Resources

I often wonder about the Trustpilot reviews straight after a workshop. Did I entertain? Did I perform? Were attendees satisfied? Are attendees inspired? It matters. I just think it matters more if the workshop made a difference to the work lives of attendees. I can't take credit. The client does the hard yards.

When working with a flow-based Kanban system there are a few statements that I would suggest most teams should bear in mind.

Los criterios de terminado deben cubrir todos los aspectos del ciclo de vida de desarrollo y que permiten lograr un incremento de producto que potencialmente se puede lanzar al mercado.

In this episode of the Agile.fm podcast, Professional Scrum Trainer (PST) Joe Krebs speaks with fellow PST Peter Koning who wrote the book Agile Leadership Toolkit which was released in September 2019. (22:07)

Hello awesome people. Back at it again with new learning from the trenches. Over the years working with Product Owners who mainly work in large corporations, I see common challenges.

During this Liberating Structures strategy for Scrum meetup we addressed dealing with uncertainty — a particularly useful skill in highly competitive markets. Learn more about how to train and grow the resilience of your team when dealing with the unexpected.

Food for Agile Thought’s issue #214 delves into Scrum agility; we follow a notion for time-based estimates, and we learn more about similarities and differences between Cynefin and the Stacey matrix.

In this Scrum Tapas video, Professional Scrum Trainer Ravi Verma discusses the myth that Scrum cannot be used when rewriting legacy applications. Ravi provides benefits of using Scrum during such a project and how the Product Owner can place a critical role. (6:44 Minutes)

In this Scrum Tapas video, Professional Scrum Trainer Ravi Verma gives advice on ways to manage risk when deploying applications. He gives examples of options he has taken with customers and suggestions on ways to learn and improve. (7:08 Minutes)

In this Scrum Tapas video, Professional Scrum Trainer Ravi Verma talks about his "Definition of Ready for Scrum" when it comes to whether or not your organization is ready to start adopting Scrum. Ravi goes through several questions that he will ask and some typical answers to help you determine your readiness for Scrum. (10:02 Minutes)

In this episode of Ask a Professional Scrum Trainer, PST Rich Visotcky answered questions from a live audience.

The term Agile Transformation is often mingled together with a series of other things, for example a business transformation or a digital transformation. These are however very different things.

As part of the Scrum.org webinar “Ask a Professional Scrum Trainer - Martin Hinshelwood - Answering Your Most Pressing Scrum Questions” I was asked a number of questions.

In organizations in which agile transitions take place, the ancient English proverb Blood is thicker than water is frequently appropriate. It is decided to adopt agile working, there is talk of Scrum, self-organizing teams, Sprints, standing meetings, sticky notes on the wall, etc. etc.

It's been a while since I wrote a blog, here is some good news, this is part 1 of a 3 part blog series, inspired by the writings of John C. Maxwell, “The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth: Live Them and Reach Your Potential.”

While teaching and consulting, I’ve had many existing Scrum Masters pull me aside looking tired, frustrated, and worn out.

In my Professional Scrum classes, I always get asked about best practices.  It may be about facilitating events, Product Backlog refinement, defining value, forming Scrum Teams, or creating good Sprint Goals.

People always have questions and concerns about Risk management and Autonomy in the Scrum Team...

Hello awesome people. It's me again with a new learning from within a Scrum Team. The Development Team I was working with around 3 months ago challenged the Product Owner about the User Story she brought into the Sprint Planning.

In this Scrum Tapas video, Professional Scrum Trainer Ravi Verma introduces the idea of ethics in software development. Ravi discusses why thinking about ethics when it comes to software development is important and shows examples of what a software development ethical code of conduct may look like. (13:10 Minutes)

We recently introduced our latest retrospective technique called Scrum Value Pairs, which helps Scrum teams improve areas of their process in regards to the 5 Scrum Values.

Your Sprint is over. Your increment is “Done”, you have coded cleanly, your unit tests and integration tests are bright green, you are proud of your work. The Sprint Review is running smoothly. The Sprint Retrospective allows the team to find 1 or 2 areas of improvement without revolutionizing the world.

Teams often run through the motions of Scrum and get very hung up on story points, velocity, committed percentages and as a result struggle to deliver value. But what I’ll share today is what unlocks the value of Scrum;

End of September we went to Stockholm with 15 agile leaders. We wanted to visit several companies in and around Stockholm to see how they created a thriving environment for agile teams.

As part of the Scrum.org webinar “Ask a Professional Scrum Trainer - Martin Hinshelwood - Answering Your Most Pressing Scrum Questions” I was asked a number of questions. Since not only was I on the spot and live, I thought that I should answer each question that was asked again here, as well as those questions I did not get to.

A few years ago, I was part of a team that was starting to work together under very difficult circumstances: We had to finish a showcase in the Industry 4.0 area within just six weeks.

I'd like to share another story with you... Thank you Paul and Charlie for sharing your story. It moved me and left me with huge smile on my face. 

A few weeks ago we considered the Agile Manifesto from a lean perspective. We saw that it is possible to map the 12 agile principles to the 7 canonical “Lean Wastes” in terms of a mitigation approach.

Hello awesome people. I want to share with you my recent experience and discussion with a senior manager who needs advice on how to measure his organisation agility.

There are four key words in the first value of the Agile Manifesto: “Individuals and their interactions over processes and tools”

Imagine for a moment what frequently asked questions around agile transformations look like. Which questions do you hear most often as it seems agile transformation has been a hot topic lately?

Imagine you’re a Scrum Master and the line manager of your team believes that the best sign for a successful agile transformation is a steady increase in the Scrum Team’s velocity.

In the world of tech, many industry giants such as Google choose to use a management framework known as Objectives and Key Results (OKR).

The legendary Steve Trapps has been talking to me for months about featuring in an interview. So here we are, I finally agreed and we spent 25 minutes talking about me; obviously mainly avoiding being narcissistic.

As part of the Scrum.org webinar “Ask a Professional Scrum Trainer - Martin Hinshelwood - Answering Your Most Pressing Scrum Questions” I was asked a number of questions.

This video by Professional Scrum Trainer Joshua Partogi covers the Professional Scrum Developer training class by Scrum.org. (2:38 Minutes)

In this short Scrum Tapas video, Professional Scrum Trainer Ravi Verma provides examples of how self-organizing teams hold themselves accountable as a team through peer-to-peer transparency.  Ravi goes on to talk about how Selective Self Organization without Personal or Peer Accountability can cause team dynamic failures. (8:29 Minutes)

Warning - this post is not about Scrum. It is about Technical Debt in my home!!! Please do not judge me!!

If you want your organization to become agile, adding more whiteboards to the workspace will not suffice. You have to abandon the idea that the workspace is an assembly line for white-collar workers. You need to let go Taylorism. We are now in the age of the creative worker.

This case study talks about how LogMeIn used Nexus to scale in order to launch their new product - GoToConnect.

Workers are now organized in new types of groups as a result of the movement known as Agile at scale. However, to succeed, the changes have to be more than in name only. Dave West shares his thoughts in this Tech Target article. 

In this Scrum Pulse webinar, Professional Scrum Trainer David Sabine examines self-organization in teams and explores examples of self-organization in the workplace. David’s premise is simple: Scrum Teams are self-organizing. He asserts that is not a statement of preference or intention; rather, it is a statement of objective fact.

As part of the Scrum.org webinar “Ask a Professional Scrum Trainer - Martin Hinshelwood - Answering Your Most Pressing Scrum Questions” I was asked a number of questions. Since not only was I on the spot and live, I thought that I should answer each question that was asked again here, as well as those questions I did not get to.

Does your firm exceed your customer's expectations regularly? Is just meeting expectations good enough in your market? Businesses pursuing an improved ability to deliver customer value using Scrum face numerous challenges.

Sprint Goals are one of the more elusive parts of the Scrum Framework. Most teams know they are important, but few use them - for a variety of reasons. In this post, Barry Overeem and I bust the myth that Sprint Goals are optional in Scrum. And we make an effort to show what makes them so vital in the face of complex work. And more importantly, what you can do to start working with Sprint Goals from now on.

The Kanban Guide for Scrum Teams aims to help Scrum Teams leverage the ideas and practices of Flow and Kanban in a way that is coherent with Scrum as defined by the Scrum Guide.

A Practitioner's Guide to Overcoming Challenges and Maximizing the Benefits of Agility: Mastering Professional Scrum is for anyone who wants to deliver increased value by using Scrum more effectively. Scrum.org Professional Scrum Trainers and leading Scrum practitioners Stephanie Ockerman and Simon Reindl draw on years of Scrum training and coaching to help you return to first principles and apply Scrum with the professionalism required to achieve its transformative potential.

If you lead in organizations that have adopted agile methods, you know it’s crucial to create the right environment for your agile teams. Traditional tools such as Gantt charts, detailed plans, and internal KPIs aren’t adequate for complex and fast-changing markets, but merely trusting employees and teams to self-manage is insufficient as well.

Last year, I ran a (non-representative) survey on how Scrum Masters are allocating their time when working with a single Scrum Team. Much to the surprise of many readers, the direct Scrum Master engagement with a single Scrum Team of average size and a typical 2-week Sprint turned out to be about 12 hours per week.

This case study follows the journey LRN took with Scrum to deliver more value to its organization with its "Scrum Loaded" Initiative. Through educating their teams on Scrum and becoming consistent with the Scrum Guide they were able to drive success and cross-collaboration within their organization.