Resources

Häufiges Feedback ist der Motor, meine Schulungen ständig zu verbessern.

The 2020 version of the Scrum Guide dropped the classic “three questions” of the Daily Scrum. Yet many teams stick with the practice, even when it doesn’t produce the collaboration that is the hallmark of a valuable Daily Scrum. When a Scrum Team I worked with said that their Daily Scrum was lackluster and unproductive, I challenged them to design a better one. The new pattern we created shifted the focus from individual action to team collaboration toward the Sprint Goal.

The more ambiguous the requirement, the more difficult it is to calculate how long something will take. But teams still need to estimate their work to forecast releases. Relative sizing provides a realistic method for estimating. Ultimately, your team will find their own value scale and their own language that is meaningful to them. Until then, these Practical Fibonacci tips will help kick-start your relative sizing.

The future is unknown and although some people claim to be able to predict the future, most people can't. But to look a little ahead, into the future, to have a sense of when certain items on the Product Backlog are finished, predictability would be very useful. Although we can't be completely predictable, it is helpful if we are a little more predictable than we are now. And therefore we need some measurement results from the near past.

(And that should benefit experienced Scrum Masters too)

En esta charla exploraremos los fundamentos de la definición de métricas ágiles enfocados en la entrega de valor usando el marco de Gestión Basada en Evidencia de Scrum.org.

In this Unstuck Careers Leadership Moment, PST Mark Wavle explores the question, "How do I know if my measures are the best ones?"

In today's vlog I would like to come back to the fundamentals of Scrum ... Done Increment.

TL; DR: My Top Ten Worst Scrum Anti-Patterns I recently was invited to a Scrum.org Webinar, and I picked a topic close to my heart: the worst Scrum anti-patterns.

A Scrum Event is a meeting. So why don't we just call it that? Why create a new word? Given the poor reputation that meetings have, maybe it's not a surprise. Rather than replicate the name and pain of meetings, the Scrum Events are designed to replace them and be all that you need. The power of the Scrum Events is in the way they're time-boxed and in their purpose. Let's take a closer look.

If you’re leading Scrum Teams or generally are a leader in an organization that’s leveraging Scrum?

How can the Scrum Master detect undesirable variances in progress towards agreed goals? Each of the Scrum accountabilities participates in one or more inspections. So does the Scrum Master. Check out our tips!

Let us delve into the abyss of Scrum anti-patterns — from bad to really bad to ultimate, baddest anti-pattern imaginable — and what you as a Scrum practitioner can do about it. In this Scrum Pulse webinar, Professional Scrum Trainer Stefan Wolpers brings his top ten Scrum anti-patterns for a 20-minute introduction to the topic: from using Scrum for the wrong reasons to lemon code to stuffing your Product Backlog to patronizing team members. And then, we have a Q&A session addressing the Scrum anti-patterns that are most challenging to you. After all, you need to excel at many things to become a good Scrum Team at the same time. Failing, however, is significantly “simpler.”

Ungeplante Arbeit ist die Regel und nicht die Ausnahme.

Let me share some of the controversial findings and discussions with you. As always, there are no simple answers in complex environments.

Why hire a professional Scrum Master? They cost extra and you can always get one of the developers to do the work, part-time. Big saving, right? Not so much. Here's why.

The term 'Scrum Master' seems to have been around as long as Scrum. But has it? In this article I talk about where the term came from and why it was initially used.

This question comes up when discussing the accountabilities of the Scrum Team and the Developers. The Scrum Guide says on page 5: 

So many times, I’ve heard that round about 50–70 % of all software features are rarely or never used. In the Cloud we can now even measure it.

How can Developers detect undesirable variances in progress towards agreed goals? Each of the Scrum accountabilities participates in one or more inspections. So do the Developers. Check out our tips!

The Applying Professional Scrum class is frequently overlooked when it comes to public classes.  People tend to go for the Professional Scrum Master class or the Professional Scrum Product Owner class instead.  And those are really great classes.  That is… they’re great for those who already have an understanding of the Scrum framework.

Customers seek solutions that improve their outcomes, and organizations don’t know what will achieve this until they deliver something to them, measure the results, and adapt accordingly. Doing so, repeatedly, frequently, and with the smallest investment to achieve the greatest amount of feedback, is the essence of organizational agility. Organizations who master this succeed in today’s complex world. Learn more in this InfoQ article by Kurt Bittner.

Dave West is quoted in this article about value. "Value is a subjective measure.  Therefore, it is not how I define it that matters, but ultimately the person and organization that I wish to bring value to that are relevant. For example, it would be easy to describe the outcome of a sale (happy customer, rich seller, etc.), but ultimately you have to ask why is the person buying that thing – what is the value they want to receive? Also, what value does the seller achieve – why are they selling this thing rather than doing something else?  It is a complex question – so ultimately, I say the value is something defined by the individual that describes the outcome of the event."

In June 2012, I wrote the world's first ever article that advised readers on how to pass the Professional Scrum Master I (PSM I) assessment from Scrum.org.  It was hugely popular and I'm flattered that it's been copied so many times.

The Scrum Guide has a lot to say about the Product Backlog, and rightly so. It's pivotal to everything a Scrum Team does. But one thing the Scrum Guide doesn't tell you, is how you create a Product Backlog. So, here's one way you can do exactly that.

When you first start to use Scrum you will need to decide which day to start your first Sprint, and there will be implications to that decision. Here are some possibilities and their implications to help you make the best decision.

Scrum of Scrums describes one of the first approaches to scale Scrum and is often confused with Nexus Daily Scrum.  

In today's vlog, we will explore the ingredients to use Scrum with User Experience (UX).

TL; DR: The Obsession with Commitment Matching Velocity Despite decades-long efforts of the whole agile community—books, blogs, conferences, webinars, videos, meetups; you name it—we are still confronted in many supposedly agile organizations

La agilidad provee capacidades para ser adaptables para crear productos innovadores y responder a los cambios. Esta innovación debe basarse en un nuevo modelo de negocio para responder a la incertidumbre del mercado.

I am often asked what Scrum Teams and organizations should measure. And while measurement is important, it's not just about what we measure. It's about understanding why we measure and how we use those measures.

If the Empire had used Scrum, then Darth Vader would surely have been considered the Product Owner for the Death Star.  While Darth Vader does appear to have engaged in some of the traditional activities of a Product Owner, such as stakeholder engagement, his methods and his lack of faith in the Scrum framework are… disturbing.  

All elements of the Scrum framework play a role in enabling empirical process control. Sprint Goal is a commitment that reinforces empiricism, however, it remains a part of Scrum which often is being neglected or causes challenges to many Scrum Teams.

Each of the Scrum accountabilities participates in one or more inspections. So is the Product Owner. Go check it out!

Dans les sessions « Ask a Professional Scrum Trainer » de Scrum.org, des formateurs professionnels de Scrum (PST) répondent en direct à vos questions les plus importantes concernant les défis et les situations auxquels vos équipes de Scrum sont confrontées. Dans cette session « Ask a Professional Scrum Trainer », Sabrina Ferlisi, Christian Lapointe et Fabio Panzavolta répondront à vos questions sur Scrum et sur les défis auxquels vos équipes sont confrontées.

In this talk Dave West, CEO of Scrum.org discusses the future of agility and emerging trends around how agile is being applied, the tools being used with agility, and how agility fits into an organization. (32:09 Minutes)

In a recent episode of Your Daily Scrum, Professional Scrum Trainers Todd Miller and Ryan Ripley address a general question in Scrum circles: How Do You Increase the Velocity of a Scrum Team?

In this talk, Dave West, CEO of Scrum.org discusses the reality of agility and how it is the tip of a fundamentally different way of working required for the post-industrial age. He describes the elements of agility and how they weave together to provide the foundation for managing uncertainty, risk, and complexity.

In this episode of Ask a Professional Scrum Trainer, PSTs Mark Wavle and Chris Conlin along with Patricia Kong from Scrum.org take your questions about Evidence-Based Management (EBM) and content covered in the new Professional Agile Leadership - Evidence Based Management (PAL-EBM) training course! EBM is an Agile approach to help leaders guide their teams toward continuously improving customer outcomes, organizational capabilities, and business results. Mark, Chris and Patricia  answer all of your burning questions about measuring value, shifting to a more agile mindset, outcomes over outputs thinking and more!

Agile isn’t the right fit for every business problem–it’s simply a tool in the toolkit–one of many.

In this blog post, Dave West answers the question - How do you, for the lack of a better word, “manage” Stakeholders?

Many Scrum Teams make use of Velocity. In the right hands, it's an incredibly useful measure. In the wrong hands, it can become a tool of obfuscation and even oppression.

In a recent class, a student asked, “What are the common difficulties teams face when starting with Agile?”  To  answer this question, I refer to the Tuckman Model of group development. Psychologist Bruce Tuckman discussed team performance in his 1965 paper, Developmental Sequence in Small Groups, introducing the four phases of team dynamics.  He labelled these phases "forming, storming, norming, and performing.” For Agile teams, the goal of the Scrum Master or Agile coach is to get teams through the first three phases (Forming, Storming and Norming) as quickly as possible so that the team can get to Performing.  In this article, I will discuss the tools that are used at each phase of the Tuckman model to coach teams towards peak performance.

This latest update to the interview guide addresses Product Owner anti-patterns from Product Backlog management and refinement to the Sprint Review.

What drives you to achieve? Money? Promotion? Skill mastery? Whatever it is that motivates you, that’s okay — be thankful that you are motivated to move forwards. Without motivation in any form, you can personally and professionally stagnate to a point where you become a detractor in a team environment. This blog will explore how to avoid falling into that trap and some of the common dysfunctions it causes.

Have you ever completed a multi-billion-dollar project only to see it blow up in your face?  Twice?  If you answered yes, you’re in good company with the Galactic Empire.  The Rebel Alliance destroyed two Death Stars as well as their successor, the Starkiller Base, using similar tactics.  If the Empire had used Scrum, the Death Star might never have been destroyed at all.  

Each of the Scrum Artifacts is inspected in one or more Scrum Events to detect undesired variances. So is the Increment. Go check it out!

In this blog post, Derek Davidson shares advice on launching a career in Scrum.

On a recent episode of Your Daily Scrum, Professional Scrum Trainers Todd Miller and Ryan Ripley address a frequent question in Scrum circles: Why Do Organizations Fail at Scrum? 

This workshop was delivered on 16th September 2021 and focused on introducing the core concepts of the Sprint Review and its empirical nature.