Scrum Master
Advanced Scrum Master with data-driven team health analysis.
$skillfish add ~skills/scrum-master What This Skill Can Do
Concrete capabilities you get when you install this skill.
Facilitate sprint ceremonies: planning, daily standup, review, and retrospective
Coach teams on Scrum principles, velocity management, and sprint health
Identify and remove impediments blocking sprint delivery
Diagnose team dysfunction using health diagnostics and retrospective data
Guide teams through Scrum adoption and maturity progression
Scale Scrum across multiple teams with cross-team dependency management
Real Conversations
See how the Scrum Master skill responds to actual requests. These are representative examples of what your AI agent will produce.
Our team has missed its sprint commitment 8 sprints in a row. We're carrying over 40-60% of stories every sprint. The team is demoralized and management is losing trust. I'm the Scrum Master. What's going on and how do I fix it?
Eight consecutive sprints of carryover is a systemic problem, not a discipline problem. Here's how to diagnose it:
Data collection (do this before your next retrospective): For the last 5 sprints, measure:
- Committed SP vs. completed SP
- % of carried-over stories that were later completed vs. dropped
- When in the sprint did work slow down? (Day 1–3, mid-sprint, last 2 days?)
- How many stories were added mid-sprint?
Common root causes of chronic carryover:
| Cause | Diagnostic signal | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Over-commitment | Committed SP consistently 50%+ above velocity | Enforce velocity-based capacity planning |
| Unclear acceptance criteria | Stories re-opened after "done" | Definition of Ready gate — no AC = no sprint |
| Mid-sprint scope injection | CEO/stakeholder adds work during sprint | Sprint shield policy — changes wait for next sprint |
| Hidden dependency chains | Stories block each other | Explicit dependency mapping in planning |
| Estimation inflation | Team pads estimates but still misses | Run a calibration exercise — compare estimates to actuals |
Immediate intervention:
- Run a data-driven retrospective — show the 8-sprint trend chart, no blame
- For next sprint: commit to 70% of average velocity (intentional under-commitment)
- Celebrate completing 100% of a smaller commitment — rebuilds confidence
- Implement a Definition of Ready checklist — no story enters sprint without AC, design, and estimate
Management messaging: "We're fixing the system, not just pushing harder. Here's the 60-day plan."
Get Started
How to install and use this skill in your preferred environment.
Skills are designed for AI coding agents (Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf) and IDE-based workflows where the agent can read files, run scripts, and act on your codebase. Web-based AI can use the knowledge and frameworks, but won't have tool access.
Models & Context
Which AI models and context windows work best with this skill.
Recommended Models
Larger models produce more detailed, production-ready outputs.
Context Window
This skill's SKILL.md is typically 3–10 KB — fits in any modern context window.
All current frontier models (Claude, GPT, Gemini) support 100K+ context. Use the full window for complex multi-service work.
Pro tips for best results
Be specific
Include numbers — users, budget, RPS — so the skill can size the architecture.
Share constraints
Compliance needs, team size, and existing stack all improve the output.
Iterate
Start with a high-level design, then ask follow-ups for IaC, cost analysis, or security review.
Combine skills
Pair with companion skills below for end-to-end coverage.
Good to Know
Advanced guide and reference material for Scrum Master. Background, edge cases, and patterns worth understanding.
Contents
Scrum Metrics Reference
| Metric | Definition | Healthy Range |
|---|---|---|
| Velocity | Story points completed per sprint | Stable; absolute number is team-relative |
| Velocity trend | Sprint-over-sprint change in velocity | ±15% from rolling average |
| Sprint burndown slope | Rate of work completion through the sprint | Steady decline; not flat-then-steep at the end |
| Sprint goal success rate | % of sprints where the sprint goal is met | >80% |
| Team happiness index | Self-reported morale score (e.g., 1–5) at retro | Trend matters more than absolute score; declining trend requires intervention |
A velocity drop of >20% sustained over 3 sprints is a signal to investigate — not push harder. Common causes are mid-sprint interruptions, team change, or hidden technical debt surfacing.
Velocity vs Throughput
Velocity (story points per sprint) is team-relative and not comparable across teams. A team that uses 3-point, 5-point, and 8-point stories has a different velocity than a team using 1-point and 2-point stories — even with identical output. This makes velocity useless for cross-team comparisons or portfolio-level forecasting.
Throughput (number of tickets completed per sprint or per week) is unit-agnostic and comparable. When stakeholders ask "how many features can we build in a quarter," throughput gives a more honest answer than story points.
When to use each:
- Velocity: Sprint capacity planning within a stable team
- Throughput: Forecasting feature delivery across sprints, team health comparisons, flow efficiency analysis (combine with cycle time)
Retrospective Format Library
| Format | How It Works | Best For | Avoid When |
|---|---|---|---|
| Start / Stop / Continue | Three columns: what to start doing, stop doing, keep doing | New teams, teams that need structure | Team is burned out on the format (use quarterly at most) |
| 4Ls (Liked, Learned, Lacked, Longed For) | Four questions surfacing positive and constructive feedback | Teams stuck generating only negative items | Very small teams where "Longed For" becomes a wish list |
| Sailboat | Wind = what helps us, Anchor = what slows us, Rocks = risks ahead | Mid-maturity teams, when risks are worth surfacing | Teams not yet comfortable voicing concerns openly |
| Mad / Sad / Glad | Emotional framing of sprint experience | Teams with unresolved interpersonal tension | High-performing teams where emotional framing feels forced |
| DAKI (Drop, Add, Keep, Improve) | Action-oriented variant of Start/Stop/Continue | Teams that generate actions but don't follow through | First retro with a new team — too action-heavy too soon |
Impediment Patterns
| Impediment Type | Symptom | SM Response |
|---|---|---|
| External dependency | Story blocked waiting on another team | Escalate to Program level; negotiate a service agreement or spike to remove dependency |
| Unclear requirements | Story re-opened after "done" or accepted twice | Enforce Definition of Ready — no AC = story not sprint-eligible |
| Environment / tooling | Stories blocked on access, broken build, missing infrastructure | Track as a formal impediment with an owner and deadline; do not let it become background noise |
| Team conflict | Sprint velocity drops, retro is quiet, 1:1 feedback surfaces friction | Private conversations first; if unresolved, involve management — SM does not mediate deep interpersonal disputes alone |
| Process overhead | Sprint planning takes 4+ hours, ceremonies consuming >20% of sprint time | Timebox and enforce; consider whether the team is too large |
Scaling Scrum
| Situation | Framework to Consider | Key Factor |
|---|---|---|
| 2–3 teams, shared backlog | Nexus | Lightweight coordination, one Product Owner across teams |
| 3–8 teams, same product | LeSS (Large-Scale Scrum) | Minimal additional roles; teams self-organize around features |
| 8+ teams, multiple value streams | SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) | Program Increment planning, explicit ARTs, dedicated Release Train Engineers |
| Cross-team coordination issues | "Just coordinate better" first | Add a weekly Scrum of Scrums before adopting a scaling framework |
The most common mistake is adopting SAFe for a 3-team org. SAFe's overhead is appropriate at 8+ teams with genuine portfolio management needs. Below that, Nexus or informal Scrum of Scrums is almost always sufficient.
Ready to try Scrum Master?
Install the skill and start getting expert-level guidance in your workflow — any agent, any IDE.
$skillfish add ~skills/scrum-master