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Blog Post
As a servant-leader, the Scrum Master sometimes has to make very difficult decisions. This might even include removing someone from the Scrum Team. Obviously, this a difficult decision that should not be taken light-hearted. In this post, we'll share some perspectives on the kinds of situations wher...
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Podcast
The questions we ask from ourselves, and the team asks from themselves are critical to influence our behavior and decisions. In this episode we explore 5 different aspects for a successful Scrum Master, and what Professional Scrum Trainer Lucas Smith has learned about them.
Featured Retrospective...
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Blog Post
In this blog post we've shared our ideas on "Your Scrum Master Journey" and the first steps we've made at a Dutch customer.This week Christiaan Verwijs and I facilitated a workshop at a Dutch customer in which Scrum Masters could provide a pitch for participating in "Your Scrum Master Journey".
5 from 1 rating
Blog Post
Teams with high diversity are more innovative. They have more perspectives that create a higher rate of idea flow. More new ideas are generated that lead to new products and innovations than in homogeneous teams.
What is innovation?
Innovations are the steps that lead to improved products.
...
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Blog Post
In the "Scrum from the trenches" blog post series I like to address topics that I encounter in practicing Scrum in the real world, with real Scrum Teams. Sharing where theory comes into practice, what challenges teams encounter along the way and ways to help Scrum practitioners use the power of empi...
4.5 from 373 ratings
Blog Post
Hello great people of the world. Welcome back to Professional Software Delivery with Scrum (PSD) blog series with yours truly. This time we're going talk about how to use Scrum And DevOps. I am interested to discuss this topic because it's quite common I get a question from someone in the agile comm...
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Blog Post
In this blog post we’ll share the string of Liberating Structures we used at a Retrospective for a rapidly growing startup.
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Blog Post
One of the most common questions I am asked in my Professional Scrum Master (PSM) courses and in coaching engagements is:
How do we build trust?
This is a complex topic. And there are no simple or quick processes or techniques that will guarantee an outcome. Nor can you know how long it w...
4.7 from 375 ratings
Blog Post
When coaching for organizations, I am often met at the doors of the cathedral by exasperated management. Frustrated for how Scrum is transformed to meet personal agendas and bias.
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Blog Post
“Most executives, many scientists, and almost all business school graduates believe that if you analyze data, this will give you new ideas. Unfortunately, this belief is totally wrong. The mind can only see what it is prepared to see.” - Edward de Bono
If you are ever hired as an agile coach,...
4.7 from 71 ratings
Blog Post
What can you do as a Leader to help your Scrum Teams to become mature? Discover a 5-level maturity pattern that you can use as a reference.
4.3 from 179 ratings
Blog Post
I would like to discuss Scrum and XP because I often get a question "When should I use Scrum or XP?" from people in the community.
3.8 from 4 ratings
Blog Post
I’m lucky enough to work with different teams on a regular basis. In some cases, these teams have been doing scrum for years. These teams have become highly proficient when it comes to the events in Scrum. They always have Done software to be inspected at the Sprint Review. They have excellent, deep...
4.1 from 14 ratings
Video
As part of the Scrum Tapas video series, Professional Scrum Trainer Andrzej Zińczuk discusses his experience working with a Scrum Team that was questioning their need to conduct Sprint Retrospectives each Sprint. He used a football analogy to help them understand the importance of a Sprint Retrospe...
4.2 from 320 ratings
Blog Post
As an Agile Coach, you frequently encounter situations which demand quick thinking to get things moving in the right direction. Over time I have found few techniques which come out handy and always keep these in my playbook in case need arise. This is first part in the series of tools that I have fo...
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Blog Post
TRIZ is a facilitation technique to stop counterproductive activities and make space for innovation.
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Blog Post
Today we announced a new class Professional Scrum With Kanban. This class helps teams practicing Scrum to apply the practices of Kanban without breaking Scrum. It shows how visualization and flow are great partners in delivering Done software and how Scrum with Kanban helps teams become more profess...
3.9 from 5 ratings
Blog Post
I have recently been helping a new Scrum team get started with the framework and helping them to set themselves up with the best chance of being successful with Scrum.
After a two week sprint in which they did deliver an increment and learned a lot about the product that they would be work on, it...
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Blog Post
In this post, we address the myth that the Sprint Review is primarily an opportunity to ‘demo’ the increment to stakeholders. Although a demo certainly can be part of a Sprint Review, it fails to capture what the Sprint Review is actually about...
4.8 from 29 ratings
Blog Post
A friend sent me an e-mail, asking me to summarize Nexus and the Scaled Professional Scrum class. Here's the gist of what I sent in return.
Why Nexus?
If you know Scrum, you already know the basic principles and most important things needed to scale Scrum: inspect and adapt cycles, and the imp...
5 from 3 ratings
Blog Post
Improve your Scrum events with the Liberating Structure “1-2-4-All”. Unfold open conversations and sift ideas and solutions in rapid fashion. Your Scrum events (and other meetings, events, workshops) will never be the same!
4.5 from 203 ratings
Blog Post
Stop the traditional introduction rounds and start using Impromptu Networking. A facilitating technique to rapidly share challenges and expectations and build new connections.
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Blog Post
Back in the early days of Scrum, the Scrum Master role was exciting. The days of the pigs & chickens, the days when being a Scrum Master was considered dangerous. In those times there was the saying
a dead Scrum Master is a useless Scrum Master
And even today I still use that when selecting a...
0.5 from 1 rating
Blog Post
The Sprint is one of the five Scrum events. In my Professional Scrum Courses, this is the event that people often forget about because it is a container event, not necessarily something you distinctly schedule on the calendar.
4.3 from 243 ratings
Guide
This document provides an overview of the changes made to the Nexus Guide over time.
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Blog Post
According to Forrester Research, 90% of Agile teams use Scrum.[1] One reason for this popularity is that Scrum is a simple framework that promotes transparency and empiricism. It is based on a set of principles and values, and consists of three roles (Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Development Tea...
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Blog Post
In August 2015, Ken Schwaber and Scrum.org introduced the Nexus framework to the public via the Nexus Guide, the definitive guide to scaling Scrum. Today, on January 17, 2018, we release the first update to the Nexus Guide.
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Blog Post
“I designed a defined framework for using many Scrum Teams on a single product or problem. The result is Nexus, an exoskeleton that rests on top of many Scrum Teams. Nexus provides information and management information for guiding their working together.” - Ken Schwaber
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Guide
Blog Post
In this article we’ll bust the myth that in Scrum too much time is spend in meetings. We’ll not only describe how time-consuming the Scrum events factually are, but also clarify the purpose and importance. After explaining the origins of this myth, we’ll offer some practical tips to prevent or resol...
4.9 from 21 ratings
Blog Post
In this article we'll bust one of the more radical myths in Scrum; the belief that plans and planning have no place in Scrum.
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Blog Post
In this post, we’ll explain the Liberating Structure "Troika Consulting" and how we apply this facilitation technique within our Scrum training and coaching engagements.
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Blog Post
People in the Agile community must have heard or have came across this white paper multiple times. We have been preaching about it in our training classes but I am not sure how many of Agile community members have actually read it thoroughly. The paper was published in Jan 1986 issue of HBR and is v...
4.5 from 1 rating
Blog Post
Product Backlog Management
As a Product Owner, you are responsible for Product Backlog Management, in order to maximize the value of the Product. The Product Backlog is the single source of truth which contains all the work to be done on the Product. As a Product Owner, you will have to make some c...
4.8 from 3 ratings
Blog Post
Today we bust the myth that it is the responsibility of the Scrum Master to resolve all problems that are hindering the Development Team.
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Blog Post
The Scrum Framework
The Scrum Framework is a lightweight framework that defines three Roles, three Artifacts and five Events, which is used to develop and maintain complex Products in complex environments. Scrum doesn't prescribe a lot of things you must do, the Scrum Framework doesn't include exte...
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Blog Post
As a Product Owner, you are responsible for stakeholder management. It's important that you know your stakeholders, their interests, what they need from you and your Product and how they may be able to help you out as well!
4.5 from 204 ratings
Blog Post
Scrum is a framework that thrives on self-organizing teams. It gives you boundaries (e.g. time-box of a Sprint), clear accountabilities (e.g. Product Owner optimizes value), and goals (e.g. “Done” Increment). But it doesn’t tell you exactly how to do the work. Every Scrum Team needs to figure out...
4.1 from 173 ratings
Blog Post
Looking to hire a Scrum Master? You may go through this job description that talks about the role of a Scrum Master? and what to expect from a Scrum Master.
Here is a Sample Job Description that you may use if you find it useful.
ROLE OBJECTIVE
The Scrum Master is a valued team member ...
5 from 1 rating
Blog Post
At a recent course, one of my students asked me to share what Scrum “looked like” for me at TheScrumMaster.co.uk. This post is my response to that question. This describes my current process which has evolved via inspection and adaptation over 5 years.
5 from 1 rating
Blog Post
The latest release of the Scrum Guide is all about addressing common Scrum misunderstandings. In this blog post I will present the top 5 misconceptions that are set straight in this latest release of the Scrum Guide.
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Blog Post
Values and principles can often seem lofty and intangible so many agile practitioners prefer to focus on tools and practices. That's understandable but unfortunate. Because values and principles have the potential to provide us with clarity and guidance that transcends what practices and frameworks ...
4.1 from 25 ratings
Blog Post
‘25/10 Crowd Sourcing’ is a structure that allows you to rapidly generate and sift through a group’s boldest actionable ideas in less than 30 minutes. In this article we'll explain how to use this structure to spice up your Scrum Events.
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Blog Post
"To ensure continuous improvement, [the Sprint Backlog] includes at least one high priority process improvement identified in the previous Retrospective meeting." - The Scrum Guide, November 2017
That old familiar feeling
Have you ever had a sense of déja-vu in a Sprint Retrospective? You know...
0.5 from 1 rating
Blog Post
The Intent of Scrum
Scrum allows development organisations to invest a little time at regular intervals to allow teams with autonomy over their work to identify and enact frequent, small improvements to the process and the plan. Over time, like regular payments into a savings account, these impro...
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Blog Post
One of the most common critiques about Scrum that I've heard from smart software engineers are "Scrum does not care about technical practices, Scrum is for wimps". I've also heard managers down the hallway say that "Scrum is for wreckless developers because its main concern is only about fast delive...
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Blog Post
Open Space is one of the methods that allows organizations to make inspirational meetings and events. I was lucky enough to use Open Space in various contexts, with Scrum Teams. The concept has always worked.
3.5 from 3 ratings
Podcast
In this episode Jochen Krebs speaks with Scrum.org Product Owner and CEO Dave West, about the changes made to the new Scrum Guide release in November 2017.
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Blog Post
Last time I talked about the Ghana Police Service (GPS) I was talking about Professional Organisational Change and the approach the Inspector General of Police (IGP) is taking; using Scrum to incrementally make changes to the organisation. While Nana Abban and the IGP have been focusing on the big p...
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Blog Post
In this blog post I'll share my view on the Scrum Master as the Change Leader. I'll briefly describe the common misunderstandings and the preferred stances of the Scrum Master. The services a Scrum Master provides for the Development Team, Product Owner and organisation, and the 3 levels that can be...
4.9 from 12 ratings