterative delivery, treating deliverables as options, focusing on outcomes not just outputs, empowering teams, the importance of software craftsmanship to deliver, etc.).
Yeah, so?
It’s a tough market.
There are more Scrum Masters.
And the consultants who were sought after are also the Scrum Masters who are still sought after today. They are those who have been in the work before.
Did you hear that? Being “in the work before” helps you acquire more skills; this in turn keeps you in a job and can help you to keep adding value.
Roles do not matter, skills do matter.
I’ve done a few different team-level roles in technology; you don’t have to start as a Scrum Master, in fact maybe you shouldn’t.
What the f*ck, I just paid to be certified.
So?
Scrum Mastering can be seen as a series of skills. Keep equipping yourself with skills and consider any of the below:
Business analyst
Project Manager
Tester, software development
UI/UX person
Product management, Product Ownership
Client relationship management
You can take your Scrum Mastering skills and apply the ideas in most roles (I’ll write a blog on that soon).
I want you to be open-minded to keep acquiring skills, and I want you to feel empowered that there are many opportunities in the market even if they don’t have the perfect name.
I also want to recognize that when you acquire these skills that can also help you become a well-paid consultant.
You see titles and roles will come and go. Companies fall in and out of love with trends. But one thing which is always here to stay and has been around in business for a very long time is consulting. (Consulting has roots as early as the 19th century, with Arthur Dehon Little, a chemist who started offering specialized technical advice to businesses).
You with me? Consulting, whatever your area of expertise, will always be around. Having that in mind inspired me to collect more skills and worry less about the “Scrum Master” role.
Have a great day people!
I love Secrets of Consulting. I read it in 2018 while on holiday and I just couldn't put it down. I still dip into it today. Well worth reading, it's an easy read that's still highly relevant.