"At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjust its behavior accordingly." What does this mean and why is it important?

For 10 years I have been using an adapted version of Scrum to organise my personal and professional life. I call this the Personal Scrum System. The Personal Scrum System is simple and it can help you achieve your Goals, whatever they might be.

Agile approaches like Scrum have long promoted the importance of working at a sustainable pace. This principle was made part of the Agile Manifesto due to a common practice in the software industry where people were(/are) expected to work extra hours in order to meet a deadline. Commonly this was(/is) used to mask inevitable inaccuracies in planning, poor management and quality issues.

Life is complex, and unpredictable, and we all have to deal with it daily. The Personal Scrum System helps people find success in their lives by setting and achieving Goals.

Scrum is a framework for developing and sustaining complex products. But could it be used by individuals to help them in their personal and professional lives?

Motivation matters! If you have a suitably motivated team, who are empowered, resourced and focused they will likely overcome most obstacles in their way.

The concepts of iterative and incremental development are central to Scrum. What do they mean, and why are they important?

This post is the first in an ongoing series revisiting the principles behind the Agile Manifesto. This post is focused on the following important principle – “Simplicity–the art of maximizing the amount of work not done–is essential.”

A recent question received via TheScrumMaster.co.uk was – “How can I get my first Scrum Master role and gain experience if the available jobs require 2+ years of experience? What do you advise?”

As the demand for Scrum continues to grow, more people are considering a switch to being a Scrum Master. Changing jobs and careers is a big step. How can you know if it will be the right move for you?

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

To date, less than 1500 people have passed the Scrum.org PSM III or PSPO III assessments and gained the associated certifications. This has always struck me as a low number. The post will explore why that might be, why the number should not be so low and why you might want to consider gaining one of these advanced certifications.

Some people love certifications, others, not so much! I am firmly in the promoter camp when it comes to certification Let’s explore the arguments for and against. I freely admit to my bias in this evaluation.

Since I first started working with Scrum in 2005, I have wondered what would eventually come along to replace it. Scrum has now been around for over 25 years, so surely something else would emerge?

Automation is a vital practice for Scrum Teams. The best Scrum Teams I have been part of automated early and often.

In my recent post, I told the story of the time I was fired as a Scrum Master. This time I will tell you about a time I decided to quit (probably shortly before I would have been fired!).

Being a Scrum Master can be tough. You are accountable for helping organisations change the way they approach complex work. If you upset enough of the wrong people you may end up “changing” yourself out of a job.

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.

A few years back I wrote 2 popular posts that talked about the best Scrum Masters I ever worked with. This time around I am going to share some stories about the best Product Owners I have encountered. This post is about Gerry, the proxy Product Owner who was successful!

A few years back I wrote 2 popular posts that talked about the best Scrum Masters I ever worked with. This time around I am going to share some stories about the best Product Owners I have encountered.

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.

At a recent Scrum.org Professional Scrum Master II class, I asked the group to write down some learnings from the class that may help other Scrum Masters. One statement that came up has stuck in my mind ever since: “Don’t be a comfortable Scrum Master.” – Unknown Scrum.org Professional Scrum Master II Attendee.

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

Scrum is hard. To be more specific, learning Scrum is easy, using Scrum to develop complex products is hard.

Here are some simple examples of Product Goals, Sprint Goals and the relationship between them.

One of the most common questions I receive via the Contact Us page on TheScrumMaster.co.uk is – How can I get my first job as a Scrum Master?

At a recent class, a new Scrum Master asked me for a simple example of a Definition of Done. This post captures my answer to them and I hope it will help simplify this concept for you.

According to the Scrum Guide, the purpose of the Daily Scrum “is to inspect progress toward the Sprint Goal” and “adapt the Sprint Backlog as necessary” and “it is held at the same time and place every working day of the Sprint.” So what is the best time to hold the event each day?

At a recent course, one of my students asked me to share what Scrum “looked like” for me at TheScrumMaster.co.uk. This post is my response to that question. This describes my current process which has evolved via inspection and adaptation over 5 years.

At a recent course, one of my attendees talked about his use of a "to delete" status for items in his Product Backlog. Where items had been in his Product Backlog for more than 3 months he tagged them as "to delete".

Over the past 10 years I have worked with many organisations and helped them to use Scrum to create innovative and sometimes market leading Products. I have seen a lot of Scrum during this time, much of it done well, but some of it done badly.

The most common question I am asked at my courses is - what makes a good Scrum Master? I always answer this question with a story from my own experience working with Scrum Masters (good and bad) over the years.

The most common question I am asked at my courses is - what makes a good Scrum Master? I always answer this question with a story from my own experience working with Scrum Masters (good and bad) over the years.

Yes, of course it is! Scrum is a framework to help teams and organisations on their path to agility, but it is by no means the only way to be agile.