Scrum.org Blog

Blog Author (uid)

Topic

Language

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

Why Is It Important for the Product Backlog to Be Ordered?

January 28, 2025

Ordering a Product Backlog ensures that every step taken, every backlog item worked, is a step towards delivering value, satisfying stakeholders, and making the best use of the team's capabilities.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

What Is an Increment of Value?

January 21, 2025

An increment is a usable, completed piece of a product, built in an iteration or less, that adds potential value and moves the product closer to the goals, ensuring continuous progress and improvement.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

Can a Scrum Master Change an Organisation?

January 14, 2025

With their unique blend of skills and expertise, Scrum Masters can potentially become catalysts for change, fostering an environment where value delivery and product mindset thrive.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

Should Sprint Goals Be Aligned With the Product Goal?

December 10, 2024

The Product Goal clearly directs the team's focus. The Sprint Goal is a step towards that destination, ensuring that every short-term gain effectively contributes to delivering value.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

Why Is Trust So Important in Product Development?

December 3, 2024

Trust is an essential ingredient that fuels progress, innovation, and success. Building and maintaining trust requires conscious effort and commitment from everyone involved in the development.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

Why Product Vision Matters?

November 26, 2024

The Product Vision outlines what you aim for, inspires and aligns the team toward a common direction, and provides a sense of purpose. It serves as a foundation for all product-related decisions.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

Why Scrum Fails if Product Ownership Fails?

November 19, 2024

If Product Owners fail to maximise the value produced by the team, the entire product development can be derailed. Failing to understand and validate value leads to the team missing the intended goals.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

How to Manage a Product Backlog in a Way That Maximises Value Delivery?

November 12, 2024

Managing the Product Backlog is about understanding what’s most valuable to be worked on next, fostering transparency, and maintaining flexibility to adapt to changes.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

What Makes a Great Sprint Review?

November 5, 2024

The effectiveness of a Sprint Review can influence a product’s future direction and success. It also helps understand possible challenges and how to overcome them in future development.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

Why is Scrum Mastery a Step Toward Leadership?

October 29, 2024

The journey is about listening, adapting, empowering, and inspiring teams and organisations to create impactful, resilient, and valuable products by fostering the right environment and practices.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

What Is Product Leadership?

October 22, 2024

This leadership style is about creating products that meet customer needs and exceed their expectations, establishing a solid market presence and competitive advantage.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

How Do You Know You Are Getting Good as a Scrum Master?

October 15, 2024

A succeeding Scrum Master helps the team move towards reliable delivery of quality, valuable increments while improving the overall environment’s health and fostering collaboration and self-management.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

Why Skipping a Sprint Retrospective Is a Bad Idea

October 8, 2024

An effective Sprint Retrospective ensures the team remains cohesive and aligned, leading to sustainable development and innovation. It is a dedicated time for reflection, learning, and improvement.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

What Is a Usable Increment?

October 1, 2024

A usable Increment in Scrum revolves around providing immediate value and a platform for feedback and continuous improvement. It’s a concrete step toward the Product Goal.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

What Type of Scrum Master Are You?

September 24, 2024

The goal of a SM is to grow the teams to thrive, innovate, and deliver exceptional products. Understanding and embracing the various dimensions of the role can enhance the effectiveness of your team.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

What Are the Secrets of a Great Product Owner?

September 17, 2024

A great Product Owner leads with vision, validates the value delivered and encourages experimentation and risk-taking, helping the team unlock new possibilities to focus on delivering value.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

Why Is Mechanical Scrum a Trap?

September 10, 2024

Mechanical Scrum can become a trap when we follow Scrum without understanding Scrum. The Scrum framework is a great place to start in order to deliver value, but it shouldn’t be itself a destination.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

What Are 7 Signs That You Have a Rockstar Scrum Master?

September 3, 2024

The essence of a standout Scrum Master lies in their ability to blend leadership with collaboration, ensuring that the team learns to self-manage and is focused on delivering exceptional value.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

Why Is the Product Goal So Important?

August 27, 2024

The Product Goal serves as a reachable north star for teams, ensuring every effort is meaningful and every decision is about delivering value, leading to products that meet and exceed expectations.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

Why User Stories Are So Popular

August 20, 2024

By centering the development process around the user's needs and wants, teams are better equipped to create functional products that truly resonate with the people they serve.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

What Makes a Great Developer?

August 13, 2024

This accountability extends beyond writing clean and efficient code to encompass a broader contribution to the product's success by solving complex problems proactively.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

Why Should the Product Owner Be a Product Manager?

August 6, 2024

The Product Owner should leverage their detailed product knowledge and customer insights, thereby influencing strategic initiatives driving the product's long-term success and market competitiveness.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

How to Use Acceptance Criteria?

July 30, 2024

These criteria establish conditions for team or stakeholder acceptance, ensuring that the work meets the required standards and setting clear expectations for what needs to be delivered.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

Why Do We Need the Product Owner?

July 24, 2024

The PO maximises value by setting the direction for the product, reflecting the customer needs and desires in clear business objectives, assessing technical challenges, and validating assumptions.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

How Can Scrum Help You Manage Risk?

June 19, 2024

With its flexible and iterative nature, Scrum helps identify risks in product development. Events are feedback loops and opportunities to mitigate risks through transparency, inspection and adaptation.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

What Mistakes Do Most Product Owners Make?

June 12, 2024

Being mindful of pitfalls, embracing change, maintaining proper communication with stakeholders and customers, and focusing on value when ordering the product backlog will help avoid common mistakes.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

Can a Scrum Master Limit Their Team?

May 7, 2024

When Scrum Masters adopt a more heroic stance, stepping in to resolve every issue themselves or not experimenting with new approaches, they can repress the team's opportunity to learn and self-manage.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

What Makes the Daily Scrum Effective?

May 2, 2024

These brief and targeted events are designed to keep the team focused on their goal, ensure transparency on the plans for the day, and quickly highlight any blockers, impediments or challenges.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

Why Is the Definition of Done So Important?

April 30, 2024

The Definition of Done is a commitment that guides teams toward their goals. It's about ensuring that each product backlog item delivers value to the end user while maintaining quality standards.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

Why Is the Scrum Master a Force Multiplier?

April 25, 2024

A Scrum Master empowers and facilitates a team's effectiveness, enhances their ability to deliver value, and guides them through the complexities of product development.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

How Can You Tell if Your Product Owner Is Failing?

April 23, 2024

The Product Owner is accountable for maximising the value by communicating the vision, Product Goals, and creating the right level of transparency of the Product Backlog to satisfy customer needs.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

Why Is It Important to Conclude the Sprint With the Sprint Retrospective?

April 18, 2024

The Sprint Retrospective is an event that provides a forum for reflection, enabling the team to pause, look back, and openly share accomplishments and problems, nurturing a sense of unity and trust.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

What Happens to the Scrum Master if the Team Is No Longer Doing Scrum?

April 16, 2024

When a team moves away from Scrum, the Scrum Master role often evolves. This allows them to apply their skills in new contexts, like embracing leadership and mentoring teams in alternative approaches.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

How Can We Tell if the Product Owner Is Doing a Great Job?

April 1, 2024

A product development effort can significantly benefit from defining the 'why' and 'what' and involving developers in understanding and defining business outcomes.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

Do We Commit to the Sprint Backlog?

March 22, 2024

No. The commitment for the Sprint Backlog is the Sprint Goal, which enhances the importance of achieving outcomes that deliver value rather than merely completing a set of predefined work items.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

What Is My Scrum Master Doing All Day?

March 20, 2024

A daily effort would include coaching, mentoring, collaborating, maximising the team's potential and continuous improvement, helping the team mature, and facilitating the removal of impediments.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

What Is My Product Owner Doing All Day?

March 14, 2024

A Product Owner guides a product's journey to success. They are accountable for translating customer wishes and needs to a viable and competitive product, using vision, goals, and the Product Backlog.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

Can Anyone Be a Scrum Master?

March 12, 2024

Becoming a Scrum Master requires interpersonal skills, adaptability, continuous learning, and a clear focus on goals and team dynamics. It’s about leading and inspiring teams to deliver value.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

What Is Self-Management?

March 7, 2024

Self-management is characterised by autonomy and accountability. It effectively empowers teams to navigate complex challenges by cultivating proactive problem-solving and collaborative decision-making.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

Who Really Creates the Product Goal?

March 5, 2024

The Product Owner is accountable for the Product Goal, collaborating with the team and stakeholders to ensure the goal aligns with the product's vision and strategic business objectives.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

What Does It Mean That a Team Is Cross-Functional?

February 29, 2024

A cross-functional team has a collective skill set that covers the entire spectrum of product-building abilities and knowledge needed to transform every Product Backlog item into a done increment.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

Why Should We Care About Product Backlog Refinement?

February 27, 2024

Product Backlog refinement ensures that the team's efforts are coordinated and meaningful, leading them towards a valuable increment.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

Why Being a Scrum Master Is Not About the Process

February 22, 2024

Being a Scrum Master is more than framework compliance. The SM influence extends to fostering an empirical mindset, managing complex relationships, and guiding the team through continuous growth.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

Why Should We Invite the Stakeholders to the Sprint Review?

February 20, 2024

Integrating stakeholders into the Sprint Review bridges gaps between the team and them. It ensures that the team focuses on working on what’s most valuable at present and keeps the product relevant.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

What Mistakes Does an Enthusiastic Scrum Master Make?

February 15, 2024

Enthusiastic Scrum Masters can be over-involved with and micro-manage teams. Instead, they must find what’s best for the team and focus on enablement, allowing self-management to flourish.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

What Do Successful Teams Know about Complexity?

February 13, 2024

Successful teams deal with complexity by embracing it as an opportunity for growth. They prioritise based on customer value, inspect and adapt continuously to overcome challenges in product development.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

What Are 7 Things Product Owners Should Stop Doing?

February 8, 2024

There are good and great Product Owners. Sometimes, the distance from good to great is the hardest part of the journey. If you want your Product Owner to be more effective, show them this.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

Why Team Working Agreements Are So Important?

February 7, 2024

Working agreements stand as the backbone of collective success. They provide a foundation for self-management and consensus on how to engage, which is crucial for navigating complexity.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

What Is the Difference Between the Definition of Done and Acceptance Criteria?

February 6, 2024

The DoD and the acceptance criteria are two fundamental concepts in product development. While DoD is part of Scrum, Acceptance Criteria is an additional practice.

Blog Post

| Ciprian Banica

What Is Product Backlog Refinement?

February 1, 2024

Product Backlog refinement is the act of breaking down work. Further defining Product Backlog Items into smaller and more clear items can improve the Team's focus, flow of work, and the Product Backlog ordering.