Community Blog

There are loads of blog posts, articles and podcasts about agile - what it should be, what it should do, how it should look? The problem is that a lot of what’s out there is hypothetical and not based on field experience.

I'm slightly uniquely placed in that I am a Scrum Master, Professional Scrum Trainer and Scrum Coach, as well as being a Rugby Coach, and as such I've always been intrigued by the name Scrum...

When people form a Scrum Team they have to figure out how to become a real team, rather than a collection of individuals. The Scrum Team Charter Canvas is a helpful tool to facilitate Scrum Team formation.

Complaining is like releasing gas. It’s a natural occurrence. Everyone does it. But no one wants someone else to do it next to them. How to complain less and do more by Sahin Guvenilir.

What's the Difference Between Scrum & Agile?

Many years ago, when I began working with clients on full-scale agile transformations (beyond the team-level or product perspective), I realized that organizations would benefit from a practice that help them experiment toward more agility. As a result, I crossed paths with the world of Kata.

The term organizational agility is everywhere these days, but what does it really mean? Can we even define it at all? Deepen your understanding of the manifesto and why it is essential to implementing healthy agile that delivers meaningful value.

Have you ever noticed people keep talking about things, but they've not aligned with what their words mean? I have seen agility measured as the number of "agile teams" and the "number of training attendees" more often than I like to admit.

In this blog, PST Joshua Partogi shares a technique to introduce and improve organisation agility using the Scrum Values.

It is quite common to see someone who is called a Product Owner not really have ownership over the product. This kind of Product Owner  is often lacking vision and demotivates the Developer. In this video podcast I discussed how we can help the Product Owner take ownership of the product. Enjoy folks.

TheScrumMaster.co.uk has created The Simple Guide To Scrum – 1 Pager. A condensed and visual representation of Scrum on 1 page.

Hey what's happening awesome people? I hope you had a great weekend. One of my youtube channel viewers asked me what should happen when the developers try to remove the Scrum Master from the Scrum Team? A very interesting indeed.

A few years ago, I bumped into an ex-colleague of mine who was working with someone who I had also previously worked with - both of us were, or had been, a Scrum Master for this ex-colleague.

Together with my colleagues Uwe Schirmer and Kurt Bittner, I have compiled a book that contains many of our own stories and those we experienced while working with customers and students: The Professional Scrum Team. Maybe they provide value to you. 

The following are the changes that struck me the most in the 2020 Scrum Guide...

What’s up awesome people. I hope you had a great week and ready for the weekend. In this [2 Minutes FAQ] video, I will answer the frequently asked questions: How can the Scrum Master make the Scrum team more self-organised?

A few years ago, I became acquainted with a lady running a charity for a child who was having medical bills pile up. She was holding a charity bazaar to raise money for the child's family.

What is agile – I asked everyone what it means to them. Got responses like “being flexible,” “respond faster,” “move quickly,” and “adapt to change,”

Even if you don't know what the Scrum Framework is all about, or even if software development (and for that matter, any kind of product development) or delivery is not your area of work and have stumbled upon this blogpost while doing your research on COVID-19, I urge you to read on. 

The Scrum Team gathers around their team desk to hold the Daily Scrum.

"He puts everything in place to get the ball up to the final third of the pitch and then trusts his team to finish the job in the only area of the field that can’t be planned for."

Let's explore how the "soft" Scrum Values directly translate into "hard" business value. Cha-Ching!

As a servant leader, a Scrum Master focuses on the needs of others, before her/his needs...

Openness is one of the 5 Scrum Values and in this blog post we want to take a closer look at this particular Scrum Value and how it relates to Agile Transformations when it is elevated from a Scrum Team level to an organizational level.

Part I of this Evidence-Based Management (EBM) blog post series covered a general introduction to show how evidence-based management can be a powerful instrument when being used in agile transformations.

Earlier this year, I released the complimentary Scrum Poster with the goal to give Scrum Teams around the world a medium to see the Scrum Guide in visual form.

Earlier this year, we had released the complimentary Scrum Poster and the response was way beyond positive. We love that teams around the world use the poster to make Scrum transparent.

The role of Scrum Master is often completely new for many organizations, and often misunderstood. So what are the responsibilities of the Scrum Master? And what is a Scrum Master supposed to do the whole day?

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.

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.

Many Scrum Teams are not very familiar with the Scrum Values as described in the Scrum Guide, and if, they have their own interpretation of it. We have also met many teams that were able to name the values, but not many live by them.

Why is it that when the going gets tough, “agile” gets the blame? There is so much online bashing of [insert random agile framework or method] going on, that it made me wonder if there is a pattern behind it. I believe there is.

Hard to believe but we have only two weeks left in our Scrummer quiz. But still two more chances to win a copy of Software in 30 Days, authored and autographed by Ken Schwaber himself.

In this post I'd like to discuss "Empathy - why it is important in teams and what you can do if you struggle with it". First, we all know what the role of the Scrum Master is, right?

Today’s reveal is a very important for us as we have facilitated Open Space events for more than 10 years with clients and in our annual conferences for example in Munich or Amsterdam and New York City.

Ask any Agile practitioner these days what Agile values are and he/she, most likely, will recite you some lines from the Manifesto for Agile Software Development.

A few days ago, I was observing a Sprint Retrospective. The Scrum Team decided to work on the Definition of Done (DoD), identified as the most important topic to adapt for the next Sprint. The discussions were open and animated, when an unexpected discussion emerged during the session.

The Scrum Team consists of accountabilities devides over three roles. The only three roles needed in Scrum. But all needed! And all equally important to be successful. If we would practice Scrum within our companies the way described in this way we can all be successful in delivering incremental value to our customers each Sprint.

In 2016 the Scrum Values were added to the Scrum Guide. In this article I share a workshop I run several times, with excellent feedbacks, hoping that you'll see value in reusing it in your working environment.

I first met Sally,and then later Francis her husband, at a local user group - Agile in Leeds, where Sally delivered a fantastic 10 minute talk on how she implemented Scrum to help Francis with ADHD. 

This is a great exercise to learn more about your team; to find out more about each other’s concerns and dreams and, importantly, what you can do to support them. 

Often I hear people say that Scrum does not take care of risk: there is no risk log, risk is not on the agenda of the Sprint Review or Retrospective as a standard agenda-item. The Development Teams need to be accountable for the quality of the product and how it's made. That's a risk right there! If there is not one person accountable for quality, being on time, within budget, building the right thing... How is risk managed in Scrum?

Over the centuries, humans have managed to adapt to many situations and evolve to become what we are today. History shows that we have an innate ability to adapt and evolve. This remains valid as part of a change in business, such as the adoption of Scrum.

Over a wet weekend in the UK, my 12 year old daughter was looking for something to do and decided to draw a poster to while away some time. My daughter decided that she would help me by making a poster about Scrum ( honestly!, I am not making this up. I didn't realise how much I talk about a scrum at home.)

One of the most common questions I am asked in my Professional Scrum Master (PSM) courses and in coaching engagements is: How do we build trust?

Working as a Scrum Master I asked myself... "How do I know if my team are demonstrating the Scrum Values? What can I use to show their current state?"

Scrum is a framework that thrives on self-organizing teams.  It gives you boundaries (e.g. time-box of a Sprint), clear accountabilities (e.g. Product Owner optimizes value), and goals (e.g. “Done” Increment).