Scrum Master at Co-operative Bank of Kenya

Job reference number SM/DB/RBB/2018

How business is done today is fast changing with many business entities embracing technology in how they deliver products and services to customers. Digital transformation is the next big thing in harnessing opportunities amidst a controlled and fast changing operating environment.

Are you looking to work for an organization that is leveraging on technology to redefine business? Do you desire to work in a fast-paced agile environment? Do you have basic knowledge of software development processes and procedures with an understanding of team needs, basic fundamentals of iterative and incremental development as well as Service oriented environments and Agile practices?

Do you put the customer first, communicate effectively, provide clear and strategic direction, empower through positive influence and execute with excellence? Then look no further, at Co-operative Bank you can achieve your highest potential and be part of a winning team!

As a Scrum Master you will act as an agile ambassador for the organization exhibiting a deeper passion for continuous learning and seeking, you will uphold, defend, coach and mentor sound agile practices and values and guide the development of an agile team into a self‐organized, effective, development unit with sustainable cadence.

Reporting to the Head Digital Banking, the Scrum Master will facilitate sprint planning, release planning participation, daily stand-ups, stakeholder demos, sprint retrospectives, and other related agile meetings. The Scrum Master also guides Product Owners in developing, maintaining and grooming Product Backlog, and identifies and manages dependencies. The role holder also reviews reports, analyzes data and provides feedback to teams in support of continual improvement efforts and provides metrics and status to senior management and accurately represents status of the Scrum Team(s).

The Role

The successful jobholder will be expected to:

• Facilitates the team for better creativity and works to improve the efficiency of the development team.
• Is responsible for managing the scrum process with the coordination of the scrum team in Agile methodology.
• Guides the team on self-organizing to fill in the intentional gaps left in the Agile/Scrum frameworks
• Assesses the Scrum Maturity of the team and organization and coaching the team to higher levels of maturity, at a pace that is sustainable for the team and organization
• Builds a trusting and safe environment where change can happen to increase the scrum team productivity
• Plans Scrum implementations within the organization by helping teams and stakeholders understand and enact Scrum and empirical product development;
• Facilitates the team by removing the impediments for the scrum team
• Establishes team performance rhythms e.g. daily stand-up meetings, facilitates and schedules meetings, demos and decision-making processes in order to ensure quick inspection and proper use of adaptation process.
• Helps product owners to maintain the product backlogs in good shape and make them ready for the next sprint.

Acts as safeguard for his team and provides all support to the team through coaching, role-modelling and authentic leadership

Qualifications, Skills & Attributes

The successful jobholder will be required to possess the following qualifications: -

• An IT related Bachelor’s degree or Business related degree with relevant IT professional qualifications with good project management, designing and testing background.
• Must have 2-3 years serving as an active Scrum Master in a software development organization.
• Certified Scrum Master with relevant practical experience as a Scrum Master or experience working in a Scrum Framework is preferred.
• Experienced with Lean/Agile principles with knowledge of agile methodology and approaches like scrum, Kanban, Extreme Programing (XP), Crystal, Feature Driven Development (FDD) etc.
• Basic knowledge of software development processes and procedures with an understanding of team needs, basic fundamentals of iterative and incremental development as well as service oriented environments and Agile practices.
• Coaching capability on agile scrum with a continuous improvement mindset to continually be growing one’s expertise, learning new tools and techniques to manage self and the team. Must be able to lead and demonstrate value-add principles to a team
• High level of mathematical aptitude and strong problem-solving skills, logical, analytical mindset with an investigative creative mind and ability to handle complex information with accuracy and attention to detail. Knows and appreciates the value of metrics and incremental delivery.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills when working with both internal business and technical people with external customers, ability to solidify vague requests, explain issues, and guide to solutions.