Resources

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?

Download this datasheet to learn more about the Applying Professional Scrum class.

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...

Scrum Star (parody of All Star by Smash Mouth)

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

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,

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Welcome back to the professional Scrum foundations series. As introduced last week, empiricism is one of the underlying concepts of the Scrum framework.  Scrum is founded on empirical process control, and transparency is one of the three pillars.

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.

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. One failure symptom of a botched agile transformation is the frustrated Scrum Master.

In my live training, I often ask students why we estimate. The answer I usually hear is some version of...“So we know how big something is and how long it will take.”  

In an agile context, we use metrics to set performance goals, measure current conditions, define small improvement experiments and measure the effectiveness of the experiments in order to inspect and adapt goals and determine the next steps.

In the heat of "the battle" teams tend to forget why they use the Scrum framework after all and what the foundations are of it. Why do we have Sprint Planning sessions every other week, why does our Product Owner has these or those accountabilities, why did we started using a team board after all, why did... 

On today’s episode of YOUR DAILY SCRUM: Planned vs Actual is a TERRIBLE Metric for Scrum Teams!

On today’s episode of YOUR DAILY SCRUM: What is the Real Cost of Context Switching for a Scrum Team? Today's question explores the real cost of context switching for a Scrum Team.

Fake Scrum is around us everywhere we go. It's unavoidable. Just look on the internet lookup fake Scrum right now and you're going to find all kinds of interesting articles that describe Scrum in very weird ways. There are at least five ways you can tell if you've got fake Scrum going on.

One of my customers is hiring for the Scrum Master Role and asked if I had a handy-dandy Scrum Master Job Spec that they could use....

On today’s episode of YOUR DAILY SCRUM: When does UAT happen in Scrum? Today's question is all about User Acceptance Testing (UAT). UAT is an anti-pattern in Scrum.

In this episode PST Russell Miller answers questions related to the accountabilities in Scrum, leadership, dependencies, cross-team collaboration and more! Learn how to create positive, productive team norms that lead to high morale and great customer outcomes!

To put it simply, workplace politics centers on differences within employees at the workplace, differences in views and opinions, conflicts on various interests and perspectives, etc. Everything boils down to communications and relations in-between humans.

Join me and explore the reasons and the consequences of this Sprint Retrospective anti-pattern in 83 seconds...

In this blog, I will share my valuable experience in my journey toward becoming a Scrum Master. I would also share stories of various professionals, including women, who successfully got a Scrum Master’s job even after a career break. 

Lately, the scope of the Scrum Master has touched the heights, and every other person wants to land their hands on this. No doubt the Scrum Master role is in the spotlight and has also been named one of the top 10 most promising careers.

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.

Most people ask me a question: Hey Venkatesh, can you tell me that whether a person can simultaneously handle the responsibilities of a Scrum Master and a Product Owner at the same time?

The readers going through this piece more or less know the definition of a Scrum Master. Co-Creators Ken & Jeff, in their Scrum Guide 2020, having introduced exclusively the framework for Scrum, have put it as: “Scrum Masters are true leaders who serve the Scrum Team and the larger organisation.” The article’s objective is introducing the shift in the mindset or attitude. This is a requisite to become a genuine leader, as far as my experience goes. 

Scrum Teams do it all the time. It happens in Sprint Review, after Daily Scrum, in Sprint Planning, and as part of development. They discuss the upcoming work to gain a shared understanding...

On today’s episode of YOUR DAILY SCRUM: How Does a Scrum Team Handle Carryover Work? Today's question is all about carryover work. You know, the work that didn't quite get to DONE by the end of the Sprint.

This episode of the Women in Agile Podcast is another from the “Coaching Agile Teams” Mini-Series. Our Host, Leslie Morse is joined by Lyssa Adkins and special guest Molood Ceccarelli as they explore the dynamics of remote working and serving agile teams while not physically co-located.

Why the distinction between teacher and preacher matters, how you can recognize a Scrum preacher, and what we recommend instead

TL; DR: A Sprint Review without Stakeholders? 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.

Stories have a powerful impact on humans. Most of us have a favorite story. This can be a book, a movie, a play, an opera, or something else. We can remember details from stories that surpass most of the facts we can otherwise keep in our mind. And yet in a professional setting we often use facts to transport information and learning instead of stories. In this webinar, Professional Scrum Trainer Peter Götz discusses why this is wrong and how it can be improved. He will share where he is using stories and what effects can be achieved when we tell each other stories instead of facts.

On today’s episode of YOUR DAILY SCRUM: What does a Scrum Master care about? Today's question asks what a Scrum Master truly cares about when working with a Scrum Team and the wider organization.

On today’s episode of YOUR DAILY SCRUM: How does a Scrum Team handle scope creep?

On today’s episode of YOUR DAILY SCRUM: Which Marvel superhero would be the best Scrum Master?

In my Professional Scrum Training and coaching sessions with teams, I am often asked about Product Backlog management tools. In this post, I'll share my thoughts on tools and 3 tips for using tools effectively in Scrum.

On today’s episode of YOUR DAILY SCRUM: Who Decides the Sprint Length for A Scrum Team?

On today’s episode of YOUR DAILY SCRUM: Who Decides the Sprint Length for A Scrum Team? Today's question asks about who decides the Sprint length for a Scrum Team.

TL; DR: Three Wide-Spread Scrum Master Failures There are plenty of Scrum Masters failures. Given that Scrum is a framework with a precise and concise yet short “manual,” this effect should not surprise anyone.

4 Do-it-yourself workshops to improve how your team uses metrics and how to measure the things that really matter!

In this blog, PST Joshua Partogi shares a technique to introduce and improve organisation agility using the Scrum Values.

I've given the same advice to almost all of my clients -- "you need a clearer Product Backlog", "You're working really hard but you're not getting anything done", and "You need to cut scope, launch your product with a more focused scope, launch it, and then get feedback." ...

On today’s episode of YOUR DAILY SCRUM: When does a Scrum Team create a Definition of Done? Today's question asks when the Definition of Done (DoD is created by the Scrum Team.

On today’s episode of YOUR DAILY SCRUM: Can we do Scrum with a distributed (remote) Scrum Team?