Scrum Master: Learning to Multi-Task

The project I am scrum master for has recently begun the majority of its testing. Although it would have been much better to perform the testing as part of each of the stories, our project had two dependencies for the input into our functionality meaning we opted mostly for unit testing as verification of our stories. Due to this the majority of the functional testing is being performed at the end of the development cycle, meaning it has actually been more of a traditional waterfall development cycle. This has brought me some interesting problems to solve.

Testing

​Waterfall Testing Process​

Before we adopted a more agile approach to the development lifecycle the developers would implement all the functionality and then a "Tester" would be brought in at towards the end to analyse the design documents and create a "Test Plan" for the functionality. They would be then be the "Test Lead" for that plan. The Test Lead would allocate all the testing resources, follow up on defects found and ensure the development team is aware of them.

Testing Process for Our Project

Like I was saying earlier, our project is doing a more waterfall method of testing, the main difference is that we don't have a test lead to create the test plan or track defects or check in with how the testing is going. This is the reason I'm struggling to juggle development responsibilities with Scrum Master and essentially Test Lead responsibilities as well.

How I'm Tackling It

There are a number of things I'm doing to try and manage my time better, they are:

• ​Timebox Tasks
• Use a Daily To Do List
• Track Non Development Tasks as Work Items

Timeboxing

So I sought out some advice from my manager and he told me that I should try and timebox tasks. By doing that none of my responsibilities start lacking in favour of any other. This is difficult for me as I always favour development tasks as it feels like I'm actually "getting stuff done".

Daily To Do List

I decided to create a "Daily To Do List" this involves my Scrum Master and Test Lead jobs i.e.:

• ​Check for any new Defects
• Check Completed Tests from previous day
• Alter Test Schedule based on blocking defects or Tests that were not run from the previous day

By doing this it gives me a clear goal for each of the items reducing the chance that I will forget to do something. On any one day I have to have at least done my daily to do list for me to be happy with that days work.

Non-Dev Task Tracking