Community Blog

The future is unknown and although some people claim to be able to predict the future, most people can't. But to look a little ahead, into the future, to have a sense of when certain items on the Product Backlog are finished, predictability would be very useful. Although we can't be completely predictable, it is helpful if we are a little more predictable than we are now. And therefore we need some measurement results from the near past.

(And that should benefit experienced Scrum Masters too)

In today's vlog I would like to come back to the fundamentals of Scrum ... Done Increment.

In this Unstuck Careers Leadership Moment, PST Mark Wavle explores the question, "How do I know if my measures are the best ones?"

TL; DR: My Top Ten Worst Scrum Anti-Patterns I recently was invited to a Scrum.org Webinar, and I picked a topic close to my heart: the worst Scrum anti-patterns.

A Scrum Event is a meeting. So why don't we just call it that? Why create a new word? Given the poor reputation that meetings have, maybe it's not a surprise. Rather than replicate the name and pain of meetings, the Scrum Events are designed to replace them and be all that you need. The power of the Scrum Events is in the way they're time-boxed and in their purpose. Let's take a closer look.

Una de las preguntas más me hacen ya sea en consultoria como en formación es que maneras para construir seguridad en el lugar de trabajo existen.

If you’re leading Scrum Teams or generally are a leader in an organization that’s leveraging Scrum?

How can the Scrum Master detect undesirable variances in progress towards agreed goals? Each of the Scrum accountabilities participates in one or more inspections. So does the Scrum Master. Check out our tips!

Ungeplante Arbeit ist die Regel und nicht die Ausnahme.

Let me share some of the controversial findings and discussions with you. As always, there are no simple answers in complex environments.

The term 'Scrum Master' seems to have been around as long as Scrum. But has it? In this article I talk about where the term came from and why it was initially used.

Why hire a professional Scrum Master? They cost extra and you can always get one of the developers to do the work, part-time. Big saving, right? Not so much. Here's why.

Un número cada vez mayor de organizaciones se esfuerza por lograr e implementar la agilidad y si vale la pena seguir luchando por la transparencia. 

This question comes up when discussing the accountabilities of the Scrum Team and the Developers. The Scrum Guide says on page 5: 

So many times, I’ve heard that round about 50–70 % of all software features are rarely or never used. In the Cloud we can now even measure it.

The Applying Professional Scrum class is frequently overlooked when it comes to public classes.  People tend to go for the Professional Scrum Master class or the Professional Scrum Product Owner class instead.  And those are really great classes.  That is… they’re great for those who already have an understanding of the Scrum framework.

How can Developers detect undesirable variances in progress towards agreed goals? Each of the Scrum accountabilities participates in one or more inspections. So do the Developers. Check out our tips!

The Scrum Guide has a lot to say about the Product Backlog, and rightly so. It's pivotal to everything a Scrum Team does. But one thing the Scrum Guide doesn't tell you, is how you create a Product Backlog. So, here's one way you can do exactly that.

In June 2012, I wrote the world's first ever article that advised readers on how to pass the Professional Scrum Master I (PSM I) assessment from Scrum.org.  It was hugely popular and I'm flattered that it's been copied so many times.

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.

Scrum of Scrums describes one of the first approaches to scale Scrum and is often confused with Nexus Daily Scrum.  

In today's vlog, we will explore the ingredients to use Scrum with User Experience (UX).

TL; DR: The Obsession with Commitment Matching Velocity Despite decades-long efforts of the whole agile community—books, blogs, conferences, webinars, videos, meetups; you name it—we are still confronted in many supposedly agile organizations

La agilidad provee capacidades para ser adaptables para crear productos innovadores y responder a los cambios. Esta innovación debe basarse en un nuevo modelo de negocio para responder a la incertidumbre del mercado.

I am often asked what Scrum Teams and organizations should measure. And while measurement is important, it's not just about what we measure. It's about understanding why we measure and how we use those measures.

If the Empire had used Scrum, then Darth Vader would surely have been considered the Product Owner for the Death Star.  While Darth Vader does appear to have engaged in some of the traditional activities of a Product Owner, such as stakeholder engagement, his methods and his lack of faith in the Scrum framework are… disturbing.  

All elements of the Scrum framework play a role in enabling empirical process control. Sprint Goal is a commitment that reinforces empiricism, however, it remains a part of Scrum which often is being neglected or causes challenges to many Scrum Teams.

En mis sesiones de capacitación y coaching profesional con equipos, a menudo me preguntan sobre las herramientas de gestión del Product Backlog y además como usar herramientas en agilidad.

Each of the Scrum accountabilities participates in one or more inspections. So is the Product Owner. Go check it out!

In a recent episode of Your Daily Scrum, Professional Scrum Trainers Todd Miller and Ryan Ripley address a general question in Scrum circles: How Do You Increase the Velocity of a Scrum Team?

In this blog post, Dave West answers the question - How do you, for the lack of a better word, “manage” Stakeholders?

Agile isn’t the right fit for every business problem–it’s simply a tool in the toolkit–one of many.

Many Scrum Teams make use of Velocity. In the right hands, it's an incredibly useful measure. In the wrong hands, it can become a tool of obfuscation and even oppression.

In a recent class, a student asked, “What are the common difficulties teams face when starting with Agile?”  To  answer this question, I refer to the Tuckman Model of group development. Psychologist Bruce Tuckman discussed team performance in his 1965 paper, Developmental Sequence in Small Groups, introducing the four phases of team dynamics.  He labelled these phases "forming, storming, norming, and performing.” For Agile teams, the goal of the Scrum Master or Agile coach is to get teams through the first three phases (Forming, Storming and Norming) as quickly as possible so that the team can get to Performing.  In this article, I will discuss the tools that are used at each phase of the Tuckman model to coach teams towards peak performance.

This latest update to the interview guide addresses Product Owner anti-patterns from Product Backlog management and refinement to the Sprint Review.

What drives you to achieve? Money? Promotion? Skill mastery? Whatever it is that motivates you, that’s okay — be thankful that you are motivated to move forwards. Without motivation in any form, you can personally and professionally stagnate to a point where you become a detractor in a team environment. This blog will explore how to avoid falling into that trap and some of the common dysfunctions it causes.

Have you ever completed a multi-billion-dollar project only to see it blow up in your face?  Twice?  If you answered yes, you’re in good company with the Galactic Empire.  The Rebel Alliance destroyed two Death Stars as well as their successor, the Starkiller Base, using similar tactics.  If the Empire had used Scrum, the Death Star might never have been destroyed at all.  

Each of the Scrum Artifacts is inspected in one or more Scrum Events to detect undesired variances. So is the Increment. Go check it out!

In this blog post, Derek Davidson shares advice on launching a career in Scrum.

Soy gerente de proyectos. ¿Cuál es mi papel ahora que nos mudamos a Scrum? «. Ahí están los gerentes de proyectos y su mentalidad de proyecto y no de producto. Esta es una pregunta común en mis clases de Professional Scrum Master.

On a recent episode of Your Daily Scrum, Professional Scrum Trainers Todd Miller and Ryan Ripley address a frequent question in Scrum circles: Why Do Organizations Fail at Scrum? 

This workshop was delivered on 16th September 2021 and focused on introducing the core concepts of the Sprint Review and its empirical nature.

I have had the opportunity to work with some truly amazing teams that have achieved pretty amazing outcomes. One thing that every team has had in common is that, at one time, they were new to Scrum. When I engage with teams to discuss implementing the Scrum framework, they often raise potential impediments to adopting Scrum. Below are the five most common objections to Scrum and why they don’t hold any weight.

The past 18 months have been a whirlwind. Coronavirus, elections, inequality and conflict – a quagmire of micro and macro complexities that impact the feelings and behaviours of Scrum Teams. In my opinion, it would be fair to say that teams who consistently attempt to mitigate environmental and sociological complexities are ones that thrive. It is the purpose of this blog to explore how some Scrum Teams have successfully done this in an age of remote working by focusing on one thing – the Scrum Values.

In this blog post, PST Daria Bagina discusses the value of creating a Community of Practice for Scrum Masters.

When we are confident that we know everything, certain that our perspective is correct and our plan is good, we miss things. Sometimes these things are critical.

If I were to summarize the purpose of a Sprint, I would say that it’s to deliver a Done, usable increment that meets the Sprint Goal.

Nexus es un marco de trabajo que se basa en Scrum que sirve para escalar el trabajo de varios equipos Scrum desarrollando un producto.

This article explains what Sprint zero is and how it is used in Scrum.