As part of a learning program for which I had served as scrum master through several sprints, I subsequently requested assignment to a new team whose mission was to formally support our web hosting servers and web security in general.

Given the team mission and the composition of the team, our first sprint was mostly a period of forming and storming when it was not at all clear whether we should adopt scrum even though I was nominally the scrum master or how we should operate at all.

We settled into using a kanban board to record and manage work items and work flow. One of my contributions was simply to suggest, schedule, and facilitate a recurring weekly meeting. We adopted that cadence indefinitely.

Lessons learned:

Establishing a cadence early on for meeting regularly was invaluable for creating and maintaining momentum even when we weren’t sure how to proceed.

Taking ownership to schedule, prepare for, and facilitate meetings is an invaluable service to any team no matter what your title is or how the team is organized.