With their unique blend of skills and expertise, Scrum Masters can potentially become catalysts for change, fostering an environment where value delivery and product mindset thrive.

Scrum Masters are human. And sometimes - even when they are trying to help - they can unintentionally overstep their authority. In this article, we will discuss the most common ways that Scrum Masters overstep themselves, and why.

What we measure is what we get? If there is no focus on defining what we want to achieve and articulate how we can measure it then often we end measuring wrong stuff and that impacts our ability to create value, to be successful.

In Scrum, the Definition of Done (DoD) is a shared understanding of what it means for a Product Backlog item to be considered complete. For example, for a Scrum team that is developing software, a Definition of Done might include things such as 'Complete code review' or 'all standard Regression scri...

Making the state of Agile transparent by shining light on problems, obstacles, and successes touches on the essence of what coaches and Scrum Masters should do. Yet many don't use a 'flashlight.' They wander through organizations in the dark, trying to figure out what’s happening. In this post, I ex...

In this article, we will discuss 3 concepts that work better in simple business problems and not so well in an Agile environment.

Negativity doesn’t just dampen morale -it can derail team performance entirely. This blog dives into the Bad Apple Effect, showing how just one negative individual can impact collaboration, productivity, and development in sports, business, and Agile teams. Ready to address negativity and build h...

A common mistake Product Owners (POs) often make is assigning Product Backlog items to specific Scrum Teams or individuals. While this approach may seem efficient - and even helpful - it undermines team dynamics, disempowers Developers, and distracts the PO from their true purpose: maximizing value.

This article explores the conditions under which pure Scrum thrives, the organizational DNA required to support it, and practical scenarios where it works best—along with a candid look at where it struggles.

The Scrum Guide emphasizes the importance of fostering an environment for success—not controlling teams or stakeholders. Discover how Scrum Masters can shape the conditions for growth, collaboration, and effectiveness at every level.

Be mindful of your Scrum bubble. Stay in touch with the 'real world,' don't get stuck in a theoretical bubble disconnected from real users, and keep adding fresh oxygen (other people with new insights) to your bubble!

The Product Goal clearly directs the team's focus. The Sprint Goal is a step towards that destination, ensuring that every short-term gain effectively contributes to delivering value.

A Scrum Master’s role is to foster an environment where teams thrive, experiment, and adapt. Discover how fostering supports adaptive solutions to complex problems and enables teams to deliver value in uncertainty.

Vague terms like "agility" and "value" lead to misunderstandings in product development. By breaking them down into measurable "supporting attributes," teams can create clearer goals and run experiments to achieve them. The three-step approach described here helps product development move beyond buz...

Stop Building What You Do Not Need, Escape Scope Creep, and Focus on Creating Value!

For a Scrum Team to gain autonomy, they must first show they are trustworthy. And how do you build that trust? By making your work visible. By embracing transparency, Scrum Teams can take greater control over their work and deliver even more value to their stakeholders and organizations.

Motivation in professional teams goes far beyond traditional incentives like bonuses or perks. Drawing from software industry experience, I explore three fundamental aspects of motivation that can transform team engagement: product connection, technical craftsmanship, and team spirit. While rarely a...

Let me start by saying that I am not demeaning the Scrum Guide in any way. Teams are empowered - with Scrum - to respond and adapt to complex environments in ways that would have been impossible before. That being said, the Scrum framework "just" guides the interactions of the Scrum team itself.

Gut feelings and intuition might be spot on, but they can be fraught with biases, personal preferences, and wrong heuristics. Agile Coaches and Scrum Masters would be wise to use a more data-informed, evidence-based, and scientifically validated approach to improve team and organizational effectiven...

Accountability. It's a word that can strike fear into the hearts of many. But it's not about blame or shame. It's about owning your commitments, delivering on your promises, and creating a culture of trust and transparency.

Crafting a compelling product vision is an essential step in guiding your product’s development and inspiring your team. Using the right tools and techniques, you can create a clear, customer-focused, and emotionally resonant vision. Remember, a good product vision defines where you’re going and ins...

"Its a marathon, not a sprint". I used to think that comparing a race that takes a few hours to a transformational program wasn’t representative of how hard it is to get product development off the ground. My tune changed when I ran a half marathon over the weekend.

Increasing the Agility of Biotech Companies by Tuning their Scrum: A case study.

Scrum and Lean UX share several similarities in their principles and practices, particularly in their focus on collaboration, iterative development, and delivering value to customers. Both Scrum and Lean UX embrace an iterative and incremental approach. Learn more in this blog post from PST Simon Kn...

The journey is about listening, adapting, empowering, and inspiring teams and organisations to create impactful, resilient, and valuable products by fostering the right environment and practices.

Risk management is often focused on preventing negative outcomes, but it's equally important to embrace positive risks. By encouraging experimentation and rewarding innovation, leaders can foster a culture that drives growth and breakthrough solutions.

Paving the Way for the Agile Product Operating Model by Overcoming Classic Problems.

In this Ask a PST session, Agile Director, Executive Coach and Professional Scrum Trainer Jay Rahman answers listener questions and offers advice about their Scrum challenges and obstacles. Jay offers strategies for avoiding and recovering from product delivery failures. (60:26 Minutes)

How to Make Retrospectives Lead to Real Change and Stop Spinning Wheels.

In a competitive market with fast changing customer needs and behaviors, there is pressure to deliver results quickly, which leads many organizations and teams to rush into solutions without identifying the customer satisfaction gaps that exist. This hinders them from creating a common shared unders...

TLDR: Developers: Are members of the Scrum Team who do the work on the Increment toward the Product Goal, whether that's marketing work, legal work, business analysis, software development, or testing/verification Build quality in via adherence to the Definition of Done for the Product S...

A succeeding Scrum Master helps the team move towards reliable delivery of quality, valuable increments while improving the overall environment’s health and fostering collaboration and self-management.

An effective Sprint Retrospective ensures the team remains cohesive and aligned, leading to sustainable development and innovation. It is a dedicated time for reflection, learning, and improvement.

Rebuilding Agility from the Ground Up

In this episode of the Women in Agile Podcast - Agilists: Aspire and Achieve, host Emily Lint and guest Allison Pollard introduce the Agilists: Aspire and Achieve video podcast series. Allison shares the background of the Women in Agile Mentorship program and how the program is helping those involve...

Continuous Discovery is a powerful approach to product development that ensures the product remains customer-centric, feasible, usable, and viable. By validating high-risk assumptions, engaging all team members, and employing effective discovery approaches, teams can create products that truly reson...

If Agile Coaches, Scrum Masters, and all other Agile practitioners want to survive, make more impact, and offer more value, they should use data, evidence-based feedback, and insights from scientific research to improve team and organizational effectiveness.

In this article, we explore the Kanban practice of "make policies explicit" and how it equips teams for self-management

Dive in to explore how the Agile community is coming full circle, rediscovering the essence that made Agile transformative in the first place.

Many think “developer” in Scrum means software developer, but it’s way broader than that. Find out why expanding the definition of “developer” could be the key to unlocking your team’s full potential.

Todd Miller and Ryan Ripley explore the role of conflict in Scrum teams, emphasizing that healthy conflict under pressure can drive focus and innovation. They discuss the importance of recognizing when disagreements shift from problem-solving to personal fights and stress the need for team members t...

In this article, PST Alex Ballarin explains how UX Design activities (e.g. discovery) can be effectively included in the Scrum events and artifacts using the dual-track agile approach, simultaneously with the software delivery work.

As a Scrum Master, solving problems for the team is acceptable for the right reasons. Don’t do it out of routine. Before solving a problem, consider if you’re helping the team grow in their ability to resolve similar problems independently.

A well-crafted Business Problem Statement is key to guiding your team toward the right solutions, rather than jumping to conclusions. This article explores how to create impactful problem statements by focusing on the "Why," "What," and "Who" behind business challenges. With real-life examples from ...

Is your team changing or skipping Scrum elements to cover up deeper problems? Learn how to identify what’s missing, uncover the real issues, and find better ways to leverage the Scrum framework for more effective results.

Is the role of Scrum Master really relevant when Scrum has become the norm while the Scrum Masters themselves have not really upskilled or reskilled to support the Scrum Teams.

Developing your company's purpose is one of the most critical steps in building a meaningful and successful business. Gone are the days when work was solely about trading time for money. Today, employees seek a deeper sense of purpose, often valuing it more than financial compensation. In this blog,...

As a leader, navigating the pitfalls of overconfidence and fear is crucial for effective leadership. By cultivating confident humility you can avoid the dangers of these ditches and inspire your team to achieve their full potential.

This article explains why pre-mortems are a brilliant tool for risk mitigation, improving your team’s decision process, and how they can transform your product development process.

An introduction to the intersection of Practical Agility, IT Product Model and Collaborative Incentives.