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 Scr...

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.

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...

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

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 ...

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? 

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 imp...

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 soci...

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.

A few years back I wrote 2 popular posts that talked about the best Scrum Masters I ever worked with. This time around I am going to share some stories about the best Product Owners I have encountered. This post is about Gerry, the proxy Product Owner who was successful!

According to the 15th annual State of Agile report, there has been a tremendous increase in the adoption of agile frameworks over the last year. Within software teams, agile adoption grew from 37% in 2020 to 86% in 2021.

Hey hey hey. How's it going awesome people? I hope you had a great week and keeping excited. I have noticed that several Scrum practitioners around me think that writing the Product Backlog items as a user story is mandatory.

This workshop was delivered on 19th August 2021 and focused on introducing the core concepts of Scrum & Empiricism. I used a combination of Liberating Structures, Microsoft Teams, and Mural to deliver an interactive session.

A few years back I wrote 2 popular posts that talked about the best Scrum Masters I ever worked with. This time around I am going to share some stories about the best Product Owners I have encountered.

One of my favorite sayings is “Inspection without adaptation is waste”. For continuous improvement it is important not only to identify things that did not go so well but to also change something in the way you are working. If you change nothing, the inspection did not have an impact at all and is a...

Every company has customer focus in its vision or mission statement, but is it really? As an employee of a development team, how do I know if this is the case?

Can a Scrum Team simply decide to abandon Scrum? After all, the Scrum team is self-managing, according to the Scrum manual, also known as the Scrum Guide. So, let’s explore this question at the very heart of team autonomy.

A Scrum team consists of three clear accountabilities: one Scrum Master, one Product Owner, and Developers.  Often, when working with a Scrum team struggling with excessive conflict or a lack of trust, I find the culprit is a lack of clarity around each of these accountabilities.  Even with the best...

In this blog post, I share 10 success factors that emerged from a community meetup. These factors helped Scrum practitioners prevent or fix Zombie Scrum in their team and organization.

In 2020 and 2021, more than 1,153 participants from over 20 countries and organizations from less than 50 to more than 10,000 employees participated in a hands-on survey on agile metrics launched by Berlin-Product-People. The goal of this survey was to learn about who is using what agile metrics in ...

This episode of the Xagility podcast with John Coleman brings you 5 years worth of research by the extremely knowledgeable Christiaan Verwijs and Dr Daniel Russo. Throughout the last half decade, these two have embarked on a journey to shed more light on what it is exactly that makes Scrum Teams eff...

Although Scrum has been around for more than 25 years, it is still new to many. In this session, we provide an overview of the Scrum framework, discuss how Scrum enables agility and ways that empiricism can empower the teams that use it. Like with any form of process, there are myths that arise, dur...

Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) are a powerful tool for setting and measuring goals, but like all power tools, they can come with great responsibility. Matt Hodgson, CEO and Executive Agile Coach of Zen Ex Machina and Patricia Kong, Product Owner of Enterprise Agility at Scrum.org will discuss how...

The purpose of the Sprint is to deliver a ‘Done’ increment which meets the Sprint Goal.  At the Sprint Planning event, the Product Owner and the Scrum Team collaborate together to create a Sprint Goal - which describes why the Sprint is valuable - after which the Development team selects Product Bac...

In this episode of Ask a Professional Scrum Trainer, Professional Scrum Trainer Punit Doshi answers audience questions about New Scrum Masters, metrics, Sprint Retrospectives, Sprint Planning and more!

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.

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.

This is Dave West's presentation from Agile Camp Berlin - Increasing the Velocity of Value.

Do you have a tough time delivering product frequently? Do you seem to always have carry over in your Sprints? Maybe you’re not refining your Product Backlog effectively. The audience asked their questions about Product Backlog management to PST Dr. Chuck Suscheck, in this episode of the Ask a Profe...

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

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 perso...

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,

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.

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.

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.

Hey hey hey. What's good this week awesome people? I hope you had a great week folks. On the last video we discussed what is a "product" according to Scrum Guide 2020. Understanding product is fundamental to having effective Scrum. Because Scrum is a framework for developing complex products, when w...

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.

In this talk for Product Management Today, Dave West, CEO of Scrum.org, discusses the interesting, messy connection between work and value. He outlines how changes to the Scrum Guide have shone a spotlight on the challenge that many teams face when delivering more value.

Complaining is like releasing gas. It’s a natural occurrence. Everyone does it. But no one wants someone else to do it next to them. How to complain less and do more by Sahin Guvenilir.