The integration of Azure DevOps and Mural revolutionizes the visualization and management of Product Backlog items. Mural acts as a versatile front-end for Azure DevOps Services (as well as Jira), empowering Scrum Teams to forge interactive visual roadmaps and creatively handle work items using a variety of templates, such as the "Now, Next, Later" template. This combination enhances collaboration and facilitates strategic planning for both current and upcoming sprints. While the potential for visualization is vast, there are some notable limitations in the integration that merit further exploration.

The blog post suggests that Professional Scrum Product Owners should leverage Hypothesis-Driven Development (HDD) to make data-informed decisions, enhancing Scrum’s iterative nature. HDD is presented as a complementary practice that starts with a hypothesis which guides the Scrum Team's actions based on empirical evidence and user feedback, particularly for risky and/or expensive features. It also outlines steps for integrating HDD into Azure DevOps, advocating its use to ensure development aligns with business goals and user needs.

This post provides guidance for conducting a Nexus Sprint Review, a key component of the Nexus Scaled Scrum Framework (or any scaled Scrum implementation) aimed at enhancing inspection and adaptation for large-scale agile development. Dissatisfied with existing guidance, I decided to share my insights on how to structure these reviews to facilitate integrated feedback on the work done by the Nexus (the team of teams). It outlines the replacement of individual Scrum Team Sprint Reviews with a Nexus-wide review focusing on the integrated increment and suggests employing a "Sprint Review Bazaar" to cater to stakeholders' diverse interests through a diverge-converge approach. This method encourages detailed inspections and feedback in breakout rooms, analogous to visiting booths at a science fair or car show, thereby increasing transparency and engagement. The post also provides a detailed sample agenda for a 2.5-hour Nexus Sprint Review, emphasizing the importance of flexibility and adaptation during execution.

As a travelling Scrum and DevOps consultant I’m constantly asked “should our team use Scrum”? Now you might think that being a Professional Scrum Trainer – and serious Scrum fanboy – I would always answer “Yes!”. Well, you would be wrong.