From Good to Great: Journeying into the World of Scrum Mastery with Geoff Watts
As the founder of Taiwan Agile Tribe and Taiwan’s first Certified Scrum Trainer (CST), I, along with a volunteer team of over 70 people and ChatGPT, have successfully completed the translation of the second edition of Geoff Watts’s book, “Scrum Mastery: From Good to Great Servant Leadership.” Our mission is to disseminate the wisdom of “Scrum Mastery” to Chinese readers worldwide, enabling them to gain a deep understanding of Scrum’s practice and theory.
Three years ago, after leading the translation of a major project management system guide for a large team of over 100 people, I proactively reached out to Simon, the General Manager of Booky, hoping for more opportunities to translate classic agile books. We found several influential works, five in total, including Geoff Watts’s “Scrum Mastery.”
“Scrum Mastery” is an excellent agile leadership book and one of the most popular Scrum Master books over the past five years. We didn’t acquire the rights to this book easily; instead, after in-depth conversations with Geoff Watts and three years of continued coordination, we finally obtained the rights to the second edition. This accomplishment marks a significant milestone in Taiwan’s agile history, as Taiwan is the first country in Asia to successfully negotiate the rights to this book.
This book holds two noteworthy positions in agile milestones. First, we based our work on Large-Scale Scrum, and under the guidance of Dave West, the CEO of Scrum.Org (http://scrum.org/), we used the large-scale agile framework, Nexus. This approach allowed us to complete the translation within three months and carry out the product development process efficiently. This framework enables us to better deal with increasingly complex projects and deliver products to customers.
Second, we let our volunteer team use ChatGPT to get a preliminary translation, and then the team focuses on error correction, auditing, and polishing, thereby improving product quality and work efficiency. In this cooperative mode, everyone can play to their strengths, accelerating product development. Simultaneously, this cross-functional cooperation mode helps better respond to market changes and customer expectations.
“Scrum Mastery” is a practical guide to agile development with both depth and breadth. The author, Geoff Watts, has deepened the role and responsibilities of the Scrum Master through decades of leading Scrum teams, with particular emphasis on the values of humility and reflection. This book will be an invaluable resource on how to integrate Scrum theory into your daily work practices and provide numerous practical strategies and tips.
The book describes nine key qualities that a Scrum Master must possess: respect, inspiring the team’s potential, diplomacy, creativity, unconventionality, inspiration, helping teams and individuals grow, empathy, and willingness to break old work methods. The Scrum Master is a combination of leader, coach, guide, conductor, and shepherd, needing a humble attitude, willing to reflect on their mistakes, and respecting the success of others.
Scrum Masters should delight in helping others rather than performing tasks themselves. They need to find the right people or channels within the organization to eliminate obstacles and ensure that the team has ample opportunities to communicate with the Product Owner. Besides, they also need to establish a feedback culture within the team, enabling team members to share their progress, ideas, and problems in a safe environment.
The agile maturity model in the book clearly illustrates the characteristics that make teams agile and successful, including clear goals, stability, support, continuous improvement, self-management, focus on results, predictability, and fun. Under the guidance of the Scrum Master, the team can fully utilize its potential and achieveexcellent performance.
This is not just a book about Scrum, but also a book about leadership and service. Whether you are a Scrum Master or someone who wishes to understand and implement agile methodologies, by learning from Geoff Watts’ wisdom and experience, I believe we can together advance the development of Scrum and agile methodologies in the future.
Taiwan Agile: Connecting with Global Masters, Making Our Mark Worldwide
So far, we have interviewed four internationally renowned masters: Roman Pichler, Mike Cohn, Lyssa Adkins, and Geoff Watts. I have put all the records on the community website, including the video and shared notes from yesterday’s interview. I believe no other community in the world has interviewed so many Agile masters, but Taiwan has done it.
The international Agile Master Interview webpage
After we finished interviewing Geoff Watts, he immediately posted on his LinkedIn, thanking the Taiwanese translation volunteers for their contributions to his book, which even sparked a trend for his book to be translated in other countries.
I have just written a thank-you letter to him on the Taiwan Agile Tribe’s LinkedIn for accepting our interview. Last year, our RSG invited him to give a lecture. An hour of online sharing cost about 80,000 TWD. Yesterday, his contributed time had already exceeded that by a lot, but he agreed to the interview without any charge. The sincerity of the Taiwan Agile community has really moved him.
We have truly made Taiwan visible to the world’s Agile masters.
Let’s work together, Taiwan Agile! My thank-you letter
Thank You Letter to Geoff 1
Dear Geoff Geoff Watts,
Thank you for your graceful participation in the Taiwan Management Magazine’s interview with 300 participants. Your hour-long discussion was insightful and your patience in answering each question was admirable.
Your gesture of joining the breakout room for a photo with all the volunteers was deeply appreciated. The 70 volunteers who spent three months translating your book found the experience truly rewarding.
Thank you for the unforgettable gift of the group photo, Geoff. We’re honored to be part of your journey.
Taiwan Volunteers Lead Roger Chou, PhD, CST
#ScrumMasteryChinese #ScrumMaster #Scrum #Nexus
Thank You Letter to Geoff 2
Dear Geoff @Geoff Watts:
I’m truly grateful to you for accepting our invitation to be interviewed by the Taiwan Agile Tribe. Your willingness to take part in our conversation was a testament to his generous spirit and humility.
Yesterday, approximately 300 Agile Practitioners tuned in to soak up insights from our dialogue. They were all individuals interested in Agile practices, drawn together by a shared desire for knowledge. Geoff, your thoughtful answers and the way you selflessly shared your knowledge resonated with all who were present.
Your personal journey into Agile, coupled with your wealth of experiences in practical implementation, offered invaluable insights to Taiwanese Agile practitioners. It’s a rare privilege to hear from a seasoned professional, and we deeply appreciate you sharing your expertise with us.
Moreover, Geoff, we’re touched by your willingness to spend an extra 15 minutes with us for a photo session with our 70 volunteers. Your readiness to give your time so freely showed your sincere regard for us. This simple act meant the world to them; it was the greatest gift they could have received after three months of hard work.
Please find attached our interview video for your reference. Geoff, if there’s anything you need assistance with, or if you have more advice or insights to share, please feel free to get in touch with us at any time. Your wisdom is always welcome. https://youtu.be/OMDJu99erRM
Dear Dave @Dave West
Thank you for guiding us how to apply Nexus to operate in large-scale Scrum. The biggest breakthrough this time is our cross-functional collaboration with ChatGPT translation. This will be a new milestone of agile.
Taiwan Scrum Mastery volunteers PO, Roger Chou, PhD, CST
Thanks to beautiful lady host Wei-Lin Lee
#GeoffWatts #Scrum Master #Nexus #TaiwanAgileTribe #AgileLearning #KnowledgeSharing #CommunityEngagement #AgilePractices
MASTERY New Testament
The translation of this edition of “Scrum Mastery: From Good to Great Servant Leadership” is written by international Scrum master Geoff Watts. Geoff Watts is not only the first Scrum Alliance CST certified trainer in the UK, but also a CEC corporate coach. He is a heavyweight TEDx speaker and one of the most active and popular figures in the agile community. To date, this book is undoubtedly the best book for ScrumMasters worldwide. The book leads ScrumMasters from A to A+ through actual case studies, teaching them how to improve their skills to build teams and organizations with higher performance.
New Excerpt from ‘Scrum Mastery: From Good to Great Servant Leadership
The author of this book, ‘Scrum Mastery: From Good to Great Servant Leadership,’ Geoff Watts, was the first certified Scrum Trainer (2005) and certified Agile Coach in the UK, providing training and guidance on Scrum. Additionally, he is a TEDx speaker and the author of several best-selling Agile books. In this book, the author shares his perspective on what makes an excellent ScrumMaster and emphasizes that ScrumMasters need to possess nine RE-TRAINED traits to become excellent ScrumMasters and Servant-Leaders.
The term “Servant-Leadership” originates from a 1970 article by Robert K. Greenleaf titled “The Servant as Leader.” It describes a leader who prioritizes ensuring the highest priorities of organizational members are met. The guiding principle of Servant-Leadership is that ‘The highest priority of a Servant Leader is to encourage and support subordinates, allowing them to exhibit their full potential and capabilities.’ Here are the descriptions of the nine RE-TRAINED traits.
1. Respected: Being trusted and respected is much better than being liked.
ScrumMasters are in a role without substantial power. They are expected to demonstrate Scrum values, facilitate process adoption, guide team growth, and drive organizational change. To be an efficient ScrumMaster, one must earn respect from the team and influential people within the organization. Excellent ScrumMasters possess strong interpersonal skills, establishing harmonious relationships quickly. This enables them to effectively guide through challenging environments and raise sharp questions that facilitate critical team reflection.
2. Enabling: If you don’t care who gets the credit, you can achieve amazing things.
The role of the ScrumMaster is more of a facilitator than an implementer. The primary task of the ScrumMaster is to help the team do what they need to do. Excellent ScrumMasters have a strong nurturing style, and they enjoy helping their teams and organizations grow and reach their potential.
3. Tactful: A rigid ScrumMaster is a useless ScrumMaster.
The ScrumMaster is responsible for steering the team and organization toward new modes of collaboration, organizational structure, and performance. This requires transforming the original command-and-control management principles into servant-leadership-based ones and shifting from predictive planning to an experience and data-driven model. By continually eliminating obstacles affecting team productivity, solving organizational problems, guiding the slow but painful transformation process, and making the organization more agile, patience and persistence are needed. Regular reflection and recording of team and organizational progress are critical. One could easily lose motivation if the idea of change is abandoned.
4. Resourceful: Daring to imagine infinite possibilities is our greatest asset.
ScrumMasters will face many obstacles within the team and the entire organization. While some are easy to solve, most require time and effort. Excellent ScrumMasters have an open and innovative attitude, driving the team to keep moving forward. Being proactive, creative, and tireless are among their traits. They believe ‘there is always a solution,’ constantly stimulating the team’s curiosity and energy, and looking for new ways to break the status quo.
5. Alternative: Make your music and sing your song.
Servant leadership is an alternative way of working for many people and organizations. Adopting servant leadership can flatten the organization, break old standards, and challenge traditional workflows. ScrumMasters can introduce change management concepts to enhance the response speed and performance of the agile journey. Excellent ScrumMasters are ready to stand out and break the norm, pioneering unconventional techniques and strategies, challenging the status quo and innovating, even when Scrum has tried for many years without a successful blueprint. ScrumMasters must be ready to challenge the status quo and continue to innovate.
6. Inspiring: Don’t follow the existing path, but head into unexplored territory to create a new path.
Excellent ScrumMasters are key figures in driving change within the company and can inspire enthusiasm and vitality in team members. They are full of positive energy and an optimistic attitude, demonstrating a ‘can-do’ spirit, leading by example in terms of values and principles. This positivity and belief make the ScrumMaster a catalyst and igniter within the team, creating an environment where people want to stay and do their best. In contrast, a negative attitude and cynical speech not only fail to inspire others but may also affect the development of the entire team. Therefore, a ScrumMaster’s positive attitude is one of the key factors in inspiring others.
7. Nurturing: We need four hugs a day to survive; eight hugs a day to maintain; twelve hugs a day to grow.
The ScrumMaster is a critical role in successful teams. They promote collaboration and communication within the team and provide guidance and support to solve problems. ScrumMasters are always very concerned about the development and growth of members and the team. They strive to ensure they are not disturbed or distracted, create and maintain an environment that allows the team to unleash its potential, and encourage the team to self-manage and self-regulate to ensure the team performs to its fullest potential.
Empathetic: Most conversations are merely monologues in the presence of witnesses
8. Empathy is the ability to recognize the emotions of other living beings.
Listening is one of the best ways to show empathy, but true listening is more difficult than people imagine and requires practice. Stephen Covey pointed out that most people listen to respond, not to understand. A ScrumMaster needs to listen to the team members’ opinions and unspoken meanings, and to listen in a way that helps others understand. A good ScrumMaster helps the team develop the ability to listen and empathize. For example, in daily Scrum meetings, each team member spends more time training to listen than speaking, and the team’s efficiency will improve with their listening and understanding skills.
9. Disruptive: Nobody will get things right for me. Nobody but myself will change my story. Sometimes you have to be a bit naughty.
One of the important tasks of the ScrumMaster role is to challenge the status quo. Newly formed Scrum teams usually operate in non-Scrum environments and need to face organizational obstacles. ScrumMasters need to question the current state and look for new methods. This may cause controversy, but ScrumMasters need to handle it diplomatically. Challenging the status quo helps break old patterns and helps establish new ways of working. However, this characteristic can be somewhat controversial, so remember another important quality of ScrumMaster, “diplomacy”! In the core values of Scrum, people are the most important asset. Therefore, as a ScrumMaster, you need to have empathy and care for the needs of team members, and ensure that they feel respected and an increase in psychological safety. In addition, ScrumMasters also need to foster good team dynamics and emotional connections to help team members build trust and support for each other. Finally, ScrumMasters need to continue to learn and grow, accumulate new skills and knowledge, exchange and share knowledge with other ScrumMasters. In addition, ScrumMasters need to reflect on their own workflows and methods, and constantly improve their work capabilities and skills. In short, an excellent ScrumMaster needs to possess various qualities and abilities (RETRAINED), including respect, empowerment, diplomacy, resourcefulness, uniqueness, inspiring, nurturing, empathy, and disruption. ScrumMasters must use these abilities, exhibit the characteristics of servant leadership, and do their best to help team members achieve their goals in the entire Scrum project.
Global Bestseller Agile Bible “Scrum Mastery: From Good to Great Servant Leadership” Second Edition Traditional Chinese Version Launched
Led the team to complete the translation project with the large-scale Scrum Nexus framework, creating a non-IT large-scale agile paradigm in Taiwan
- The rise of Agile is unstoppable
The global wave of Agile is sweeping in! As we all know, the term Agile originated in the field of software development in 2001. Today, Agile is no longer only suitable for the software industry, various industries are swarming in, eager to understand the brilliance of Agile. International Agile masters’ works are classics that remain evergreen, but obtaining information in Chinese is relatively slow and lagging behind. It is particularly important to enable the public to quickly gain relevant knowledge through translated works.
- Origin and Vision of Translation
Dr. Roger, the founder of Taiwan Agile Tribe, has led the translation of several international Agile classics in Taiwan. This time, the translation of the second edition of “Scrum Mastery: From Good to Great Servant Leadership” was completed by calling together 70 volunteers through a virtual community, using the large-scale Scrum Nexus framework to lead the volunteers to complete the translation project. Talking about the origin of the translation, Dr. Roger shared that some of his favorite Agile translation books could not accurately translate Agile terms due to the lack of first-hand Agile information in Chinese. Three years ago, when Dr. Roger led the translation of PMBOK’s sixth edition, he wrote a letter to Simon, the general manager of Broadview, under an opportune circumstance, volunteering to help translate various classic Agile books. They hit it off during their meeting and selected several classic works as translation targets. Dr. Roger said that most of the classic Agile books on the market were published 10 years ago. However, “Scrum Mastery: From Good to Great Servant Leadership” is the most popular book in the past 5 years, and it is the first book he wants to translate. But Broadview’s General Manager Simon said that securing the copyright was not easy! After 3 years and more than 10 negotiations for the translation rights of the second edition of this book, they still couldn’t succeed. Until the end of 2022, Dr. Roger, serving as the Product Owner (PO) of the International Agile Conference RSG, had deep exchanges with Geoff Watts and successfully invited him to be the Keynote Speaker of the 2022 RSG. Dr. Roger hopes to deeply cultivate the Agile spirit in Taiwan’s Agile community. After many rounds of negotiations with Geoff Watts and overcoming many obstacles, he finally signed the copyright of this book with Broadview, aiming to create greater value for Agile in Taiwan. The book has secured the copyright of the latest second edition, marking a historic moment in Taiwan’s Agile history. The PO of this translation project, Zhou Longhong, said: “Every great PO has its social mission.” Before the translation, he set a vision, hoping that this book would become the “first Chinese version of Scrum Mastery in the world,” and wanted this project to become the “benchmark for non-IT large-scale Scrum Nexus framework product development.” He hopes to bring different highlights to the Agile community in Taiwan and let the world see Taiwan through Agile.
Launching Large-Scale Scrum Nexus Framework, Improving Efficiency by 30%
Dr. Roger has completed many translation projects using the Scrum methodology. This time, he has gathered 70 volunteers, marking his first use of the large-scale agile framework Nexus, under the guidance of Scrum.org CEO Dave West. Through an optimized process, he leads the volunteer team with an expected completion of the translation within 3 months. Prior to the translation, PO Dr. Roger invited Lin Wenyin as a translation mentor for the volunteers and arranged a comprehensive translation training before the project, as well as hosting 2 reading clubs to allow all team members to understand the spirit and structure of the book before translating. The kick-off meeting provided clear direction and large-scale agile training for all volunteers. This project differs from previous ones as it incorporates quality control (QA), final drafting personnel, and review committee members into various teams in a cross-functional manner. This not only reduces barriers among teams but also facilitates the integration of QA and reviewers into each team’s operations, increasing team interaction and improving translation quality. Zhang Zhiwei, the leader of the integration team, mentioned that this approach is different from the past. The Nexus emphasizes the integration of outputs in each Sprint, coordinating the pace of each team’s work, gradually perfecting the small groups, and providing a more holistic, global view. Zhou Longhong also shared that the old way relied heavily on the last stage’s professionalism, and it used to take 3 to 6 months to integrate the translations after completion. With Nexus, through weekly integration and final drafting, it is possible to deliver within a week after closing the case. It’s evident that the power of Nexus is completely different, and the overall operational efficiency of volunteers has increased by 30%.
- Features of Nexus include:
1.Integrated Increment: Each Sprint produces an increment that integrates into a potentially releasable product.
2.Nexus Integration Team (NIT): NIT SM, various team SMs, and key integration personnel.
3.Nexus Daily Scrum: Completed before 18:00 daily, with NIT addressing cross-team issues and bringing them back to the Daily Scrum for resolution.
4.Nexus Sprint Retrospective: The main theme is to improve translation quality, DoD improvement, and other issues for discussion, driving overall product quality through a bottom-up approach.
Lastly, Zhou Longhong modestly said that as this was the first application of Nexus, he undertook the project with a sense of trepidation, refusing to compromise because it was a volunteer team, and taking an even more cautious approach.
- Combining ChatGPT to Improve Translation Quality and Efficiency
During the project’s mid-term, ChatGPT was becoming popular, leading many to question: “Why do we need so many people to translate when we have ChatGPT?” Zhou Longhong stated that agile is about embracing change, and by introducing OpenAI’s ChatGPT in the process, they hoped to integrate AI technology into the translation process to improve translation quality and efficiency.
The translation process consists of four main parts:
1.Conducting initial translation based on Taiwanese terminology, common language, and terms defined by the project.
2.ChatGPT provides three versions of the translation for volunteers and explains the reasons for the choices.
3.Volunteers proofread and improve the translation content
4.List terms that meet the project’s definition.
The comprehensive and meticulous translation results were integrated into the project process, allowing team members to focus more on translation quality. Through rigorous proofreading and improvement, the level of translation is elevated.
- Bringing Agile Bible to the Public, Making Agile Anywhere!
This book is suitable for all software developers, senior executives, project managers, POs, SMs, and anyone who wants to understand Agile. It is hoped that this book will catalyze the fermentation of agile development, and through successful cases, allow non-IT industries to experience the fun of agile, implanting the spirit of Agile deep in people’s hearts, making Agile Anywhere!
Translator Introduction of Scrum Mastery (Geoff Watts’ Agile Mastery Series)
【Outstanding Volunteers】
Final Judges (sorted by strokes in surname):
Wen-Yin Lin, CSP-PO, CSP-SM, PMI-A CP
Zhi-Wei Chang, A-CSM, CAL, C SPO
Review Committee Members (sorted by strokes in surname):
Yan-Fang Zhu, PMP, CNS-PM, IPMA-D
Yong-Zhen Li, PMP, A-CSM, CSPO
Guang-Ming Xu, PMP, PMI-A CP, PMI-PBA
Outstanding Volunteer Leaders (sorted by strokes in surname):
Feng-Mei Huang, PMI-A CP
Yi-Zhen Pan, PMP
Outstanding Volunteer ScrumMasters (sorted by strokes in surname):
Shi-Zhi Lin, PMP, PMI-A CP, PMI-PBA
Wen-Zhen Zhuang, C SM, C SPO, A CC
Jin-Huan Peng, PMP
Cui-Fen Feng, PMP, PMI-A CP, KMP
Jin-Ze Ge, PMP, ISO 20000/27001 L A
Yi-Zhen Xue, PMP, PMI-A CP, C SM, C SPO
Outstanding Volunteers (sorted by strokes in surname):
Xin-Ping Bao, Kun-Ze Wu, Wei-Lin Li, Pei-Ru Lin, Yan-Yi Lin, Jia-Ling Xu, Jin-Yu Guo, Yu-Pei Chen, Mei-Feng Chen, Li-Yan Peng, Han-Hao Peng, Yu-Fu Gu, Yi-Shen Huang, Yu-Qian Liu, Bing-Cheng Tan
【Volunteer Roster】
Product Owner: Dr. Long-Hong Zhou, C ST
Review Committee Members (sorted by strokes in surname):
Yan-Fang Zhu, PMP, CNS-PM, IPMA-D
Yong-Zhen Li, PMP, A-CSM, CSPO
Professor Da-Bai Shen
Jia-Wei Lin, CIS SP, PMP, PMI-A CP
Guang-Ming Xu, PMP, PMI-A CP, PMI-PBA
Wei-Ming Ma, Ph.D., PMP, A CP
Dong-Cheng Yang, ISO 9001/27001 L AC
FQA (sorted by strokes in surname):
Ke-Fan Wang, PMI-A CP, CSM, ISO 9001 Auditor
Pei-Yun Wu
Kun-Ze Wu, PMP, PMI-A CP
Wei-Lin Li, PMP, PMI-PBA, C SPO
Pei-Ru Lin, PMP
Feng-Ji Cai, Ph.D., PMP, CSM
Developers (sorted by strokes in surname):
Zhi-Xiong Wang, PMP, ISO 27001
Qian-Qian Wang, PMP, PMI-PBA, CBAP
Wei-Jie Wang, PMP
Yi-Jun Wang, PMI-A CP
Xin-Ping Bao, PMP, CSM, GCDF
Tong-Sheng Jiang, IPMA, BC C, GCDF
Ren-Jun He, PMP
Zai-Hong Wu, CSP-SM, CSP-PO, CSD
Shu-Ling Wu, PMP
Si-Ying Lu, PMP
Yi-Xin Li
Zi-Ling Li, PMP
Kang-Yu Li
Yan-Yi Lin, PMP, CSM, CSPO
Yu-Cen Lin
Pei-Yu Lin, PMP
Min-Han Hong, ISO 27001, ISO 27701
Wan-Tian Hong, PMP, CSM
Bo-Rui Hu, CSM, R SM, RPO
Hui-Xiong Xu, ISO 9001
De-Chang Weng, PMP
Li-Pin Gao, PMP
Xin-Lun Gao
Jing-Yi Kang, ISO 27001, CIA, CISM
Si-Xun Zhang, Ph.D., PMP, CSIA
Pei-Xun Zhang, PMP
Tuan-Hua Zhang, CSM, Business Management Consultant
Jia-Ling Xu, CSM
Jin-Yu Guo, PMP, CSM, CEM
Shi-Qin Chen, PMI-A CP
Yu-Pei Chen, PMI-A CP, PMI-PBA
Yi-Wen Chen
Cai-Xiu Chen, ATD consulting skills, TQC, TQC+, MTA
Cai-Ping Chen, PMP, CSM
Mei-Feng Chen, PMP, CSM, CSP
Jia-Xuan Chen, PMP, PMI-RMP
Li-Yan Peng, ISO 14064, ISO 14067, ISO 50001
Shu-Fen Peng, P SPO1
Han-Hao Peng, PMP
Yu-Fu Gu, CSP-SM, CSPO, PMI-A CP
Zi-Yun Huang, PMP
Wen-Hua Huang, Ph.D.
Yi-Shen Huang, PMP, PMI-A CP, CSM
Bing-Long Ye, PMP
Jia-Rong Ye, PMP
Yu-Qian Liu, PMP, PMI-PBA
Yi-Jun Liu, PMP
Yi-Hui Liu, PMP, CSM
Jian-Ming Pan, PMP, PMI-A CP
Bing-Cheng Tan, PMP, CSM, CSPO, CNS 21500 PM
Qiu-Ling Li, PMP, PRINCE2 Practitioner & Agile
Yi-Gui Su, PMP
