As a minimalist framework, Scrum contains only what is needed. Every piece of the Scrum framework is there for a reason. When teams modify any part, they won’t get the full benefits of Scrum. In this article, we will discuss three of the worst Scrum “customizations.” Warning: don’t try these in...

Agile micromanagement: A pseudo-commitment to agile principles only to be overridden whenever it seems beneficial from a stakeholder’s or manager’s perspective.

Can Scrum be used outside software development? Absolutely.

I hear the word “commitment” used in problematic and misleading ways all the time. This is true when I am teaching Professional Scrum classes and even when I am coaching good Scrum Masters. It often sounds like one of these statements: How do we know how much work to commit to? How do we make sure w...

As a project manager, I have delivered many complex initiatives, from re-platforming a consumer products website to doubling the size of a line of business.  My most successful projects have one thing in common; I used an agile approach to deliver them.

When will Scrum die? Some people would say it's already dying. There's so much inauthentic, Scrum being done, unprofessional, Scrum being done in the world. Whereas Scrum is part of what I call water Scrum fall, where it's put within a predictive deterministic system. We're predicting when work will...

Dave West interviews Nicole Christensen who has a background as a High School English teacher and is now a Product Owner at Readable English, a company focused on programs that help students read. She shares her agile journey. (22:55 Minutes)

The diversity of a group of people offers a great opportunity to tap into a wider range of creativity and innovation, but it can also lead to misunderstandings and clashes. I have experienced how the journey from exploring a group’s different perspectives and ideas (divergent thinking) to a shared u...

According to the Scrum Guide, Scrum teams are typically 10 or fewer, with a preference to the smaller size.  When Scrum Teams become too large, they should consider re-organizing into multiple Scrum teams supporting a single product.  When this happens, the Scrum Teams should share a single Product ...

What if your Scrum team repeatedly faces unengaged stakeholders at the Sprint Review? How can the Scrum team stay on track in accomplishing the Product Goal when a vital feedback loop is missing?

What are things that Scrum Teams can actually commit to? What are things that Scrums Teams cannot and should not commit to?

Scrum and Kanban are two different frameworks.  But did you know that your Scrum Team can use some of Kanban’s crucial elements to optimize workflow and deliver value sooner?   Combining Kanban with your Scrum practice doesn’t involve replacing events, accountabilities or artifacts.  It’s about inte...

Trust is the Beginning of Agility. Learn how distrust manifests and what we can do to earn the trust of our stakeholders.

I confess that the first time someone told me that Scrum is based upon empiricism, I thought they were a little pretentious.  After all, it’s a five-syllable word for a framework with only five events.  Why make it so complicated?  But as I’ve coached more and more Scrum Teams over the years, I have...

How many times have you heard statements such as, “This is not in my area of expertise”, “I don't know anything about it”, “That’s not my job”, “Ask another department” or “This is not what I studied for”? One might say that this is just their approach to gaining knowledge. It’s their style; to limi...

During the first year of the pandemic, Scrum adoption more than doubled for software development teams. According to the 15th Annual State of Agile Report, the use of agile approaches for software development grew from 37% in 2020 to 86% in 2021. This means that agile adoption for software develop...

In this Hands-on Agile session, Janna Bastow talked about being lean while creating and maintaining your roadmap and how objectives and key results (OKR) may help meet that challenge.

As a new Product Owner what are some of the things you might want to consider to help you on the amazing journey ahead.

In this episode, host Dave West interviews Tyson Bertmaring, Head of Partner Success at Dyno Therapeutics, where they discuss Tyson's experiences with Scrum and dive into the use of Scrum in BioTech. (23:09 Minutes)

​​​​​​​According to the 2020 Scrum Guide, a Scrum Team should contain members with all the skills necessary to create an Increment of usable product each Sprint. Teams that approach their work from a product perspective find this cross-functionality easier to achieve than teams that organize around ...

While many people are practicing Scrum, practicing it effectively requires something more than just following the mechanics and fundamentals of the framework. Professional Scrum helps teams get out of that mechanical, going through the motions habit when it comes to Scrum. In this Scrum Pulse webina...

When Scrum Teams constantly push back on changing priorities, stakeholders begin to blame Scrum for the rigidity. Teams with large investments of time and energy are resistant to change. Break up this rigidity by delivering the smallest possible value. Get feedback quicker. Start anticipating change...

In this article we are going to explore some ideas and reflections about the Product Goal in Scrum

Learn how individual incentives and outdated organizational structures — fostering personal agendas and local optimization efforts — manifest themselves in Scrum stakeholder anti-patterns that easily impede any agile transformation to a product-led organization.

Building a product sometimes feels like an endless race, head down, pedal to the metal, let's build it! We all run after something and as a team incrementing our product to be the best possible set of functionalities our users ever wanted, at some point we get out of breath Sprinting. As Scrum Maste...

Product Ownership is a complex and often confusing idea, but if done right those accountabilities can help the Scrum Team deliver valuable, amazing Products. In this blog, we discuss and address some common concerns about the idea of Product Ownership.

Liberate your Sprint Review from being just a demo. There is much more to it than that! I'm sharing eight things you should do in the Sprint Review

7 Do-it-yourself workshops and experiments to discover new valuable features through experiments, field testing, and research.

In my last article, I explained why we need to stop talking about "carryover" and how it's not actually a thing in Scrum. "Carryover" is really just partially done work at the end of a Sprint. Now I will take you deeper and share the 4 common misunderstandings often associated with this concept, and...

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 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...

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. 

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.

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...

The third blog, in a blog series about the upcoming book: Creating Agile Organizations - A Systemic Approach

In this vlog, PST Joshua Partogi demystifies Product Backlog Refinement ... what it is, where, when, how long and how often it happens also how refined should each Product Backlog item be.

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.

The Scrum Guide doesn't provide a complete list of the skills required for any of the accountabilities on a Scrum Team. For example, it doesn't specify that Developers must use Java or C# code. The Scrum Guide simply states that Developers need all of the skills to deliver a Done increment of produc...

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

Scrum is a tactical framework to build products, provided you identify what is worth making in advance. But even after a successful product discovery phase, you may struggle to create the right thing in the right way if your Product Backlog is not up to the job—garbage in, garbage out.

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 energizing 38th Hands-on Agile session, Roman Pichler delved into your questions on the role of the Product Owner. The topics range from product manager vs. Product Owner vs. business analyst to the right size of a Product Backlog to linking product vision to Product Goal and Sprint Goal. ...

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.

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...

​​​​​​​The concept of iterative, incremental Product delivery is included in the Scrum Guide.  But did you know that the Agile Manifesto refers to incremental, iterative delivery in at least 3 of the principles?