(So You Don’t Feel Like a Tourist in Every Standup)
You want to become a Scrum Master.
Maybe you’ve worked in HR, operations, customer service or even project coordination.
You love people, you’re great at communication and you’ve got the soft skills part down cold.
But the tech side?
The jargon, the tools, the stuff developers talk about that sounds like code and sorcery?
Yeah… that part feels a bit intimidating.
Here’s the truth:
You don’t need to be technical to be a great Scrum Master.
But you do need to understand the landscape you’re stepping into – so you can lead with confidence, unblock your team and not get steamrolled in sprint planning.
This is your unfair advantage guide:
7 tech things to learn before your first Scrum Master role that will help you stand out, speak up, and start strong.
1. 🧠 What Git Is (and Why Everyone Talks About It)
Git is like a shared memory bank for code.
It lets developers track changes, collaborate and experiment without stepping on each other’s toes.
Imagine this:
You and five friends are writing a novel together. Git is the tool that keeps everyone’s chapters synced, lets you review each other’s edits and helps you roll back changes when someone accidentally deletes Chapter 7.
Terms to know:
- Branch = a separate workspace for changes
- Commit = a saved change
- Merge = combining one set of changes with another
- Pull request (PR) = asking to merge your changes into the main story
🔍 Learn this before your first role:
Watch a beginner Git tutorial on YouTube and ask a dev friend to explain their daily workflow. You’ll instantly understand how work moves – and where it gets stuck.
2. ⚙️ CI/CD: The Delivery Conveyor Belt
CI/CD stands for Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery.
Translation:
It’s how code goes from a developer’s laptop to a live product without someone manually moving files around.
Here’s the flow:
- Dev writes code → pushes it to Git
- CI server (like Jenkins, GitHub Actions) checks if it works
- If tests pass, it moves to Staging or Production
- Users see the change (if deployed)
Why you need to know this:
When a developer says “the build is failing” or “it hasn’t been deployed yet,” they’re talking about this pipeline.
🚀 Learn this before your first role:
Google “CI/CD explained like I’m five” and read one article. That alone will give you 10x more context than most beginner Scrum Masters have.
3. 🧩 Agile Tools: Don’t Just Use Jira, Understand It
Jira is where the magic (and mess) happens.
New Scrum Masters often think Jira = to-do list.
But it’s much more:
- It shows the flow of work
- It captures blockers
- It helps forecast delivery
- It reflects team health
Learn:
- What a story, bug, task and epic mean
- How to read a board: what each column means (To Do, In Progress, QA, Done)
- How sprints, backlogs and burndown charts work
🧠 Pro tip: Jira is like your GPS – if it’s a mess, you won’t know where you are. Clean boards = clear progress.
📘 Learn this before your first role:
Create a free Jira account and play around. You can build your own sample board and learn by doing.
4. 🔍 What “Testing” Really Means in Dev World
Testing is not just “checking if it works.”
There are multiple types of testing that developers and QA specialists use to prevent disaster:
- Unit Test: checks small chunks of code (like checking one screw in a chair)
- Integration Test: makes sure different parts work together
- Regression Test: confirms that fixing one bug didn’t break 10 other things
- Smoke Test: “Does the app even launch?”
Why you should care:
When a team member says, “It’s ready for QA,” you need to know what QA is actually doing –and what happens if something fails.
🧪 Learn this before your first role:
Read a beginner guide on “types of software testing.” Knowing this will help you speak QA’s language and avoid guessing in retros.
5. 🏗️ What Environments Are (and Why Devs Complain About Them)
Your team doesn’t build and launch code directly into the real world. It moves through environments – stages where things are tested, reviewed, and stabilized.
Think of it like rehearsing for a play:
- Dev: The actors learning their lines (code written and tested locally)
- QA: Dress rehearsal with feedback
- Staging: Final run with lights and costumes
- Production (Prod): Opening night in front of a live audience
If staging is down or out of sync, that blocks releases. You’ll hear things like:
“I can’t test it, it’s not on staging.”
“It works locally but fails in prod.”
🏗️ Learn this before your first role:
Ask someone to sketch the release pipeline for you. Understanding the “flow” of delivery makes you instantly more helpful.
6. 💬 Speaking Developer (Without Trying to Sound Smart)
You’re not a developer, and you’re not pretending to be.
But if you understand the meaning behind dev words, you’ll connect faster and avoid confusion.
Here’s a mini glossary:
| Word | What It Really Means |
| API | A way for two systems to talk |
| Latency | Delay in response time (think: slow-loading page) |
| Bug | Something isn’t working as intended |
| Refactor | Clean up the code to make it better |
| Tech debt | Shortcuts that will cost time later |
🎯 Learn this before your first role:
Don’t fake it. Ask developers what a term means, write it down and revisit. Over time, you’ll be able to follow entire standups without feeling lost.
7. 🧠 Agile ≠ Just Ceremonies (Learn the Why)
You may already know the Scrum ceremonies: standups, planning, retro, etc.
But do you know why they exist?
Behind each ceremony is a goal:
- Daily standup → sync and surface blockers
- Sprint planning → set realistic commitments
- Retrospective → inspect, adapt, improve
- Backlog refinement → clarify work and reduce surprises
These meetings are not rituals. They’re feedback loops that keep teams healthy. And as Scrum Master, you’re the facilitator of that feedback.
🔍 Learn this before your first role:
Read the Scrum Guide and then shadow a real team if you can – watch how they run these ceremonies and how different it is from textbook theory.
🔍Check out this article for a more in depth view about Scrum events:
Final Thoughts: You Don’t Need to Code – But You Do Need to Get It
You’re not being hired to code. You’re being hired to facilitate flow, remove blockers, help humans work better together.
But the more you understand how tech work really happens, the faster you’ll:
- Anticipate issues before they explode
- Earn trust from devs and product folks
- Speak with confidence in planning and reviews
- Ask smarter questions that actually unblock progress
And most importantly: you’ll stop feeling like an outsider and start acting like a bridge between the business world and the tech world.
Coming Soon:
“Your First 30 Days as a Scrum Master: What to Watch, What to Learn and What to Definitely Not Fake”
Found this article helpful? You might want to check out the next one, where we’ve got a step by step guide on how to become a project manager.
Written by
Simina F. | howtobecomeapm.com – Author