In this short video, PST Joshua Partogi explains why Scrum Master cannot be compared to Agile Coach

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?

In this episode of Ask a Professional Scrum Trainer, PSTs Alex Gbaguidi, Romuald Franck Kenmeugne Tchuinkam and Samuel Adesoga, all of whom primarily focus on work in Africa, answer your burning questions about Scrum and the challenges you or your teams may be facing. They also will be available to ...

In this vlog, PST Joshua Partogi visualises what the Scrum Master do all day using the 8 Scrum Master hats.

How can the Scrum Master become that True Agile Leader, helping the organization to become more Agile?

One of the things I struggled with at the start of my Scrum Master journey was building consensus in the team. Wanting to stay objective, give everyone space and time whilst still craving for a decision was a challenge for me. My own indecisiveness with regards to how to handle this ultimately did n...

One of the primary purposes of a retrospective is to create action items, but it’s not uncommon to come up with action items that aren’t actionable.  They’re aspirational.  This blog gives you some ways to ensure your retrospectives have actionable items.

A critical, evidence-based reflection on a hunch that Scrum Masters may often be more concerned with the quality of the process than the value of its outcomes.

In this Scrum Pulse Webinar, Professional Scrum Trainer Mary Iqbal outlines each Scrum Value and provide examples of how these can help your team practice Professional Scrum. In doing so she explores Professional Scrum and how it differs from mechanical Scrum.

What’s the problem with working without purpose? Can you do it? Sure. You can do it, but I mean...

Some time ago, whilst discussing this topic with my fellow Professional Scrum.org Trainer Todd Miller, he shared his experience with using White Elephant principles to enable a participative facilitation environment (thanks Todd!). It inspired me to use it and write this blog. 

In this blog series, we’ll share the gaps that many Scrum Masters face as they work to become better agile leaders and Scrum professionals. We’ll call out biases and misperceptions and also offer suggestions on how to overcome these challenges in order to influence change.

Powerful Product Owner. It sounds like a threat, isn’t it?  Anyone overpowering affects the whole team’s activity and outcome. No wonder this affects retrospectives as well. 

Once the team has selected a point system, they need to decide which types of items to classify as a 1, 2, and so on. In this article, we will provide an exercise that can help your team create a point system organically no matter what’s in the Product Backlog.

Scrum is by far the most popular framework these days. In fact, the 15th Annual State of Agile shows that 66% of respondees use this particular framework.

Practical ideas on how to improve Scrum, personally.

This e-Book contains 50 of the most frequently asked questions during Professional Scrum Master training courses conducted by Xebia Academy. This is a handy book for both novice and more experienced Scrum Masters. It is co-written by Professional Scrum Trainers Evelien Roos and Laurens Bonnema.

Scrum itself is a simple framework for effective team collaboration on complex products. While it is lightweight and simple to understand, it can be difficult to apply effectively. The Scrum.org Ask a Professional Scrum Trainer series, features Professional Scrum Trainers (PSTs) in a live session, a...

Three simple retrospective formats based on the Liberating Structures "Conversation Cafe", "Troika Consulting", and "Discovery & Action Dialogue"

An exploration of the color theory of change, and how it illustrates a bias in our community that may explain our failure to enact meaningful change

In this post, I share a few questions you, as a manager - or any other stakeholder, can ask Product Owners and the rest of the Scrum Team to support them in doing the right thing.

Why is the Scrum Master Role So Uncomfortable? Ryan and Todd discuss the hectic life of a Professional Scrum Master and their challenges when confronting complexity in an organization.

In this podcast Professional Scrum Trainer Joshua Partogi shared how Scrum Masters can propel agility in the company by demonstrating behaviours that reflect the Scrum Values.

In this panel discussion moderated by Leslie Morse, Product Owner, Scrum.org, you will learn from Professional Scrum Trainers Olivier Ledru and Bogdan Doroslovac as well as ICF Master Certified Coach Cherie Silas as they discuss their personal journeys with professional coaching. They will reveal ho...

In this episode, Dave interviews PST Ryan Brook based in the UK about his experiences. (17:06 Minutes)

The reasons Scrum Masters violate the spirit of the Scrum Guide are multi-faceted. Typical Scrum Master anti-patterns run from ill-suited personal traits to complacency to pursuing individual agendas to frustration with the team itself.

Three simple retrospective formats based on the Liberating Structures "Conversation Cafe", "Troika Consulting", and "Discovery & Action Dialogue"

When you aspire to a Scrum Master role, some form of certification on your resume is a must. Scrum.org offers the acclaimed PSM learning journey to support Scrum Masters to professionalise their skills. I am a Professional Scrum Trainer for scrum.org and I have trained hundreds of Scrum Masters over...

If you are a Star Wars fan like me, then you know that Star Wars is more than a story; it’s an Epic which holds many important life lessons.  Below are the top five things I learned about Scrum from Star Wars.

In this episode, Dave West interviews PST Stefan Wolpers, based in Germany about his experiences. (20:13 Minutes)

In this interactive session, Richard Kasperowski from With Great People, lays out the case for Continuous / Extreme Teaming. Session participants will join in a flight of fun learning activity-sets. These will give you a taste of team awesomeness and how to start when you go back to work.

How to support Scrum Teams to effectively bridge the gap between their current and desired state

Agile implementations shift culture, yet many organizations limit themselves to the bare minimal execution of a framework and call that Agile.

In this episode of Ask a Professional Scrum Trainers Todd Miller and Ryan Ripley answer the audience's burning questions about Scrum and the challenges they are facing including questions around metrics, Scrum Team dynamics, the Scrum Values, Scrum Master tips and more.

Try this experiment and go on a journey to find your real stakeholders!

The Professional Agile Leader is a realistic, practical guide, written by three Scrum pioneers who demonstrate proven ways to foster responsive and adaptive team cultures. They structure powerful lessons around a case study based on decades of experience helping agile leaders achieve and sustain tra...

In this podcast episode, Host Dave West interviews Ferzeen Anis based in Australia about her experiences with Scrum that led her to become a PST. (18:26 Minutes)

In this blog post we will give examples of Increments and why it is important to have Done Increments

What's up awesome people? I hope you are well and keeping safe. I have been asked many times recently about the career paths for Scrum Master. I personally think Scrum Master should not be a job title. But what does that mean to Scrum Master career path if Scrum Master is not a job title ... I think...

A detailed description of how the Scrum Master role embodies 6 stances, and why I don’t consider “servant leader” and “manager” valid stances anymore

Scrum is simple, but that simplicity means that each of its elements is essential.  The values, accountabilities, artifacts and events are all part of the framework for a reason.  Teams that mess with the framework are messing with Scrum.  Teams that make changes to the elements limit Scrum's effect...

Let’s talk about Product Owners and Scrum Masters. Can they both be the same person? A very common question I hear is can a Scrum Master be a Product Owner and well the answer is a little bit nuanced so watch and find out!

We all have strengths and weaknesses with the preferred stances of a Scrum Master. Like many of the teams we work with, being ‘key-shaped’ comes to mind – cross-skilled and competent at many things but having a deeper knowledge of certain stances more so than others.

The 2020 Scrum Guide provides only the necessary guidelines within which teams use Scrum to deliver value. Sometimes, myths about the guidelines of the Scrum framework can result in teams adopting practices which do not add value to the Scrum Team. By exposing these myths, you can help accelerate th...

One of my favorite exercises from my Professional Scrum Product Owner classes is how to best sabotage a Product Owner as a member of the middle management. The exercise rules are simple: You’re not allowed to use any form of illegal activity. So, outsourcing the task to a bunch of outlaws is out of ...

A case study highlighting the use of Scrum in a non-software organization: The Hong Kong medical branch of a large insurance company engaged with Ken Kwan, Professional Scrum Trainer to help them with their agile transformation with a focus on using the Scrum framework to improve their business proc...

This is a recording of "Scrum Mastery - The Journey To Growth" by Reshma (Simran) Nagrani at AgilityToday 2022 Unconference. (25:50 Minutes)

The most perceptible activity that can take place in Scrum is the Sprint Review. The feedback-driven working session enables the demonstration of the functionality built during the Sprint to get feedback from the Stakeholders. In the following article, we will discuss the aspects of Sprint Review.

Spark small and incremental change in your Scrum Team, with our community-driven actionable quick tips.

Scrum uses an iterative, incremental approach to deliver value to the business through the medium of the Sprint. The purpose of each Sprint is to deliver a Done, usable increment. It sounds straightforward, but it can be tricky to achieve. Here are the three steps to Done in Scrum.