Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills

Course Description

Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills™ is an interactive course designed to help Scrum practitioners develop a facilitator’s mindset, proficiency in facilitation skills, and learn when and how to select effective techniques for various circumstances. Strong facilitation skills enable better problem-solving, more effective Scrum events and greater team alignment, all leading to better outcomes.

A key tenet of Scrum is to put problem-solving and decision-making in the hands of the Scrum Team. The Scrum Framework creates venues for this to happen and the Scrum Values help create an environment in which each Scrum Team member’s voice can be heard. However, team interactions don’t always go well. Sometimes team members lose sight of goals, don’t fully engage and/or can’t reach agreement. Effective facilitation can guide the team toward their desired outcomes.

In this one-day skills-building course, participants will learn how to become better facilitators to improve interactions with their Scrum Teams, stakeholders and customers. They will focus on how to adopt facilitation as a stance and enable the Scrum Values. Students will address a series of common Scrum-related scenarios by applying several facilitation techniques that they can add to their collection of agile practices. They will create and leave with their own facilitation “plan” to improve their next team discussion or Scrum event.

All participants completing the Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills course will receive a password to attempt the Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills assessment. PSFS class participants who attempt the PSFS assessment within 14 days of the class and do not score at least 85% will be granted a 2nd attempt at no additional cost.

Who should attend?

This course is ideal for:

• Scrum Masters and any Scrum Team member interested in learning how to use facilitation to enhance their team’s success
• Scrum Coaches, Agile Coaches and Consultants
• This course is not suitable for professionals with little Scrum knowledge or experience.

Course Topics

Broadly we will cover:

• Facilitation Principles and Scrum
• Applying Facilitation Skills and Techniques
• Improving Facilitation Skills

We will place in context:

• the Scrum Values
• the Scrum Team
• Events
• Artifacts
• Servant Leadership

Particular attention will be placed on the soft skills a facilitator needs to bring to the table, and should exemplify to others.

Course Objectives

• Develop facilitation skills and a facilitator’s mindset 
• Learn the facilitation principles that experienced facilitators fall back on when interactions are difficult 
• Understand the roles that facilitation principles and the Scrum Values play in enhancing healthy collaboration in Scrum Teams
• Explore how facilitation can address challenging scenarios most Scrum Teams encounter
• Apply facilitation skills and techniques to improve the Scrum events and other interactions
• Understand how to encourage diverse perspectives, while bringing the team together to reach decisions 
• Experience the elements of group dynamics and how they influence the decision-making process 
• Leave class with a toolbox of facilitation techniques and understand how to apply them in different circumstances

Payment and Registration

Registration is effective upon receipt of payment.

• Card payments are accepted through EventBrite (please note that they charge a booking fee). https://www.eventbrite.com/o/ian-mitchell-30194139750
• Bank transfer is also supported - details will be on the invoice.

Ian Mitchell's experience in iterative and incremental delivery began with a PhD on object-oriented rapid prototyping in 1997. He then worked as a developer for several years where he witnessed the failure of many initiatives that were allegedly implementing Scrum. He realized that his true vocation was to help teams and organizations to better understand agile practice. Dr. Mitchell has a particular focus on evidence-based enterprise transformation and is the curator of a related site, agilepatterns.org. A Scrum advocate and accredited Professional Scrum Trainer, he is a veteran member of the scrum.org forums.

This course will be delivered remotely (on-line) via Zoom.

Joining instructions will be sent upon registration.