In some companies, agile methods are introduced like new software: training, rollout, role definition. For us, the introduction of Scrum was different. When a small team started throwing the previous plan overboard and working in short cycles in 2009, it was less a method than an attitude. Today, Scrum is part of our everyday life, but by no means commonplace. Our Scrum Masters not only moderate meetings, but also design processes, organize exchange, build bridges between departments — and ensure that teams remain capable. On the occasion of the Cologne 2025 Agile Coach Camp, which we support as the main sponsor, we spoke to four colleagues about their work.
"Nobody told us back then: you're doing Scrum now," recalls Ralf Tauscher. He is an Agile Coach at the Haufe Group and is there to support Scrum Masters throughout the Haufe Group, moderate exchange formats and contribute ideas to the community. At the same time, he is someone who deliberately stays close: “I don't just want to jump in, advise and then disappear — I want to be part of the process.” That is why Ralf was and continues to be directly involved in teams, observing, supporting and contributing.
More than 15 years ago, he was one of the first within Haufe Group to apply Scrum and get the ball rolling. As the person responsible for a software project, still in his probationary period at the time, he convinced his superiors to deviate from the defined project plan. Instead, he wanted to approach the development of the product in a completely different way — using an agile method barely known in Germany at the time: Scrum.
“Together with a few colleagues, we put together a small team, gave ourselves the roles of Product Owner, Scrum Master and Developer, occupied an office — and just got started,” says Ralf. “With lots of initiative and the conviction that Scrum will make things easier for everyone. And it worked.”
Why? “Because at Haufe Group, we create complex products in a complex world, under constantly changing conditions. If we stick to plans rigidly, we can no longer react as quickly or as customer-centred. Scrum promotes and demands exactly that,” summarizes Ralf. Scrum — and other agile methods — made it possible to achieve functional partial results in short cycles, obtain feedback and adapt them quickly in the project.
“Teams simply used Scrum without thinking too much.”
And word got around the Haufe Group. Other teams became curious and wanted to try out Scrum as well. A kind of grassroots movement emerged. “Teams simply used Scrum without giving it much thought,” says Ralf. “Project plans became sprints.” Of course, there was also resistance back then. The fact that Scrum deals with uncertainty in a different way often requires explanation — and still does today.
Nevertheless, a cross-divisional initiative was soon launched within our Lexware brand to replace project-based structures with agile ones. At the same time, the Lexware Office division was created, which worked agilely from the start. Today, we have more than 45 Scrum Masters and almost ten Agile Coaches, spread across all our brands and ten Haufe Group locations.
What is Scrum?
In traditional projects, everything is planned through at the beginning. Scrum, on the other hand, relies on constant feedback. The agile framework was developed specifically for complex product development in the 1990s by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland. Today, companies use it to work faster and in a more customer-oriented way. Instead of delivering a large solution months later, the team usually delivers a usable partial product every two weeks.
A typical Scrum team consists of three clearly defined roles:
- Product Owner: is responsible for the “what” and for prioritizing tasks.
- Scrum Master: is responsible for “how well”, cleans up processes, removes obstacles, moderates and keeps an eye on the team's needs.
- Developers: are responsible for the “how” and implement what is planned on their own responsibility.
The method book, the Scrum Guide, is just 14 pages long. It sets out the few rules and five events that provide the framework: sprint, planning, daily, review and retrospective.
Tamara Eßlinger, Scrum Master at our brand Haufe Akademie, puts it this way: “We all work within the same framework — but everyone lives it a bit differently.” She has been working in her role for five years. She came into contact with agile methods at her previous employer and wanted to develop in this direction. She applied for a job at Haufe Group — without any certification or specific professional experience as a Scrum Master. “The interview went really well and I immediately clicked with the team. I am still grateful today for this leap of faith.”
“I have a bouquet of rolls — depending on what my environment needs”
Her first months were marked by the coronavirus pandemic. “As a Scrum Master, it was an extremely exciting time.We played a key role in ensuring that the team networked, worked well together and that processes worked.” It helped to shadow other Scrum Masters within the Haufe Group. “Through this shadowing, I got to know many people who all did their job properly — and yet always differently. This really helped me to define my role myself and to develop myself.”
She has now completed several certificates, gained a lot of experience and supervises a team within Haufe Akademie that provides all software solutions for the training business. She always starts her working day with a daily, but after that every day is different. “I have a bouquet of roles and I pick out what my environment needs from situation to situation: Moderator, coach, mediator, problem solver.”
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Scrum gives her and her team structure — but not coercion. “The events are important stopping points to determine together what we want to work on and how we can best achieve this. During the sprint, we therefore don't need much additional consultation between events and can drive our respective topics forward independently and in a focused manner.“ For Tamara, the fact that her team can work so independently is also due to the fact that her managers stand behind the method. She regularly consults them, can get advice and can also take on a leadership role for her team herself.
Nevertheless, Scrum sometimes reaches its limits for Tamara, especially when several products are in the sprint at the same time. “The goal becomes blurred. Then we have to talk about priorities — and about what we don't do.” And when it comes to their own effectiveness: “I often go home and ask myself: what did I actually do today?” she says. This kind of impact — quiet, indirect, often invisible — was something she had to learn to endure.
“You can, should, must take on a lot of responsibility — without traditional hierarchies”
Taking responsibility — for yourself, for the team, for the process — runs through many of our Scrum Masters' role models. Marvin Sturm goes one step further. He works for Lexware Office, a department of our Lexware brand, and is a Scrum Master, at least according to his title. “What I really do is not in any job advertisement.” He started his career with his bachelor thesis and a subsequent internship. “At the beginning, I was still thinking very much according to the textbook. But at some point I understood that it's all about learning and adapting. What fits in my own context, with the opportunities and skills and people who come together in my team?”
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For him, Scrum is just a vehicle for constantly redesigning working methods: “At the end of the day, it's just a few pages of paper. You have to fill them with life yourself. I've held the title of Scrum Master for eight years, but my contribution is constantly changing.” Since then, he has repeatedly immersed himself in new roles and then relinquished them again after a certain period of time. “It's perhaps not the classic career ladder climb. But it is a further development of the contribution you make and in the domain you oversee.”
Today, he summarizes his work like this: When we find it difficult, get moving, give the group the feeling of this is going to run itself. “Funnily enough, we never use the word agile,” explains Marvin. “For us, this way of working comes naturally because we've never undergone a transformation, we've simply worked that way since Lexware Office, then lexoffice, was founded.” Decisions would be made where they belong. “When it comes to the product, the team trusts the product owner. Me when it comes to processes. And the development team when it comes to technology.” Anyone can raise objections, i.e. suggestions for improvement, and these are then integrated. This principle of consensus decision-making enables real responsibility without hierarchy.
What would Marvin say to someone who wants to start as a Scrum Master at Lexware Office? “Welcome,” he says laughing at first. “Look forward to an exciting learning journey. It is challenging. If you want to solve responsibility in a decentralized way, it doesn't necessarily make it any easier. You can, should, may and must take on a lot of responsibility. For our team, we are looking for people who have social and process skills, who can lead small and large groups and moderate conflicts, who have a vision of successful teams and open up the necessary decision-making spaces. For some, this can be overwhelming. But if that's exactly what you're looking for, you can flourish here.”
“I'm here to ensure that my team can work well”
Like Marvin, Christoph Schmidt-Frommholz is constantly asking himself the question: where can I make the biggest impact — and where is less more? He is a Scrum Master at our Haufe brand and 80 percent of his everyday life consists of overlapping appointments. “I always have to see where I can contribute the most.” Sometimes it's a workshop, sometimes a quick chat in the hallway, sometimes the conscious decision to take a break. “I'm here to make my team feel like they can work well. Because that's when it's also productive. And Scrum is ideal for that.”
Christoph works in a team of ten that is responsible for the content management system used by Haufe's editorial teams. He experienced the introduction of Scrum as a business analyst at his previous employer, moved into the role himself, but quickly had the feeling that he couldn't grow. That's how he joined Haufe Group five years ago. “For me, the most important thing is that we make transparent who is currently doing what in which role and use the agile principles as a guiding star to see: Where are we? What do we want? Where can we get better, with regard to our customers and with regard to ourselves?”
To answer these questions, he had to develop a sense of what needs to be and what doesn't. “For example, we stopped the retrospective at some point because the air was out. Instead, I asked everyone for three wishes for the team in a 1:1 discussion. This resulted in much more exciting ideas, which we then took up together in the next retrospective.” And sometimes he just leaves things as they are. “I have a team that has just reached a status where they are in good flow — the processes and coordination are well established. Then the question arises: Do we need to constantly develop and optimize? That can also create a lot of pressure and paralyze you in the long term. Then I have to learn to take a step back and withdraw my own wishes, because otherwise I run the risk of destroying more than I help.“
He looks for and finds new approaches to get things moving again in exchange formats at Haufe, where users of various agile methods come together. He is also very active in the Community of Practice at Haufe Group level. A meeting is held every four weeks to which all Scrum Masters, Agile Coaches, OKR Masters and interested parties from our group of companies are invited to discuss key topics and exchange methods and experiences. “Our approaches are so diverse that we can learn a great deal from one another.”
“When everything is going right but nothing is moving — that's Zombie Scrum”
Whether for training platforms, accounting software or specialist content — at the Haufe Group, Scrum and agile product development have many faces, depending on the team, the product and the level of maturity. It is precisely this diversity that defines the Haufe Group's Scrum culture, says Ralf. “Most Scrum Masters have to visit other companies to learn about new approaches. We can just go to the next floor and realize that everything is different.” This is also a challenge, because the requirement profiles for Scrum Masters are very different. “But above all, I see plenty of opportunities.”
As an Agile Coach at Haufe Group level, he ensures that this diversity is brought to life by not only bringing external impulses such as the Agile Coach Camp into the community, but above all by repeatedly connecting people across departments. But his job also involves taking a close look when things go wrong. Ralf himself speaks of zombie Scrum: “When everything goes right formally, but Scrum is just checklists and meetings without content. Then the teams invite me and I'm happy to support you.”
Has Scrum become obsolete at some point? “I often hear: Agile is dead,” says Ralf in response to this question. “No, it's not. Blabla agile may be dead. But we need real work in complex systems more than ever,” he says. Perhaps that is the real sign of maturity: when people stop talking about Scrum all the time and simply work together instead. In this respect, it is a good sign that Haufe Group continues to regularly advertise Scrum Master positions. “We're looking for people who are as serious as we are.”