OKR Examples

OKR Examples for Scrum Master

Sample OKRs along with relevant discussions, organised by function

OKR Examples for Scrum Masters

Scrum masters ensure the team completes the right tasks at the right time. But evaluating the performance of Scrum Masters raises a question - what part did they play in the success or failure of the project? While this seems like a difficult question, the answer is relatively simple. The following sections explain the importance and duties of a Scrum Master – and how their performance can be evaluated.

How do you evaluate a scrum master's performance?

Much of a Scrum Team's success depends on the performance of Scrum Masters, even though they're not the leaders or bosses of these teams. The definition of success for Scrum Masters is that their teams take ownership of the process. They institute initiatives, manage team conduct, facilitate Scrum Events, discuss issues in team meetings, communicate with stakeholders, and do much more. Organizations can evaluate their performance by having a checklist with questions about what scrum focuses on, processes, individual sprint planning, team, or product quality. Questions include whether the Scrum team has a clear vision, whether sprint goals are understood, how happy team members are to work on the project, and so on. These questions can differ from organization to organization and even between teams. This questionnaire aims to evaluate what the Scrum Master should focus on. Keeping a regular frequency and updating the questions based on the project state is more important than the questions themselves. Using Objectives & Key Results (OKRs) can help evaluate the performance of Scrum masters more effectively.

Scrum Master OKR examples

OKRs and Scrum Masters seem like an odd couple – because, at first glance, there isn't much in a Scrum Master's responsibility that can be measured (like sales targets, which are based on verifiable numbers). Yet, the software development process offers enough opportunities to create metrics from various touchpoints.

OKRs for keeping the team on track

Objectives	Key Results	Observations
Stop the team from overcommitting on their deliverables	Ensure no additional requirements are added during the sprint from outside the team. Evaluate the features included in the sprint and rank them according to importance, before sprint start	While these are given responsibilities of Scrum masters to protect the team from external pressures, turning them into key result makes them more defendable.
Continuous improvement of the product and team members	Facilitate understanding of the project – team members should know how project results can impact the client Clearing obstacles team members face – improve time to solve tickets created by the Scrum team. Idea generation - Help teams discuss the veracity of 3 new ideas during monthly team meetings.	While a lofty objective, the act of continuous improvement is difficult to measure. However, measuring the conditions conducive to continuous improvement can provide insights into a Scrum Master’s effectiveness. These metrics can be used to determine critical results.
Improve product ratings	Look for at least three positive customer reviews in a financial year Lower sprint backlog issues Reduce customer issues by improving product usage with valuable features	Issues logged by customers usually paint an accurate picture of the problems and bugs present in a product. Using this metric with product usage statistics can reveal if customers have problems with specific features.

Objectives

Key Results

Observations

Stop the team from overcommitting on their deliverables

Ensure no additional requirements are added during the sprint from outside the team.

Evaluate the features included in the sprint and rank them according to importance, before sprint start

While these are given responsibilities of Scrum masters to protect the team from external pressures, turning them into key result makes them more defendable.

Continuous improvement of the product and team members

Facilitate understanding of the project – team members should know how project results can impact the client

Clearing obstacles team members face – improve time to solve tickets created by the Scrum team.

Idea generation - Help teams discuss the veracity of 3 new ideas during monthly team meetings.

While a lofty objective, the act of continuous improvement is difficult to measure. However, measuring the conditions conducive to continuous improvement can provide insights into a Scrum Master’s effectiveness. These metrics can be used to determine critical results.

Improve product ratings

Look for at least three positive customer reviews in a financial year

Lower sprint backlog issues

Reduce customer issues by improving product usage with valuable features

Issues logged by customers usually paint an accurate picture of the problems and bugs present in a product. Using this metric with product usage statistics can reveal if customers have problems with specific features.

OKRs to improve team efficiency

Objectives	Key Results	Observations
Improving delivery times of sprint goals	Bring up the ratio between planned and completed work (+ve predictability metrics) Identify areas causing delays in the development process	Consistent delivery of sprint goals is essential to stay on track and deliver goals according to the product roadmap.
Keep scope creep at bay during the sprint cycle	Report on the remaining workload to leaders and other stakeholders, with the importance of upcoming features Recommend actions based on previous feature usage in Burn Down Chart analysis Review internal processes and add recommendations to improve workflows of at least three of them.	Burn Down Charts represent how much work is left to do, and Burn Up Charts show how much work has been completed.
Organize effective scrum meetings	Review meeting minutes every month to check if they’re helpful to everyone involved Capture team feedback during sprint review meetings and evaluate suggestions	Scrum Masters facilitate scrum to the larger team. They ensure that all the frameworks are followed, and that team meeting serves a purpose.

Objectives

Key Results

Observations

Improving delivery times of sprint goals

Bring up the ratio between planned and completed work (+ve predictability metrics)

Identify areas causing delays in the development process

Consistent delivery of sprint goals is essential to stay on track and deliver goals according to the product roadmap.

Keep scope creep at bay during the sprint cycle

Report on the remaining workload to leaders and other stakeholders, with the importance of upcoming features

Recommend actions based on previous feature usage in Burn Down Chart analysis

Review internal processes and add recommendations to improve workflows of at least three of them.

Burn Down Charts represent how much work is left to do, and Burn Up Charts show how much work has been completed.

Organize effective scrum meetings

Review meeting minutes every month to check if they’re helpful to everyone involved

Capture team feedback during sprint review meetings and evaluate suggestions

Scrum Masters facilitate scrum to the larger team. They ensure that all the frameworks are followed, and that team meeting serves a purpose.

OKRs for team growth

Objectives	Key Results	Observations
Create a psychologically safe environment	Ensure all members feel free to voice their honest opinion during meetings Conduct polls to determine how comfortable team members are with speaking up. Conduct one-on-ones with team members. Highlight their strengths, and create a plan for things they consider weaknesses	Teams can function optimally only when there is trust. Scrum masters can foster such environments by being empathetic and kind.
Introduce agile principles	Conduct at least one agile workshop with the team during the quarter Using agile principles improves onboarding flow.	Scrum masters are the best place to introduce agile methods in a product team and can spread the scope to processes with which the team deals.
Reduce the backlog of products	Run a workshop to identify and introduce three improvements Get backlogs ranked according to importance by the end of the month Include top 5 tasks in the sprint without compromising the objective	Scrum masters can help product managers focus on improvements and new features by taking off the responsibility of planning essential but not direct items.
Embed agile principles within the team	Inform the team about current agile maturity in monthly meetings Share a plan of action to enhance agile adoption and discuss the merits Create an incentive program to motivate employees to adopt agile and present it to leaders for approval.	Creating a truly agile team is one of the goals of any scrum master. This can happen only if leaders see groups benefiting from it. By introducing team-level activities, scrum masters can get buy-ins for an organization-level adoption of agile principles.
Ensure smooth OKR implementation	Train teams and identify OKR champions by the end of the month Get team members to draft at least ONE OKR by five weeks Review and revise OKRs at a specific (weekly) duration	OKRs focus on the larger picture and allow employees to set the pace of their growth. Having employees adopt OKRs entirely can result in the swift development of employees and the organization they work for.