The Applying Professional Scrum class is frequently overlooked when it comes to public classes.  People tend to go for the Professional Scrum Master class or the Professional Scrum Product Owner class instead.  And those are really great classes.  That is… they’re great for those who already have an...

The Scrum Guide has a lot to say about the Product Backlog, and rightly so. It's pivotal to everything a Scrum Team does. But one thing the Scrum Guide doesn't tell you, is how you create a Product Backlog. So, here's one way you can do exactly that.

TL; DR: The Obsession with Commitment Matching Velocity Despite decades-long efforts of the whole agile community—books, blogs, conferences, webinars, videos, meetups; you name it—we are still confronted in many supposedly agile organizations with output-metric driven reporting systems. At the he...

La agilidad provee capacidades para ser adaptables para crear productos innovadores y responder a los cambios. Esta innovación debe basarse en un nuevo modelo de negocio para responder a la incertidumbre del mercado.

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 this blog post, Dave West answers the question - How do you, for the lack of a better word, “manage” Stakeholders?

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 ...

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...

eimagine, a full-service Indianapolis US-based information technology consulting company, used the Nexus framework to replace legacy systems for a large project for a state government agency that provides connects senior citizens with social services, health care, and their communities. By doing so,...

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.

Nexus es un marco de trabajo que se basa en Scrum que sirve para escalar el trabajo de varios equipos Scrum desarrollando un producto.

El camino de aprendizaje del Scrum Master y del Product Owner es un viaje largo e interesante. En esta sesión, podréis preguntar a Guillem Hernández Sola, un Professional Scrum Trainer cosas como: ¿Cuáles son las principales competencias que se deben desarrollar? ¿Por qué tengo que cambiar mi ro...

Being a Product Owner is tough. Having the accountability for maximising value can sometimes feel like a huge weight is on your shoulders and sometimes - it's hard to know where to begin. As a Scrum Master, you’re accountable for helping to establish empirical product planning – but how could you do...

If you are looking to fill a position for a Scrum Master (or agile coach) in your organization, you may find the following 54 interview questions useful to identify the right candidate.

Velocity is an excellent measure and a terrible target. Once a measure becomes a target (ie: for performance measurement), it loses the ability to provide meaningful, trustworthy, transparent data.

This part I of a three-part series will focus on goals. We’ll examine how the goals set out in the EBM guide correspond to the Scrum Guide and some tools and formats for setting workable goals. Part II will focus on experimentation, and Part III will focus on measurement.

One frequent question that I often get from candidates that I train is - Venkatesh, what is the career path of a Scrum Master? I am a Scrum Master now. How can I build my career to the next level? Even though I don’t believe in calling out how the Scrum Mastery is done, I tried to give recommendatio...

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!

It's hard to be a good Scrum Master. It's even harder to be a great Scrum Master! So, what sort of things should you be doing to be great? Here are some Scrum Master tips to help you get started on day one in a new job.

In this blog post, PST Ravi Verma shares tips on how to manage outcomes with Evidence-Based Agility

Ryan Ripley and Neil Killick discuss the 3 levels of story slicing that all Product Owners can use to create great Product Backlog Items.

There are plenty of failure possibilities with Scrum. Since Scrum is an intentionally incomplete framework with a reasonable yet short “manual,” this effect should not surprise anyone.

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.

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.

What is an Agile Coach? Are Scrum Masters agile coaches? How do they coach teams, the Product Owner and the enterprise?

Llevo mucho tiempo ayudando a un product owner y me he encontrado similitudes con otras situaciones de ayuda y acompañamiento a otras personas que han estado en el mismo rol. Scrum ha existido durante muchos (más de 20) años y es genial ver que muchas organizaciones están o han estado implementan...

A scientific investigation to explore how management, Scrum Masters, Product Owners, and Developers contribute to successful Agile transformations

In a recent blog post, I addressed whether a Can Scrum Master and a Product Owner be the same person? You can remember the answer from the blog; Even though it is not outright in the Scrum Guide but not a recommended option.

The Sprint Review is one of the most valuable events for the Product Owner, because it is an opportunity for the Scrum Team as well as stakeholders/customers to inspect what was delivered, discuss what progress has been made towards the Product Goal, and adapt accordingly. 

On June the 8th Scrum.org hosted a webinar on the subject of using Scrum in Biotech research. The blog addresses unanswered questions from the session

El Product Owner usa un enfoque construir, medir y lanzar con Scrum. Impulsa el crecimiento del valor usando...

In diesem Blog untersuchen wir, woher diese Grundhaltung kommt, zeigen, wie wir damit umgehen können, leisten Überzeugungsarbeit und bieten Experimente an, d. h. wir

When I first started practicing Scrum, I thought that delivering a done, usable increment each Sprint was the least important part of the framework (spoiler alert: delivering a done, usable increment at least once per Sprint is critically important for reducing risk, enabling faster delivery of busi...

With remote work increasing we look at how Scrum can enhance and accelerate you remote working practices

When using the Scrum framework, the Retrospective is the final event in a Sprint. In this article, we will discuss ideas to use when planning your next Sprint Retrospective.

Algunos anti patrones de un Scrum Master que pueden no ayudar a ser un líder servicial. Un Scrum Máster que le dice al equipo de desarrollo y al Product Owner que según alguna experiencia cada miembro del equipo de desarrollo solo puede desarrollar como máximo hasta una capacidad de X puntos...

In this webinar, Professional Scrum Trainer Martijn Magermans and Agile HR Expert Astrid Karsten, author of Toolkit for Agile Talent Development,will take you with them on a journey through agile HR from a Scrum perspective. This webinar is for both HR professionals with an interest in Agile & Scrum...

How effectively a Nexus works depends on its ability to eliminate dependencies. Eliminating dependencies simplifies integration. Scrum Masters who efficiently perform cross-team refinements save time. Saving time saves money. 

I interviewed a Scrum Master candidate last week. This blog is inspired by him.

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...

Does the role of the Scrum Master go away with time? For addressing the doubt, first, understand the role of a Scrum Master clearly. 

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?

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.

Professional Agile Leadership – Evidence-Based Management (PAL-EBM) is the newest course in the Scrum.org portfolio. To prepare the launch and our trainer community for this one-day workshop, we ran several train-the-trainer events. I enjoyed participating in one of those, and I am glad to share my ...

Today, Scrum.org launches the new Professional Agile Leadership - Evidence Based Management ™  (EBM) training course.