One of the things I struggled with at the start of my Scrum Master journey was building consensus in the team. Wanting to stay objective, give everyone space and time whilst still craving for a decision was a challenge for me. My own indecisiveness with regards to how to handle this ultimately did not serve the teams I worked with well as discussions did not seem to go anywhere and decision making was slow. Over time I learned that there are actually many already existing useful techniques that help with consensus building, and when and how to use them depends on the context and the situation you are in. Here are a few that have served me well as a facilitator.

Scrum ist ein leichtgewichtiges Rahmenwerk um komplexe Probleme zu lösen. Die Regeln wie wir sie im Scrum Guide finden sind wichtig. Und dennoch wage ich zu behaupten, dass die unterliegenden Prinzipien noch wichtiger für einen nachhaltigen Produkterfolg sind. Erst dann kann das volle Potential von professionellem Scrum genutzt werden. 

Me he encontrado varias veces que la gente en general no sabe qué hace un agile coach para las personas, los equipos y las organizaciones. Ser agile coach requiere un desarrollo de serias competencias, que en muchas sitios no están del todo bien comprendidas. Vamos a ver porqué decimos agile coach cuando queremos decir project manager agilizado o gestor de personas.

In this blog post, I explain the difference between the attitude of a programmer and a product developer, why it matters, and some tips to make the shift.

One of the primary purposes of a retrospective is to create action items, but it’s not uncommon to come up with action items that aren’t actionable.  They’re aspirational.  This blog gives you some ways to ensure your retrospectives have actionable items.

​​​​​​​In my experience, it’s the Sprint Retrospective that teams are most likely to skip, berate, or otherwise bash.  When I hear teams talking about dropping it to “save time,” I want to pull a Darth Vader, shake my fist in the air, and say, “You don’t know the power of the Sprint Retrospective!” and then demand that the team meet anyway.  Alas, I am not Darth Vader.  But hear me out to consider these five reasons for never skipping a Retrospective.  

Erfahren Sie mehr über 21 gängige Sprint Retrospektive Anti-Patterns aus der Scrum Anti-Patterns-Serie — von PST Stefan Wolpers.

A critical, evidence-based reflection on a hunch that Scrum Masters may often be more concerned with the quality of the process than the value of its outcomes.

The fifth blog, in a blog series about the upcoming book: Creating Agile Organizations - A Systemic Approach, by Cesario Ramos & Ilia Pavlichenko.

What do you think about certifications? It's kind of a controversial topic. A lot of people out there are either certification haters or they pump up certifications, and they have the alphabet soup at the end of their name on LinkedIn.W

TL; DR: Sprint Retrospective Anti-Patterns What event could better embody Scrum’s principle of empiricism than the Sprint Retrospective?

In meinen Trainings werde ich immer wieder nach praktischen Tipps und Erklärungen zum Umgang mit den Scrum Artefakten gefragt.

In meinen Trainings werde ich immer wieder nach praktischen Tipps und Erklärungen zum Umgang mit den Scrum Artefakten gefragt.

Viele agile Teams sind in der Lage, regelmäßig Software zu liefern. Sie stoßen jedoch an Grenzen, wenn es um die Festlegung von Zielen, die Bestimmung von Prioritäten und die Messung von Fortschritten innerhalb der Organisation geht. 

Three simple retrospective formats based on the Liberating Structures "Conversation Cafe", "Troika Consulting", and "Discovery & Action Dialogue"

In meinen Trainings werde ich immer wieder nach praktischen Tipps und Erklärungen zum Umgang mit den Scrum Artefakten gefragt. In Scrum haben wir 3 Artefakte...

El refinamiento del Product Backlog es la actividad imprescindible en cualquier equipo Scrum de añadir detalles, descubrir, estimar y ordenar a los elementos del Product Backlog. 

El Scrum Master brinda servicios al Equipo Scrum, la organización y el Product Owner. El radio de acción del Scrum Master no es solamente el equipo, puede abarcar el involucramiento con diversas áreas y cruzar la organización cuando tiene que participar en remover impedimentos de la organización o promover la cultura ágil y Scrum. El Scrum Master es un verdadero líder que no actúa a través del control, imposición o cualquier otra forma que impida el crecimiento de la autogestión y el empirismo.

Im ersten Artikel dieser Miniserie wurde festgestellt, dass man kein Zertifikat braucht, um gut in dem zu werden, was man tut, zum Beispiel als Product Owner zu arbeiten. Wenn Sie von der Signalwirkung profitieren wollen, die Scrum-Zertifikate zu haben scheinen, stellt sich die Frage, wie Sie eine Product Owner Zertifizierung von Scrum.org bestehen können.

What’s the problem with working without purpose? Can you do it? Sure. You can do it, but I mean...

Some time ago, whilst discussing this topic with my fellow Professional Scrum.org Trainer Todd Miller, he shared his experience with using White Elephant principles to enable a participative facilitation environment (thanks Todd!). It inspired me to use it and write this blog. 

Fourth blog, in a blog series about the upcoming book: Creating Agile Organizations - A Systemic Approach, by Cesario Ramos & Ilia Pavlichenko.

In this blog series, we’ll share the gaps that many Scrum Masters face as they work to become better agile leaders and Scrum professionals. We’ll call out biases and misperceptions and also offer suggestions on how to overcome these challenges in order to influence change.

Powerful Product Owner. It sounds like a threat, isn’t it?  Anyone overpowering affects the whole team’s activity and outcome. No wonder this affects retrospectives as well. 

El intraemprendimiento es la aplicación de la mentalidad y prácticas de los emprendedores, que crean nuevas empresas o despliegan iniciativas sociales, dentro de las empresas consolidadas.

TL; DR: How to Pass the Product Owner Certification — Scrum.org’s PSPO I to III The 

In this blog post, Sander Dur explains technical debt vs undone work...

Viele angehende Scrum Master erzählen mir im Professional Scrum Master Training, dass sie es schwierig finden, diese vier Dinge zu vereinen. Hier 3 Tipps, wie ich diese Situation in der Vergangenheit gemeistert habe.

La agilidad de negocio es la capacidad de deleitar continuamente a los clientes con entregas de valor e inspirar a los empleados en medio de los desafíos emergentes. 

Live & online training, when done well can be as effective, or even more effective than in-person training.

Why many Scrum teams struggle with continuous improvement, and how you can do better

Once the team has selected a point system, they need to decide which types of items to classify as a 1, 2, and so on. In this article, we will provide an exercise that can help your team create a point system organically no matter what’s in the Product Backlog.

Keine andere Rolle in Scrum kann so sehr zu mittelmäßigen Ergebnissen beitragen wie der Product Owner — Garbage in, Garbage out. Die folgende Liste mit den häufigsten Product Owner Fehlverhalten könnte daher ein Ausgangspunkt sein, über die Tätigkeit als Product Owner nachzudenken; vielleicht gibt es Verbesserungspotential?

Scrum is by far the most popular framework these days. In fact, the 15th Annual State of Agile shows that 66% of respondees use this particular framework.

Practical ideas on how to improve Scrum, personally.

In this video, Mark how healthy rework can maximize learning and, ultimately, effective value for your customers. We'll explore two principles of healthy rework and two principles of unhealthy rework you can use to lean into learning!

The third blog, in a blog series about the upcoming book: Creating Agile Organizations - A Systemic Approach

TL; DR: Scrum Master Anti-Patterns No other role in Scrum can contribute to mediocre outcomes like the Product Owner—garbage in, garbage out.

Three simple retrospective formats based on the Liberating Structures "Conversation Cafe", "Troika Consulting", and "Discovery & Action Dialogue"

Schon seit Jahren beobachte ich bei Scrum Teams dieses Phänomen: Die Einträge im Sprint Backlog bewegen sich tagelang gar nicht. Und dann wird in letzter Minute doch alles fertig. 

In this vlog, PST Joshua Partogi demystifies Product Backlog Refinement ... what it is, where, when, how long and how often it happens also how refined should each Product Backlog item be.

Vamos a proporcionar una descripción general rápida de cada animal, veremos por qué son tan peligrosos y ofreceremos algunos consejos sobre cómo domesticarlos para ver qué animal de producto eres o son los que te rod

An exploration of the color theory of change, and how it illustrates a bias in our community that may explain our failure to enact meaningful change

Das Sprint Planning ist ein zentrales Scrum-Ereignis, welches entscheidet, wie sich das Leben Ihrer Kunden mit dem nächsten Inkrement verbessern wird. Erfahren Sie mehr darüber, wie Sie Ihren Kunden durch die Vermeidung von 20 gängigen Sprint Planning Anti-Patterns helfen können.

In this post, I share a few questions you, as a manager - or any other stakeholder, can ask Product Owners and the rest of the Scrum Team to support them in doing the right thing.

Das klingt jetzt erst mal abschreckend. Nein, bitte nicht entmutigen lassen. Als ich die Zertifizierung gemacht habe, hatte ich schon etliche Jahre Scrum Erfahrung. Dennoch die PSM I Prüfung ist in erster Linie eine Validierung von Wissen. Die höheren Prüfungen PSM II und PSM III fokussieren dann auf schwierige Praxis-Fragen.  

The Scrum Guide doesn't provide a complete list of the skills required for any of the accountabilities on a Scrum Team. For example, it doesn't specify that Developers must use Java or C# code. The Scrum Guide simply states that Developers need all of the skills to deliver a Done increment of product each Sprint. We intuitively know that the skills required depend on the product. 

TL; DR: Scrum Master Anti-Patterns The Sprint Planning is a core event that defines how your customers’ lives will improve with the following Product Increment.

Im 15. State of Agile Report berichten nur 23 % der Befragten, dass sie Lean-UX-Praktiken in agilen Teams anwenden. 

Many problems at the workplace are not the fault of the individual managers or teams. They are often the result of working in an organizational design(OD) that impedes rather than supports Agility. The OD determines, to a large extent, how people cooperate, the prevailing mental models, and how work gets done. To change all of this takes time and requires people to unlearn old lessons and relearn new ones that support Agility.