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 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?

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...

Garbage in, garbage out: Learn about 14 first principles to help your team succeed with an actionable Product Backlog.

Great facilitation makes it easier for everyone to participate, collaborate, and find shared understanding to reach the desired objective. Facilitate effective Scrum events and other meetings by starting with a well-thought-out facilitator guide.

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...

10 simple principles of a critical scrum success factor to improve your team’s effectiveness, team spirit, and reputation.

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 ...

Agiles Mikromanagement: Eine Pseudo-Verpflichtung zu agilen Prinzipien, die immer dann außer Kraft gesetzt wird, wenn es aus der Sicht eines Stakeholders oder Managers vorteilhaft erscheint.

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

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.

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.

What science tells us about how work agreements create high-performing teams. And five practical areas to focus on.

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

In this article, we discuss the concept of self-management Scrum and how it is more than a Scrum Team making its own decisions.

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?

Vertrauen ist der Anfang von allem: Erfahren Sie, wie sich Misstrauen manifestiert und was wir tun können, um Stakeholder-Vertrauen zu gewinnen.

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...

What if not all of your Scrum team’s members feel enthusiastic about the Sprint Retrospective? How can you help them become dedicated supporters?

In tis blog post, Professional Scrum Trainer Venkatesh Rajamani walks through challenges Scrum Masters face and how to resolve them.

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 our recent article “Why You Shouldn’t Modify Scrum,” we discussed five reasons why modifying Scrum is counterproductive.  We’ll expand on the topic in this article by exploring five more ways organizations sometimes change Scrum and the impacts they might experience as a result.  

Why refinement is an essential skill for Scrum teams to create small, specific, and realistic improvements.

An investigation of scientific research into what motivates teams, and how many of these insights informed the Scrum framework and other Agile methodologies

​​​​​​​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 ...

The latest chapter of the Scrum Master interview guide addresses the Sprint Review. So far, the interview guide has been downloaded more than 23,000 times.

In professional sports like soccer, focus and discipline are essential to play in the Champions League instead of the minor league. Focus and discipline are essential for business teams, too, if they want to be at the top.

Learn more about what to look out for if you want to support your teammates who build the Increment.

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

In this Ask a PST session moderated by Leslie Morse, you will get answers from Professional Scrum Trainers Stephanie Ockerman and Steve Trapps who frequently leverage the coaching stance when working with their clients. 

Seven steps to transitioning to the Product Model for your Agile teams to align your organization around value.

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.

In this episode, Dave interviews PST Sander Dur based in the Netherlands about his experiences. (16:52 Minutes)

An exploration of scientific insights. And four practical tips to encourage cohesion and coherence in your team.

In this energizing 40th Hands-on Agile ‘Best Test Ever’ session, David Burkus delved into the surprising science of high-performing teams.

The work of solving a complex problem (for example, a feature) with interdependent tasks rarely distributes evenly among the people in a cross-functional team. The solution is a team of multi-skilled specialists. A team of multi-talented people experience fewer bottlenecks as they can help overloade...

There are five events in Scrum.  But just going through the motions and having each of the events on the calendar is not enough.  To get the most out of Scrum, your team needs to understand the purpose behind each of the five events.  

One of the first things that I usually hear after describing the Scrum framework and its five events to someone new to Scrum is, “that’s a lot of meetings!” I get it — at first glance, it seems like a lot. But it really isn't when I get the person to take a closer look. This article provides...

Working from a single product backlog creates an inevitable knowledge gap in single-skilled team members. Over time, team members develop secondary or even tertiary skills and become multi-skilled specialists. On an organizational level introduce cross-functional managers that focus on the whole tea...

Are we still on track to accomplish the Product Goal? Moreover, how did the previous Sprint contribute to our Scrum team’s mission? Given the Sprint Review’s importance, it is worthwhile to tackle the most common Sprint Review anti-patterns.

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...