Community Blog

Good Scrum Masters are passionate. Great Scrum Masters are dispassionate.

My experience tells me that IT industry has some huge problems! First, there are many products for a lot of money that do not make sense. Second, products are created that solve the right problems in the wrong way. Third, products are created that solve the right problems in the right way but are not "sexy" in the eyes of users. All these 3 problems are addressed by the so-called User Experience. Although I must say that this is an often confusing concept. Many people hearing User Experience mean User Interface, and this is only a part of the truth! UI design is included in UX, but UX is a much, much broader concept.

What has served me well over the years is a combination of observation and asking questions. Congratulations on your new Scrum Master position! Now what?

If you’ve ever wondered whether Scrum can work for hard deadlines, the answer is – yes!  Not only can Scrum work in these situations, but in my experience, using this agile framework increases the probability of meeting challenging  deadlines.

After more than a decade of helping organizations travel on the path of Agility, it feels more like traveling on the path of Agile Suffering.

¿Cuál es el futuro de la agilidad de negocio? ¿Hemos llegado al final de la agilidad de negocio? ¿Está Scrum terminado? ¿Kanban está muerto? Estas preguntas las veo a diario en twitter, conversaciones, ….

Ever since Scrum Guide was updated last year in November 2020, throughout early 2021 I have been inspecting and adapting with several Scrum Teams on the most effective Product Goal.

Scrum is founded on empirical process control, and transparency is one of the three pillars.

TL; DR: Increasing the Velocity of Value w/ Dave West — ACB21 In this highly engaging speaker session from the Agile Camp Berlin 2021, Dave West talks about why orienting to value rather than work is a crucial requirement for building an agil

"The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" is an awesome book. It is one of the biggest inspirations in my life! It is written by Steven Covey. The book describes... surprise, surprise, the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People :) I will present them but in the context of Scrum Master's work.

There are plenty of failure possibilities with Scrum. Given that Scrum is a framework with a reasonable yet short “manual,” this effect should not surprise anyone.

Pourquoi cet article de blog ? Une question qui revient souvent en formation est : comment utiliser Scrum pour une équipe de plus de 11 personnes ?

A real-life example of how we facilitated an online Sprint Review.

There have been times when I have struggled mightily in my coaching relationships. Whether the relationship is with a person or with a team. The conversations are exhausting, draining for me. Likely for my coachee(s) as well.

"We need to bring the IT resource managers along," I said.  "It's important that they understand their role in ensuring the success of the product". 

La persona que hace de Product Owner adquiere una responsabilidad crítica en Agile y Scrum. Cómo ser un gran product owner en 5 magnificos pasos te va a yudar a ver cómo tirar adelante.

How does the Product Backlog supports Transparency? Transparency being one of the core underlying concepts of the Scrum framework. How can you use the Product Backlog to raise transparency?

Scrum.org provides high-quality level professional training. Professional Scrum Trainers are top-notch Scrum professionals delivering excellent training and training materials.

In this highly engaging speaker session from the Agile Camp Berlin 2021, Viktor Cessan shares lessons learned as an agile coach when working with systems, resulting in evidence-based interventions.

Technical Debt can be a difficult concept for people to understand, so lets try a metaphor. 

Watching Euro2020, my daughter asked if a football coach could manage two teams at once.

Let me introduce you to an example sketch based on the Tuckman model of group dynamics I use in my Professional Scrum Master training classes to make the effort and cost of creating a Scrum Team easier understandable.

Scrum e il principio di unicità risponde ad una domanda che capita spesso in formazione: come usare Scrum per un team di più di 11 persone?

I was blessed with a partner who, on top of his skills as Agile coach, is a gifted graphic facilitator...

En los  evento de agilidad de negocio en todo el mundo, escucho que se repite la frase «así es como funciona agile» o «así es como funciona scrum» o «así es como funciona Kanban» al describir comportamientos que son poco profesionales y todo lo contrario de una mentalidad ágil. 

What scientific research on team cognition tells us about high-performing teams

How does the Sprint itself supports Transparency? Transparency being one of the core underlying concepts of the Scrum framework. What happens during your Sprint that could raise transparency?

In this highly engaging speaker session from the Agile Camp Berlin 2021, Jutta Eckstein and Maryse Meinen point out the advantages of creating diverse, cross-functional teams to benefit your customers and your organization.

Scrum is an agile project management framework that enables teams to deliver value in 30 days or less. The two most notable roles in Scrum are the Scrum Master and Product Owners. But for those new to Scrum, question we sometimes get asked is, can the Product Owner and Scrum Master be the same person?

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...

Smells Like Scrum Spirit (parody of Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana)

Scrum Star (parody of All Star by Smash Mouth)

There are plenty of failure possibilities with Scrum. Given that Scrum is a framework with a reasonable yet short “manual,” this effect should not surprise anyone. While it is common to first look outside our team for impediments, such as dysfunctional processes or other systemic issues,

The Product Owner is a critical accountability in Agile and Scrum. And although the Scrum Guide doesn’t give much guidelines around great Product Ownership, the role is still absolutely necessary for great Agile and Scrum Teams.

How does the Sprint Retrospective supports Transparency? Transparency being one of the core underlying concepts of the Scrum framework. What questions can you ask with your team about your Sprint Retrospective to raise transparency?

There are plenty of failure possibilities with Scrum. Given that Scrum is a framework with a reasonable yet short “manual,” this effect should not surprise anyone.

Arguably the most famous role in Scrum is the Scrum Master. But for those new to Scrum, it’s a bit of a mystery what a Scrum Master does day to day – here are five things that Scrum Masters do.

As a Scrum Master myself, I am excited to see the accountability of the Scrum Master clearly defined so that the company who hires me has a clear expectation about what I will do at their company.

Durante l’evento “Ask a Professional Scrum Trainer” edizione italiana del 26 maggio 2021, con Massimo Sarti e Aniello di Florio, certe domande non hanno ottenuto risposta.

TL; DR: Essential Agile Failure Patterns — When Noise Interferes with Signal There are plenty of failure possibilities with Scrum. Given that Scrum is a framework with a reasonable yet short “manual,” this effect should not surprise anyone.

Quizás estás pensando en seguir una carrera como un buen líder de cambio.  O tal vez has sido trasladado recientemente a ese puesto y te preguntas si ser un líder de cambio es adecuado para ti.

A common trend among Scrum practitioners that learn about the Kata the first time is to build bridges to something familiar, in this case Scrum. We often hear similar questions such as "Is a Kata a Sprint?", or "How long is Kata?". For that reason, I have a put together a quick follow-up video to discuss the differences between Scrum and Kata.

This blog post discusses how the Circles of Improvement from the book by Stephen R. Covey: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, work in Scrum.

Quand nous devons résoudre des problèmes complexes, nous avons besoin de liberté (de pensée, expérimenter, etc…) pour apprendre le plus rapidement possible.

Organizations need to move fast and receive ongoing feedback from customers to drive sustainable innovation through continuous discovery and value delivery. But there is a problem — dependencies.

Scrum is founded on empirical process control, and transparency is one of the three pillars.

How does the Daily Scrum support Transparency - one of the core underlying concepts of the Scrum framework.

To meet schedules, deliver valuable products, and exceed your stakeholder’s expectations, you need the ability to flex scope and offer an actual minimum marketable product.  You need to know how to break down your work to be forced by technology or business processes to deliver anything more than the minimum.