The following section will talk about some of the things I have found to be a good use of my time in my pursuit of creating a great team that produces great software.
As the team arrive don't forget to talk to them! How was their evening? How are their family? Did their football team win last night? For some people this is obvious and doesn't need to be said, but other people are more focused on work and forget to do this. Engaging with the team at a friendly and personal level will create a deeper bond, more respect, and also enables us to be aware of personal factors that may be affecting work.
Then we need to think about any problems that were raised during the daily scrum. We may need to talk to people to get more information, or enlist help in removing an obstacle or making an improvement.
Were there any things that weren't raised, but that we observed? For instance did we burn down as expected?
Where are we in the iteration lifecycle? If we are nearing the end of the cycle, is the work left to do also small? Are the customer team ready for the next iteration? Do they know what they want?
We should check the build status of the software. Is it building as expected? Have more tests passed today than yesterday?
We should look at the software. Does it run? Does it behave as expected? Does progress match what is reported on the team board? Is there any testing we can do?
Can we pair with anyone in the team? Don't forget as well as pairing with developers we can also pair with testers. Pair with someone in the customer team to help create user stories. Are their expectations realistic but high? Are they in tune with how the software will be used? Do they have a cohesive and compelling vision?
Do we have any peers in the organisation? Spend time talking to them and building a relationship. Otherwise how will you learn from them, how will you know if they can help you or you can help them?
Spare time is also needed to reflect and think deeply about the state of our team. How are the team doing? Are they motivated, energised and focused? How is the product doing? Will it delight the customer? How is our process? How can things be improved?
If we are busy all the time these things will never get reflected on, long term goals will never be progressed and hard to action things will never happen.
Are there any retrospective actions that need work on - or problems that seem too hard to tackle. Is there anything at all that can be done? Even just the tiniest step towards our desired end state?
Also you need to be available for the team - they might want to speak to you. Spend time observing the team. Who works with who? Who is fully engaged? Who's surfing the web? Listen to the conversations that are happening.
So attend meetings, demo the product, but also be friendly and chat to people throughout the organisation. Just simply chatting to people is part of our job (it took me a long time to be comfortable with this).
Sometimes you can be the representative for the team in meetings and save someone else being disturbed and bored through a meeting which isn't of much relevance to them.
Take an active interest in the team, the software, and the build. Try to spend time each day looking at these things.
It is our job to improve the team, market the team, and protect the team.
http://www.danube.com/blog/michaeljames/a_scrummasters_checklist Scrum master's checklist by Michael James