Daria Bagina

In this video, I'm talking about what to look out for when talking about customer needs and how to help your team truly understand their customers.

The key point of Scrum (and Agile for that matter) is getting something valuable into the hands of our customers more frequently. However, this concept, closely linked to the Definition of Done, is often misunderstood and misinterpreted. With the release of the new Scrum Guide back in November 2020, many people were taken aback by some of the precisions made in the text. While the guide itself became less wordy, it added some clarifications – now you can’t just skip those rules. Unfortunately, it raised some additional questions from the community about the aspect of Done. In this video, I’m talking about what 'Done' really means and why this is the key thing you should be focusing on achieving. I also give some tips for Scrum Masters to help figure out what is wrong if the team is not getting to Done. Long video ahead - buckle up! {"preview_thumbnail":"/s3/files/styles/video_embed_wysiwyg_preview/public/video_thumbnails/4jQBX9Ep4zw.jpg?itok=oOrNTpAz","video_url":"https://youtu.be/4jQBX9Ep4zw","settings":{"responsive":1,"width":"854","height":"480","autoplay":0},"settings_summary":["Embedded Video (Responsive)."]} Now it's time for reflection. Share in the comments 👇: is your team delivering Done? And if not, where does the link break: Done, transparency, trust or courage?

This is the third and last video on agile metrics for Scrum Masters. In my previous blog post, I talked about measuring the quality of Scrum implementation on your team and organization.

This is the second installment on agile metrics for Scrum Masters. In my previous article, I talked about delivering Done increment every sprint. In this part two, we’ll talk about establishing Scrum as defined in the Scrum Guide. As we discussed, this is one of the accountabilities of a Scrum Master. So how can we evaluate how well a Scrum Master is doing in regards to this? Scrum is being followed with all elements, rules, values and principles You represent Scrum in your team and organization. It does not mean that you are a Scrum Police forcing everyone to follow rules without understanding why. As a Scrum Master you are there to help everyone understand and accept the framework, and follow it mindfully. There are some metrics that can help you measure success in this area. They are mostly qualitative, but can be turned into quantitative metrics with some creativity: Are all events, commitments, roles, and artifacts followed by your team? Scrum has three roles, five events, three commitments and three artifacts. As the Scrum Guide says: “Each element of the framework serves a specific purpose that is essential to the overall value and results realized with Scrum. Changing the core design or ideas of Scrum, leaving out elements, or not following the rules of Scrum, covers up problems and limits the benefits of Scrum, potentially even rendering it useless.” If not all elements are present, you’ve got some work to do. What is the overall level of understanding of Scrum framework, empiricism, and agility? While your team might be following Scrum exactly as defined in the Scrum Guide, they might be just going through the motions. That is what we call ‘mechanical Scrum’ or ‘Zombie Scrum’. So quality of your Scrum also matters. We can define that quality by evaluating how well the team and the organization understand the foundational concepts and principles of agility and the Scrum framework. Here are some important points to evaluate: the level of understanding of complexity of product development practical application of agile values and principles the purpose of each Scrum element (such as events, roles, commitments, artifacts) empirical process control theory importance and connection between transparency, inspection and adaptation practical application of Scrum values in work of the team self-management and cross-functionality This will be up to you as a Scrum Master to define how to best evaluate the level of understanding of these concepts. Whether through a self-assessment, a quiz, or a discussion, you can find a way to turn this information into a metric to evaluate your success. Observe and evaluate the quality of the Scrum implementation in your team and your organization to help you measure success. Stay tuned for part 3 on agile metrics for Scrum Masters where we will talk about the effectiveness of a Scrum Team.

How can you evaluate your success as a Scrum Master using metrics?

The new version of the Scrum Guide has just been released. It is exciting! Scrum walks the talk by inspecting and adapting itself. So should you as a Scrum Master. In this article, I'll talk about how new Scrum Guide changes affect you and what you need to do now. This iteration of the guide from November 2020 has a few key changes: It is shorter: 14 pages instead of 19 (minus the title page). Because of that the Scrum Guide is less prescriptive, giving you just the outline of the framework and leaving you to decide how to implement it. More concise and to-the-point. The key elements and rules of Scrum are no longer hidden in between the lines but are clearly stated in writing. You can't bypass or skip them anymore. While these rules were actually always part of Scrum, now they have a spotlight in the Scrum Guide. It is still Scrum. From the point of view of the key concepts, principles, and values, nothing really changed. As Jeff said it: we didn't change Scrum, we just described it better (not a quote, just from my memory). Watch the video to learn more about what you need to focus on now as a Scrum Master after the release of the new Scrum Guide (and no, it's not "actively do nothing" this time). {"preview_thumbnail":"/s3/files/styles/video_embed_wysiwyg_preview/public/video_thumbnails/tM5eqyv5JxI.jpg?itok=D_ptFsV3","video_url":"https://youtu.be/tM5eqyv5JxI","settings":{"responsive":1,"width":"854","height":"480","autoplay":0},"settings_summary":["Embedded Video (Responsive)."]} To summarize, there are three key aspects I would like to highlight as a result of new changes to the Scrum Guide: 1. You have to stay up-to-date. As a Scrum Master, you need to know Scrum - you are the expert after all. It means that you must take your time to read and understand the new Scrum Guide. Take notes of what changed and how it might impact your team and your organization 2. You work with the whole organization, not just the team. While this was always the case, now it is crystal clear in the Scrum Guide. You can no longer hide behind your team, you have to work on the organizational level as well. If you are not there yet, it's a good time to start thinking about how to get there. Scrum Masters are true leaders who serve the Scrum Team and the larger organization. Scrum Guide, November 2020 3. You are an accountable Scrum Master. Scrum Master role is often misunderstood. Maybe because it did not have clear accountabilities and sounded a bit fluffy. Not anymore. As a Scrum Master you have a few specific accountabilities to pay attention to: effectiveness and continuous improvement of the Scrum Team, relationships with stakeholders in regards to Scrum, some product activities. The Scrum Master is accountable for the Scrum Team’s effectiveness. Scrum Guide, November 2020 You have a lot of work to do, same as before, but now with more clarity. Considering everything you've learned from the new Scrum Guide, what are some of the key actions and bold steps you need to take to help yourself, your team, and your organization to be successful with Scrum?

In every Professional Scrum class, we talk about Done as an important concept in Scrum.

It’s interesting how we sometimes accept some rules without questioning them at all, and how some other times we try to bend them to suit our needs.

You must have heard about the Radical Candor book and its quadrant model. Today I want to talk about how you can apply this model to a Scrum Master role.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, the World War II leader and U.S. President, wrote: “[...] plans are of no particular value, but [...] planning is indispensable”.