A scrum master must possess a set of specific skills to create the right balance and ensure that the scrum does the best it possibly can for the business. Here are 10 essential skills that every scrum master must have.

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1. Be able to facilitate meetings

The scrum master is someone who facilitates a scrum meeting, reminding the team of its goals and how it has chosen to meet them.

2. Be prepared to protect the team

The scrum master is tasked with the job of protecting his or her team. This means they ensure the team members do not over-commit themselves to what can be achieved, while also stopping them becoming complacent.

3. Find ways to resolve conflicts

The scrum master must do all they can to make meetings stay on target; as such, they need to find suitable ways to prevent conflicts getting in the way of progress.

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4. Be able to coach agile practices

The scrum master should be trained in agile practices so that they can coach the team successfully.

5. Have a good knowledge of agile estimating and planning

To get a good grip of agile estimating and planning, professionals can attend a scrum master training Dublin course from a provider such as https://www.althris.com/courses/scrum-master/.

6. Be good at forecasting

While the scrum master does not make decisions, his or her position is to guide the team towards progress; therefore, knowing the implications of not achieving a particular goal is paramount.

7. Be able to remove impediments

The scrum master is responsible for doing everything possible to help the team to progress, which means working with the product owner to get the backlog in good shape.

8. Be a channel of communication

The scrum master can be anyone, but the key to this position is that he or she must be a communication channel for the team and the key stakeholder or product owner.

9. Be prepared to be a servant leader

Although the scrum master is like a coach, the individual has no authority other than that granted to him or her by the team.

10. Be strong enough to enforce rules

Despite balancing a position of leadership with one that has no authority, the scrum master must be dominant enough to enforce the rules of the scrum.

People living in areas such as Gloucester often look at the London lettings market with horror and are not surprised to hear of rogue behaviour in the capital. However, it’s not quite the jungle it seems from the outside, and recently Trading Standards has been intervening on behalf of both tenants and landlords by going after rogue agents who are flouting the law on lettings.

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By law, letting agents have to publish their fees online and give the same information in their branches so that landlords and tenants who are thinking of using the services know from the beginning how much they are paying and what the fees cover. Letting agents that are not complying with the law can face fines of up to £5000 for each offence.

Working to Improve Standards

There’s actually a body that works to improve the professional and ethical standards in the lettings business – the National Approved Letting Scheme (NALS). They’ve developed a training course that can be taken online which focuses on enforcement action against agents for not displaying the fees and also not making it clear whether they are a member of a scheme that protects their clients’ money or can arbitrate in the case of a dispute.

Generation Rent Fed Up with Sky-High Deposits

The Financial Times reported recently that as well as the proposed ban on agents charging fees to tenants, the government was looking at placing a ceiling on deposits, setting up an enforcement agency and making non-compliance a criminal matter.

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There are two million people renting in London, so clearly there are lots of votes involved. The Mayor of London is very keen that the government should move quickly to implement these changes.

However, a senior officer at Camden Council also added that most of the lettings industry went out of their way to do things correctly. Certainly, most letting agents in Gloucester, such as http://www.alexclarkglos.co.uk, deal fairly with both tenants and landlords. The fact is that in places other than London reputation is very important and agents want repeat business. The best way they can do this is by making sure that both parties in the letting are happy.

The problem with removing fees from tenants is that somebody has to pay them, and landlords tend to pass increased costs on as increased rent.