​​​​​​​According to the 2020 Scrum Guide, “The purpose of the Sprint Retrospective is to plan ways to increase quality and effectiveness.”  Scrum Teams must take the Retrospective seriously to achieve these outcomes.  In this article, we will look at four tips for getting the most from your Sprint R...

Motivation matters! If you have a suitably motivated team, who are empowered, resourced and focused they will likely overcome most obstacles in their way.

Scrum and Digital are not the same things, but often Digital Transformations comprise some sort of agile change. In this blog, Dave West discusses a recent Dare To Lead Podcast where the overlap between Scrum and Digital was apparent. He discusses the six elements of a digital strategy and their rel...

The Mid Sprint Check-in, Demo, or Review: these meetings make Scrum much less effective while giving the illusion of control and predictability and may be masking other problems. Does your Scrum Team need another meeting?

In this Introduction to Facilitating a Sprint Review, you will learn a facilitation technique that can help turn the Sprint Review into a more engaging and collaborative session so that you can gather valuable feedback from stakeholders to determine future adaptations of your product. (5:51 Minutes)

The backlog was a great idea until it wasn’t. Many successful teams deliver backlog items daily, but their backlogs aren’t getting smaller. Learn more about Allan’s remedy for oversized product backlogs in less than an hour.

Are you in the market for a new Scrum Master or Agile Coach? Do you need any help in preparing questions for the job interviews? Here is a short video with 10 questions I would like you to consider based on what I have learned about the art and craft of Scrum Mastery and Agile Coaching from Scrum.or...

Is having specialists on Scrum Teams a good or bad thing? Find out as we discuss the pros and cons of specialized skills on a Scrum Team.

The purpose of this anonymous Scrum Master salary report 2023 is to create a clear, data-backed benchmark that allows everyone in the agile community to understand whether their compensation is adequate.

In this podcast, PST Joshua Partogi share what he often explains to senior executives in the company about whether the company actually need a Scrum Master or an Agile Coach.

Within the Scrum community, Open Space Technology is a common practice. This post can be useful to make the most out of it! 

Can you be held accountable for something you cannot control? Yes! A Scrum Master does just that. Explore the challenges of leadership without authority as we look at the Scrum Master accountability.

In its theory section, the Scrum Guide refers to the three elements of empiricism: transparency, inspection, and adaptation. However, a fourth element, foundational to enable empiricism, is hidden in a sentence on Scrum Values.

Tips and tricks to make Sprint Planning easier, master the "Groan Zone" and achieve strong outcomes.

Scrum’s strength is that it makes difficulties visible faster so the team can address them. While the framework helps to resolve many things that might not be working optimally, it doesn’t eliminate every issue. Let’s look at three problems Scrum doesn’t solve. 

Facilitation plays an important part in helping people to understand and achieve their shared goals and objectives. Here are 5 ways to improve your meetings and Scrum events whether you are new to facilitation or developing your skills to help your Scrum Teams thrive in the pursuit of value.

Patricia Kong leads a discussion with PSTs Todd Miller and Glaudia Califano focused on how Facilitation can help Scrum Teams, the importance of Facilitation Skills for Scrum Team members. (26:37 Minutes)

Learn more about good Product Backlog practices, from ‘Do We Need One’ to the Product Owner as a Dictator to its Growth Rate and Size

The concepts of iterative and incremental development are central to Scrum. What do they mean, and why are they important?

Gaining knowledge for your future requires intentional effort. With current technology there is little excuse to not level up every week and lock new information in. Discover what works for you and make a routine of it because as Louis Pasteur said, "Chance favors the prepared mind"

Scrum Teams are cross-functional. This is often perceived as “you should be able to do all the work of the others in the team”. Can you imagine how tough that must be? Luckily for us, this is a common misconception. But what DOES it mean? And what skills are Scrum Teams lacking? PST Daria Bagina joi...

The Scrum Team consists of three accountabilities: Developers, Product Owner, and Scrum Master. Yet Scrum Team accountabilities and responsibilities can be confusing, misunderstood, and lack shared understanding between its members and the organization. This exercise makes transparent the accountabi...

What is your take on the Retrospective: A routine exercise at the end of a Sprint, supported by standard operating procedures? Or a critical part of a Scrum team’s journey of continuous improvement?

A do-it-yourself workshop that uses Appreciative Interviews to share success stories from the past, Ecocycle Planning to create transparency about the present, and 15% Solutions to identify improvements for the nearby future.

The values set out in the Scrum framework are essential because they help us to navigate complex work environments as a team. At first glance, they appear straightforward but living the Scrum Values each day is challenging whether this is your first or fiftieth Sprint together. If you’re a Scrum Mas...

Use the Liberating Structure "Social Network Webbing" to find people in your organization who are facing similar impediments and work together to remove them.

The Scrum Master is basically a Project Manager right? Nope. Think beyond running Scrum events and taking notes. There is a lot more to being a master of Scrum. Discover what a Scrum Master is AND isn’t and learn the importance of self-management.

Agile for Humans has launched a new YouTube series called SUCCESSFUL FACILITATION. Episode 4 explores a facilitation technique: Training From the Back of the Room.

This case study highlights how Hospital Sírio-Libanês based in Brazil used Scrum to drive its agile transformation across departments and pivot during the Covid-19 pandemic, reducing losses and expediting critical services, while also incorporating elements of SAFe.

Agile for Humans has launched a new YouTube series called SUCCESSFUL FACILITATION. Episode 3 explores a facilitation technique: Liberating Structure 1-2-4-ALL

In this episode of Ask a Professional Scrum Trainer, PSTs Daria Bagina, Shirley Santiago and Mary Iqbal answer questions about Scrum and the challenges faced facing when using Scrum in a setting that is not software-based. (59:21 Minutes)

Agile for Humans has launched a new YouTube series called SUCCESSFUL FACILITATION. Episode 2 answers the question: "What are Liberating Structures?"

In this vlog, PST Joshua Partogi break down and maps the project management activities done by the Scrum team.

Innovation and creativity are crushed by common organizational practices. Urgency, stress, multitasking, back-to-back meetings, all contribute to the issue. Break the rut by creating intentional space for innovation and unlock your creativity.

How often have you thought: "This Sprint Review is useless and boring!" or "We are just reviewing internally what we already have seen before as a Scrum Team. We have no new feedback. Let's skip this event. Waste of time."

Scientific insights into what creates stress, and how motivation can buffer it. With 5 practical ways to reduce stress and increase motivation

So you recently started using Scrum and are struggling to get the most out of the Scrum events? Or, maybe your journey with Scrum has been going on for some time and you still feel that something is missing in your meetings. I hear you! It might be challenging to switch from well known and understoo...

Everyone on the Scrum Team should level up their facilitation skills. In this video, Todd and Ryan explore why this skill is essential to a Scrum Team and how to improve in this critical area of complex work.

I think of the three accountabilities in the Scrum framework as creating a balance of power.  But what happens when an individual fulfilling one (or more!) of the accountabilities in Scrum gets a bit — um — power hungry?  In this article, we will discuss a few examples of how people fulfilling each ...

A quoi correspond la facilitation dans une Scrum Team ? Qui s'assure que les événements sont correctement facilités, et comment ? Comment le Scrum Master peut servir la Scrum Team en passant le relais à ses co-équipiers ?

In this vlog, PST Joshua Partogi elaborates the synergy between the Product Owner and Scrum Master when collaborating together.

Daily Scrum events are filled with 3 questions and meandering discussions about tickets that are in progress. Too many topics and not enough time is the typical opinion. So, how about that Sprint Goal? Likely it’s missing or it’s the token “get all the work done” goal. Stop dividing and conquering. ...

The Sprint Review is an integral event in Scrum as it gives the platform to Scrum Team to showcase the product to stakeholders and invite feedback from them. But often find the seats with the shareholder’s name on them empty.

In this blog post, we describe the purpose of Generative Relationships STAR, how it works, and when you could use it with your Scrum Team.

In this episode, host Dave West interviews David Ingram, VP of Global R&D at Gillette about developing razors using Scrum and how they transitioned to Scrum to do so. (21:16 Minutes)

This post is the first in an ongoing series revisiting the principles behind the Agile Manifesto. This post is focused on the following important principle – “Simplicity–the art of maximizing the amount of work not done–is essential.”

Does it make sense for Project Managers to become Scrum Masters? It’s a very common practice that may have unintended consequences. Are Scrum Masters managing anything? Project management skills can be great to have on a team, but we have to learn how this works in Scrum Teams.

Why did the Scrum Guide 2020 add commitments? What is a commitment? Let's look into ths!

Many people using Scrum today have no formal training or are new to agile frameworks. It’s the perfect environment for myths and misconceptions to spread.

3 Do-it-yourself workshops to help your Scrum team improve (the lack of) task- and relationship conflict