Scrum Master
Scrum Masters facilitate ceremonies, coach teams, remove impediments, and protect the team from distraction. This path covers the precise English for every Scrum ceremony, agile metrics, conflict facilitation, and stakeholder communication — with a focus on the coaching language that distinguishes great Scrum Masters.
Topics covered
- Scrum ceremonies
- Agile metrics
- Impediment removal
- Retrospective facilitation
- Stakeholder management
- Coaching vocabulary
Vocabulary spotlight
4 terms every Scrum Master should know in English:
Any obstacle that prevents the team from meeting the Sprint Goal
"The blocked database access is an impediment — I'll escalate to the infrastructure team today."
The average number of story points a team completes per sprint, used for forecasting
"Our sprint velocity has stabilised at 42 points, so a 6-sprint release is realistic."
A shared agreement on all criteria a work item must meet to be considered complete
"The feature fails our definition of done — there are no unit tests."
A documented set of team norms and expectations for how the team operates together
"We added "no Slack after 18:00 local time" to our working agreement."
📚 Vocabulary Reference
Key terms organised by category for Scrum Masters:
Scrum Events
Scrum Artefacts
Facilitation
Metrics
Recommended exercises
Real-world scenarios you'll practise
- Facilitating a heated retrospective where team members disagree
- Explaining sprint velocity and capacity to a stakeholder requesting more scope
- Coaching a team member who consistently misses the definition of done
- Running a remote sprint planning session across three time zones
🎯 Interview questions specific to this role
Practise answering these questions out loud — or in writing. Each question targets a real interviewer concern for Scrum Masters.
- How do you handle a situation where the Product Owner keeps changing sprint scope mid-sprint?
- What is the difference between a Scrum Master and a project manager?
- Describe a technique you use to make retrospectives more effective.
- How do you measure the health of a Scrum team?
- What do you do when a senior developer dismisses the Scrum process?