Org Topologies (OT) is a framework for strategic organizational design and change. It is described as the first “human-centric plus AI-friendly” approach to organizational change. This means it emphasizes the human side of change (people need to own their change and find it engaging) while anticipat...

A proper Agile organizational design is critical to achieving your business strategy, and you need to redesign your organization when your capabilities and strategy are incompatible. Redesigning your organization involves rethinking its structure, processes, and people to ensure that they align with...

In this episode of the Scrum.org Community Podcast, Dave West continues his discussion with Willem van den Corput, VP Engineering at Lightyear and Michelle Siau, Agile Coach about how Scrum is used at Lightyear to develop Solar electric vehicles, managing complexity and adapting to growth in their o...

In a context of an enterprise a cross-functional team is not enough. A concept of a Product Group that extends cross-functional team is helpful. A Product Group is a semi-autonomous unit with P&L responsibility that consists of cross-functional teams, shared functions, systems and roles. Multiple Pr...

About the Sprint Review Event Purpose: Inspect the Increment, through feedback and adaptation of the Product Backlog if needed Facilitator Focus: Enable an engaging, energetic and participative environment. Encourage listening vs. reacting. Empathize, listen actively and build synergy b...

About Sprint Planning Event Purpose: Initiates the Sprint by laying out the work to be performed for the Sprint. Output is a Sprint Backlog (Sprint Goal + selected PBIs + Plan) Facilitator Focus: Enable a collaborative and transparent environment with a clear objective. Keep the team f...

About the Sprint Retrospective Event Purpose: The Scrum Team inspects how the last Sprint went; individuals, interactions, process, tools and Definition of Done. Output: the Scrum Team adapts by identifying the most helpful changes to improve its effectiveness. Facilitator Focus: Enabl...

A very interesting (and sad) piece of news made headlines in Spain recently that provides some lessons about agile product development and incremental delivery. 

The story of Capital One laying off hundreds of people in Agile roles is making the rounds. I have no direct connection to Capital One, so I can’t comment about what’s going on there. I'll just say that based on what I hear from people who've been involved, the reality is more complex than it seems ...

The idea of self-managing teams who have flexible scope and timelines can be perceived as daunting to some executives and senior leaders. In this session, Professional Scrum Trainer, Mary Iqbal talks about some of the common misconceptions about Scrum and Agile in general from a leader’s perspective...

In this vlog, PST Joshua Partogi shares a structured process on how to start Scrum in a large scale enterprise

Advanced ChatGPT Prompts for Scrum Masters, Product Owners, and Developers

Goal setting is an essential tool supporting agility in complex environments. Various A-B-C formulas lead us to believe it’s a straightforward process, but setting and using goals effectively is challenging. Common pitfalls include not going deep enough with what we aim to achieve and bringing a suc...

Will Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches soon be replaced with a chatbot? In this ChatGPT job interview, I put OpenAI’s latest generative AI to the test.

Are you aware that as a human being, you have the ability to convert thought energy into results in the physical world? And of course, you can choose which thought you want to convert. In this "Professional Mind for Professional Scrum" series I will walk you through the marvelous world of the mind t...

What happens when a Scrum Team becomes overwhelmed with requests that stakeholders make directly to the Developers instead of the Product Owner?  

Professional Scrum Trainer Sander Dur from Xebia joins host Dave West for a discussion about leadership where they delve into topics including the importance of building trust, transparency and psychological safety in Scrum Teams and organizations. (27:35 Minutes)

Being an effective Scrum Master or team member inevitably involves difficult conversations. How we approach challenging discussions can mean the difference between a transformative moment and one that goes sideways. Fortunately, there is a lot we can do to prepare for those times when we need to wad...

Il est fréquent de demander au Scrum Master de tenir le rôle de facilitateur dans les 5 événements de Scrum. Dépassons ce cap pour aller vers des stratégies plus apprenantes, à la fois pour le Scrum Master et pour la Scrum Team.

Grow confidence, celebrate small successes, and build the muscle to get through the hard stuff.

I need your support, dear community. For months, I have been working on turning the popular Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide PDF into a new book from Scrum-org’s Professional Scrum Series, published by Pearson. There is one challenge, though, I like to ask for your support: which cover shall it be — re...

We plan a lot in Scrum: There is a daily plan when the Developers think about progressing toward the Sprint Goal during the Daily Scrum. Of course, the Sprint Goal reflects an intermediate target the Scrum team considers valuable to solve their customers’ problems. Moreover, there is the Product Goa...

At Scrum.org, we are always looking for ways to improve the impact of our interactions with students. As a result, we are experimenting with a learning format called Flipped Learning. We are beta-testing this format now, and invite you to join the experiment! Your feedback will help us shape the fut...

What if a Generative AI can not just answer questions but also learn while constantly improving its model? Wouldn’t that lead to the long-run obsolescence of many knowledge workers, for example, Scrum Masters, agile coaches, product managers, and Product Owners?

In this episode of Ask a Professional Scrum Trainer, PST Jay Rahman will be available answers questions on leadership, Product Ownership, Scrum Mastery and more! (58:14 Minutes)

No matter what the future brings, building a capable and resilient organisation is the need of the hour. At tryScrum, our mission is to help organisations become capable and resilient. In this blog, I will share my experience of some of the tenets that helped organisations I worked with. This model ...

Use "Discovery & Action Dialogue" and learn how to ask questions that include different perspectives, and to identify specific and actionable solutions.

Get to know your new Scrum Team now! Explore these 7 facilitation tips to start your Scrum Team.

In this episode of the Scrum.org Community podcast, Kurt Bittner, PST Ron Eringa and PST Laurens Bonnema come together again to join host Dave West for a discussion on some of the topics in the new book, The Professional Agile Leader, including hierarchy and shifts to more flat, agile organizations....

Let’s look at how as a Scrum Master, you can facilitate a self-organization session, because the most empowered Scrum Teams determine the structure and organization of the team.

No matter how much a Scrum Team plans, there are times when someone asks them to undertake unplanned work mid-Sprint. In this article, we will discuss how to handle unplanned work in Scrum.

Was sind bewährte Scrum Werkzeuge und Praktiken, die ein absichtlich unvollständiges Framework erweitern, ohne dessen Grundprinzipien zu missachten oder zu negieren?

Three simple Retrospective formats based on the Liberating Structures “Conversation Cafe”, “Troika Consulting”, and “Discovery & Action Dialogue”.

A look at proven tools and practices enhancing a purposefully incomplete framework without defying its first principles.

Have you ever come across a Product Owner that has been fully empowered to make all the decisions needed for the product, without any constraints? It's pretty rare. A donut can help your Product Owner in gaining more decision-making power.

Encourage your Scrum team to establish more effective communication patterns that make a lasting impact with “What I Need From You”.

Kurt Bittner, PST Ron Eringa and PST Laurens Bonnema come together again to join host Dave West for a discussion on the Dual Operating Model, Culture, self-management, bottom up intelligence and more! (33:37 Minutes)

Many organizations are trying to improve the alignment between strategy and execution with the OKRs framework (Objectives and Key Results). There’s good intent there, but more often than not, looking under the hood, you notice:  OKRs that look more like tasks than strategic objectives – especiall...

According to the Scrum guide, Scrum teams typically have 10 or fewer people, including Developers, Scrum Master and Product Owner.  But what happens with a Scrum team that includes more than 10 people?  What if the Scrum team has 10, 15 even more people?

How the various ways of getting into a swimming pool are similar to how teams and organizations start with Scrum.

The scrum guide has been thoughtfully crafted and frequently updated to help teams and organizations be more successful. While aimed primarily at individual teams it also speaks volumes to the type of environment organizations can create to help their teams to thrive.

In this episode of Ask a Professional Scrum Trainer moderated by Patricia Kong, PSTs Simon Flossmann and David Spinks answer your burning questions about Scrum and the challenges you or your teams may be facing when using Scrum, particularly within the Scrum events and other scenarios when it may be...

An exploration of what scientific studies and a large dataset of Scrum teams tell us about the benefits of agility

In this article, I’ll explore the need for and the attributes of an agile business operating system related to Private Equity (PE) portfolio companies. It hopefully helps leaders of such companies and PE professionals focused on the operations side expand their perspective on what “Agile” and "Agili...

Kurt Bittner, PST Ron Eringa and PST Laurens Bonnema join host Dave West for a discussion on some of the topics in the new book, The Professional Agile Leader: The Leader's Journey Toward  Growing Mature Agile Teams and Organizations. (25:49 Minutes)

Here are my observations made after teaching Scrum using Minecraft Education for approximately 3 years. Minecraft is used to create a world (metaverse?) in which students are asked to develop a product. The immersive nature of the platform replicates the workplace and invites students into refle...

Agility and self-organisation were beaten to a stalemate by hierarchy and command & control. We must fight back but can't do that while continuing to frame complex red practices in a complicated blue context.

​​​​​​​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...

What is Large Scale Scrum (LeSS)? LeSS is a de-scaling framework. Also referred to sometimes as a scaling framework, but it's really aimed at simplification and it's designed for product development. This article explores what large scale scrum is about as well as its events. https://linktr.ee/jo...

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.