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Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast: Agile storytelling from the trenches

Every week day, Certified Scrum Master, Agile Coach and Business Consultant Vasco Duarte interviews Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches from all over the world to get you actionable advice, new tips and tricks, improve your craft as a Scrum Master with daily doses of inspiring conversations with Scrum Masters from the all over the world. Stay tuned for BONUS episodes when we interview Agile gurus and other thought leaders in the business space to bring you the Agile Business perspective you need to succeed as a Scrum Master. Some of the topics we discuss include: Agile Business, Agile Strategy, Retrospectives, Team motivation, Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review, Backlog Refinement, Scaling Scrum, Lean Startup, Test Driven Development (TDD), Behavior Driven Development (BDD), Paper Prototyping, QA in Scrum, the role of agile managers, servant leadership, agile coaching, and more!
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Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast: Agile storytelling from the trenches
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Now displaying: July, 2015
Jul 31, 2015

Seeing the system is an art that requires attention to detail, but also a technique that allows us to collect the right information. Seeing how we work as a team, and how the external factors affect our performance cannot be done without that information, and Luis shares with us how he used the Value Stream Map as a tool to help a team see the system that was affecting their performance.

The Value Stream Map also proved to be a great way to to collect information that helped the team have a truly valuable retrospective.

We also discuss the different levels of team development using the Shu-Ha-Ri model, and how teams have many skill areas that need to be developed and can be mapped with the help of the Shu-Ha-Ri model.

About Luis Gonçalves

Luis Gonçalves is a Co-Founder of Oikosofy, the Co-Author of the book “Getting Value out Agile Retrospectives”, a book which I use regularly to get inspired to organize innovative retrospectives. Luis is also an International Speaker and prolific Blogger. I don’t know where he gets the time to do all of this :)

Luis’ passion lies on the Management side of software development where he tries to apply what he has learned from the Management 3.0 books.

He is also a co-founder of a MeetUp group in Munich, Germany called High Performing Teams. A meetup he created to "Define the future of Management and Leadership".

You can link up with Luis Gonçalves on LinkedIn, and connect with Luis Gonçalves on Twitter.

Jul 30, 2015

Purpose is one of the key motivators according to the classic “Drive” by Dan Pink. Luis shares with us how he works with teams to help them find their purpose and improve their performance as a team. Luis explains the main steps of a workshop that he uses to help teams get started, or re-started on the path to high-performance.

About Luis Gonçalves

Luis Gonçalves is a Co-Founder of Oikosofy, the Co-Author of the book “Getting Value out Agile Retrospectives”, a book which I use regularly to get inspired to organize innovative retrospectives. Luis is also an International Speaker and prolific Blogger. I don’t know where he gets the time to do all of this :)

Luis’ passion lies on the Management side of software development where he tries to apply what he has learned from the Management 3.0 books.

He is also a co-founder of a MeetUp group in Munich, Germany called High Performing Teams. A meetup he created to "Define the future of Management and Leadership".

You can link up with Luis Gonçalves on LinkedIn, and connect with Luis Gonçalves on Twitter.

Jul 29, 2015

Keeping a good recruiting track record when hiring many people is next to impossible. And the easy path, the interview, is the surest way to fail at hiring the right people. Why? Listen to this story of how a recruiting process went wrong even when everything seemed perfect.

About Luis Gonçalves

Luis Gonçalves is a Co-Founder of Oikosofy, the Co-Author of the book “Getting Value out Agile Retrospectives”, a book which I use regularly to get inspired to organize innovative retrospectives. Luis is also an International Speaker and prolific Blogger. I don’t know where he gets the time to do all of this :)

Luis’ passion lies on the Management side of software development where he tries to apply what he has learned from the Management 3.0 books.

He is also a co-founder of a MeetUp group in Munich, Germany called High Performing Teams. A meetup he created to "Define the future of Management and Leadership".

You can link up with Luis Gonçalves on LinkedIn, and connect with Luis Gonçalves on Twitter.

Jul 28, 2015

Threats are sometimes used by Theory X managers that believe they are helping them succeed with those threats. However, that was not the case in this particular case, where threats led to a very low level of trust and self-confidence that ultimately destroyed the team.

About Luis Gonçalves

Luis Gonçalves is a Co-Founder of Oikosofy, the Co-Author of the book “Getting Value out Agile Retrospectives”, a book which I use regularly to get inspired to organize innovative retrospectives. Luis is also an International Speaker and prolific Blogger. I don’t know where he gets the time to do all of this :)

Luis’ passion lies on the Management side of software development where he tries to apply what he has learned from the Management 3.0 books.

He is also a co-founder of a MeetUp group in Munich, Germany called High Performing Teams. A meetup he created to "Define the future of Management and Leadership".

You can link up with Luis Gonçalves on LinkedIn, and connect with Luis Gonçalves on Twitter.

Jul 27, 2015

Scrum is a method to help companies succeed, it is not a just a method to develop software. In this episode Luis tells us how he came to that conclusion, and how that changed what he understood about the role of the Scrum Master.

In this episode we mention Luis Gonçalves’ blog, where you can find some of the articles we mention in the episode.

 

About Luis Gonçalves

Luis Gonçalves is a Co-Founder of Oikosofy, the Co-Author of the book “Getting Value out Agile Retrospectives”, a book which I use regularly to get inspired to organize innovative retrospectives. Luis is also an International Speaker and prolific Blogger. I don’t know where he gets the time to do all of this :)

Luis’ passion lies on the Management side of software development where he tries to apply what he has learned from the Management 3.0 books.

He is also a co-founder of a MeetUp group in Munich, Germany called High Performing Teams. A meetup he created to "Define the future of Management and Leadership".

You can link up with Luis Gonçalves on LinkedIn, and connect with Luis Gonçalves on Twitter.

Jul 24, 2015

We all know how multitasking can be the killer of effectiveness. Teams can easily lose their focus and be unable to deliver. What to do about that? And what are the consequences of that lack of focus? We discuss the article by Johanna Rothman about why managers like overwork, and the importance of continuous and short term feedback for the teams.

About Alexandre Cuva

Former International Agile Coach, now CEO in charge of SmartDev an outsourcing company in Vietnam. In SmartDev Alexandre applies XP Programming practices within Agile/Lean Management. He has been worked with pragmatic, agile, lean, big, organic and team oriented organizations. Based upon his experiences, he understands that agile is a big experiment and in some peoples mind still is an unproven hypothesis.

He co-founded diverse agile communities in Switzerland like ScrumBeer, Stoos Satellite and now he is the co-founder of the Agile Community in Da Nang.

You can link up with Alexandre Cuva on LinkedIn, and find Alexandre Cuva on Twitter.

Jul 23, 2015

Alexandre tells us a story of a team that quickly got to a point where they could lead themselves with very little support from Alexandre, their Scrum Master. How can the teams get there? And what does that mean for the Scrum Master? We discuss the conditions necessary for the teams to self-organize, and how Scrum Masters can take those into account.

About Alexandre Cuva

Former International Agile Coach, now CEO in charge of SmartDev an outsourcing company in Vietnam. In SmartDev Alexandre applies XP Programming practices within Agile/Lean Management. He has been worked with pragmatic, agile, lean, big, organic and team oriented organizations. Based upon his experiences, he understands that agile is a big experiment and in some peoples mind still is an unproven hypothesis.

He co-founded diverse agile communities in Switzerland like ScrumBeer, Stoos Satellite and now he is the co-founder of the Agile Community in Da Nang.

You can link up with Alexandre Cuva on LinkedIn, and find Alexandre Cuva on Twitter.

Jul 22, 2015

When recruiting there are many tools we can use. One of those tools is the interview, but that is not the only tool. Alexandre shares with us how they use “homework” as a tool to find really great developers.

About Alexandre Cuva

Former International Agile Coach, now CEO in charge of SmartDev an outsourcing company in Vietnam. In SmartDev Alexandre applies XP Programming practices within Agile/Lean Management. He has been worked with pragmatic, agile, lean, big, organic and team oriented organizations. Based upon his experiences, he understands that agile is a big experiment and in some peoples mind still is an unproven hypothesis.

He co-founded diverse agile communities in Switzerland like ScrumBeer, Stoos Satellite and now he is the co-founder of the Agile Community in Da Nang.

You can link up with Alexandre Cuva on LinkedIn, and find Alexandre Cuva on Twitter.

Jul 21, 2015

Not all projects are suited to be the first ones to adopt agile. In organizations there are people who are ready to take the leap, and there are people who would rather work the old way and will take any opportunity to do so. The first agile projects should be carefully selected to avoid killing all hope of agile ever being adopted. Alexandre shares with us a story of a project that explains this problem in detail.

About Alexandre Cuva

Former International Agile Coach, now CEO in charge of SmartDev an outsourcing company in Vietnam. In SmartDev Alexandre applies XP Programming practices within Agile/Lean Management. He has been worked with pragmatic, agile, lean, big, organic and team oriented organizations. Based upon his experiences, he understands that agile is a big experiment and in some peoples mind still is an unproven hypothesis.

He co-founded diverse agile communities in Switzerland like ScrumBeer, Stoos Satellite and now he is the co-founder of the Agile Community in Da Nang.

You can link up with Alexandre Cuva on LinkedIn, and find Alexandre Cuva on Twitter.

Jul 20, 2015

As change agents, we very often focus our energy on the people and parts of the organization that are less willing to change. But is that the right approach? Alexandre shares with us his story of change and what he learned about where to focus your energy as a change agent.

About Alexandre Cuva

Former International Agile Coach, now CEO in charge of SmartDev an outsourcing company in Vietnam. In SmartDev Alexandre applies XP Programming practices within Agile/Lean Management. He has been worked with pragmatic, agile, lean, big, organic and team oriented organizations. Based upon his experiences, he understands that agile is a big experiment and in some peoples mind still is an unproven hypothesis.

He co-founded diverse agile communities in Switzerland like ScrumBeer, Stoos Satellite and now he is the co-founder of the Agile Community in Da Nang.

You can link up with Alexandre Cuva on LinkedIn, and find Alexandre Cuva on Twitter.

Jul 17, 2015

On the Friday episode we discuss how to map out the system conditions we, and our teams face every day. Saravana reminds us that we are always working within a system, even when working within a team. For example, the incentive structures we have in place for teams will affect their performance, do you know how? As Scrum Masters, this is only one of the system conditions we must investigate.

About Saravana Bharathi

Saravana started AgileKarma.com, a site dedicated to sharing better ways to develop software. His goal: to inspire other to share their ideas and experiences as well :) Which is exactly what we do here on the podcast.

Saravana is a seasoned software development professional with over 15 years of experience in Aerospace, Banking and Insurance domains.

You can find Saravana Bharathi on twitter, and link with Saravana Bharathi on Linkedin.

Jul 16, 2015

We often want to draw a line, the final achievement of success. Saravana reminds us that success is a continuous process, and not an end in itself. He explains how he tries to constantly bring to his teams the best of his energy to create a positive environment.

Start with Kudo Cards, virtual or physical to help the team focus on their achievements, instead of only the obstacles.

About Saravana Bharathi

Saravana started AgileKarma.com, a site dedicated to sharing better ways to develop software. His goal: to inspire other to share their ideas and experiences as well :) Which is exactly what we do here on the podcast.

Saravana is a seasoned software development professional with over 15 years of experience in Aerospace, Banking and Insurance domains.

You can find Saravana Bharathi on twitter, and link with Saravana Bharathi on Linkedin.

Jul 15, 2015

Influencing people is a key skill for Scrum Masters. Politics are alive and kicking in all organizations, and we must be aware and able to deal with that phenomenon. Therefore it is important to know how to work with all stakeholders, at all levels, including those involved in the political structures of the organization.

Savarana introduces two Harvard Business Review articles that explain that politics are a natural part of any human organization:

What everyone should know about office politics

Office politics is just influence by another name

A book that Scrum Masters can read to learn more about how to work with stakeholders and gain their cooperation is Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People, a must read that has been referred to before on the podcast.

About Saravana Bharathi

Saravana started AgileKarma.com, a site dedicated to sharing better ways to develop software. His goal: to inspire other to share their ideas and experiences as well :) Which is exactly what we do here on the podcast.

Saravana is a seasoned software development professional with over 15 years of experience in Aerospace, Banking and Insurance domains.

You can find Saravana Bharathi on twitter, and link with Saravana Bharathi on Linkedin.

Jul 14, 2015

Trust is a fundamental ingredient to high performing teams, and the lack of trust can lead a team to self-destruct. Saravana tells us a story of a team that disintegrated because of the lack of trust in each other, and by the stakeholder towards the team.

We also discuss the symptoms of that lack of trust to help you detect that problem in the teams you work with.

About Saravana Bharathi

Saravana started AgileKarma.com, a site dedicated to sharing better ways to develop software. His goal: to inspire other to share their ideas and experiences as well :) Which is exactly what we do here on the podcast.

Saravana is a seasoned software development professional with over 15 years of experience in Aerospace, Banking and Insurance domains.

You can find Saravana Bharathi on twitter, and link with Saravana Bharathi on Linkedin.

Jul 13, 2015

We make mistakes, that’s part of our journey. Saravana tells us a story of how he failed by not allowing a team member to make mistakes. This is a failure that he still remembers and has shaped his thinking on the importance of accepting that mistakes are part of the learning process.

Saravana also shares with us the tools he uses to help me listen more, and give the initiative to the teams he works with. The tool, is very simple and very effective: when you feel you want to say something, wait and count to 5. By the time you reach 5, the team will probably have come up with a solution or next step to the issue they face.

About Saravana Bharathi

Saravana started AgileKarma.com, a site dedicated to sharing better ways to develop software. His goal: to inspire other to share their ideas and experiences as well :) Which is exactly what we do here on the podcast.

Saravana is a seasoned software development professional with over 15 years of experience in Aerospace, Banking and Insurance domains.

You can find Saravana Bharathi on Twitter and on Linkedin.

Jul 10, 2015

There are many tools that we can use, just like Causal Loop Diagram, to help us understand the deeper dynamics in our organizations. We discuss several of those tools and also how to use them. Finally, Marc introduces his book Retrospektiven in der Praxis: Veränderungsprozesse in IT-Unternehmen effektiv begleiten and why he wrote it. NOTE: the book will be available in English in the near future.

We also mention a systems thinking tool called Current Reality Tree that you can use to investigate the system you work within.

About Marc Löffler

Marc's passion is to help teams implementing agile frameworks like Scrum and XP and to transform our world of work. Marc loves to help teams, that are struggling with agile transitions, to overcome dysfunctional behaviour. He loves to generate new insights by approaching common problems from the other side and trying to deliberately make havoc of the process.

You can connect with Marc Löffler on Twitter, and link with Marc Löffler on LinkedIn.

He hosts a Blog in English and another blog in German.

Jul 9, 2015

Involving the customer is one of the key aspects of building the path towards an agile product development environment. There are many types of customers, and we discuss how to involve some of the most common types of customers. Marc also suggests some tools, like Story Mapping, that you can use to work directly with customers and create a shared understanding of the ultimate goal.

About Marc Löffler

Marc's passion is to help teams implementing agile frameworks like Scrum and XP and to transform our world of work. Marc loves to help teams, that are struggling with agile transitions, to overcome dysfunctional behaviour. He loves to generate new insights by approaching common problems from the other side and trying to deliberately make havoc of the process.

You can connect with Marc Löffler on Twitter, and link with Marc Löffler on LinkedIn.

He hosts a Blog in English and another blog in German.

Jul 8, 2015

Hiring people that need to work with or within a team without involving the team in the hiring process can lead to missing critical “chemistry” issues between the team and the candidate. Marc asks us to think about involving the team in the process, and suggests how that can be done.

In this episode we also discuss the anti-pattern of focusing on planning and execution and missing other aspects of team and project development such as the technical environment, the collaboration aspects, etc.

About Marc Löffler

Marc's passion is to help teams implementing agile frameworks like Scrum and XP and to transform our world of work. Marc loves to help teams, that are struggling with agile transitions, to overcome dysfunctional behaviour. He loves to generate new insights by approaching common problems from the other side and trying to deliberately make havoc of the process.

You can connect with Marc Löffler on Twitter, and link with Marc Löffler on LinkedIn.

He hosts a Blog in English and another blog in German.

Jul 7, 2015

Laughing is a good sign. The team is probably engaged, relaxed, happy… Or is it? In this episode Marc explains how one team was laughing their way into self-destruction, and what caused it.

We also discuss a method for investigating teams and their development called the Dreyfus model of skill acquistion

About Marc Löffler

Marc's passion is to help teams implementing agile frameworks like Scrum and XP and to transform our world of work. Marc loves to help teams, that are struggling with agile transitions, to overcome dysfunctional behaviour. He loves to generate new insights by approaching common problems from the other side and trying to deliberately make havoc of the process.

You can connect with Marc Löffler on Twitter, and link with Marc Löffler on LinkedIn.

He hosts a Blog in English and another blog in German.

Jul 6, 2015

Marc explains the story of a team that was starting their Scrum adoption and allowed a project manager to use their tool, the Scrum board, as a tool for micro-management. From that a lot of anti-patterns emerge that Marc struggled with. We also discuss the use of tools for planning vs. using the same tools to generate collaboration and how to switch the focus from planning to collaboration.

About Marc Löffler

Marc's passion is to help teams implementing agile frameworks like Scrum and XP and to transform our world of work. Marc loves to help teams, that are struggling with agile transitions, to overcome dysfunctional behaviour. He loves to generate new insights by approaching common problems from the other side and trying to deliberately make havoc of the process.

You can connect with Marc Löffler on Twitter, and link with Marc Löffler on LinkedIn.

He hosts a Blog in English and another blog in German.

Jul 4, 2015

In this very special episode we have Bob Marshall as guest. We cover many topics, from his past work (The Marshall Model, Anti-matter principle) to the work by Marshall Rosenberg and Carl Rogers.

 

We also discuss what I think is a key skill for Scrum Masters, and how to learn more and develop that skill.

Read the full show notes on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast blog.

Jul 3, 2015

How can we detect the system conditions that affect our teams? Daniel has a method, that he explains in this episode. This includes writing down keywords you listen during the day, and looking for patterns in those keywords. Daniel also suggests that you look at the Agile Fluency model to look for indicators that your team is evolving, or not.

Special call to all Dubai agilists: Daniel is relocating to Dubai and is looking to connect to local agilists. If you fit the bill, then reach out to him on twitter: Daniel Nielsen on Twitter.

About Daniel Nielsen

Daniel is a developer turned Scrum Master turned Agile Coach, with an increasing focus on the coach part. Over the last 10+ years, his interest in how teams work and how we interact as individuals has only grown. He has worked in both small and large companies and tried to cope with the complexities in both worlds.

You can reach out to Daniel Nielsen on Twitter, and link with Daniel Nielsen on LinkedIn.

You can also read his blog in Danish at QED.dk

Jul 2, 2015

There are many measures that a Scrum Master can track, but Job Satisfaction is Daniel’s choice. In this episode Daniel explains how to track Job Satisfaction as well as other metrics that you can track as a Scrum Master to measure your success.

In this Episode we also mention a very important book in the HR circles, that helps Scrum Masters understand what some of the best managers do to enable their best performers: First, Break all the Rules, by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman

Special call to all Dubai agilists: Daniel is relocating to Dubai and is looking to connect to local agilists. If you fit the bill, then reach out to him on twitter: Daniel Nielsen on Twitter.

About Daniel Nielsen

Daniel is a developer turned Scrum Master turned Agile Coach, with an increasing focus on the coach part. Over the last 10+ years, his interest in how teams work and how we interact as individuals has only grown. He has worked in both small and large companies and tried to cope with the complexities in both worlds.

You can reach out to Daniel Nielsen on Twitter, and link with Daniel Nielsen on LinkedIn.

You can also read his blog in Danish at QED.dk

Jul 1, 2015

Recruiting is a tough job, but recruiting a good Scrum Master is even harder than other recruiting tasks. And the reason is simple, it is impossible to be a good Scrum Master unless you live and breathe that role. This is what happened in the story that Daniel tells us today when he explains the HR anti-pattern that led to that failure in recruiting. Daniel also explains how he solved this recruiting challenge with the help of the team.

Special call to all Dubai agilists: Daniel is relocating to Dubai and is looking to connect to local agilists. If you fit the bill, then reach out to him on twitter: Daniel Nielsen on Twitter.

About Daniel Nielsen

Daniel is a developer turned Scrum Master turned Agile Coach, with an increasing focus on the coach part. Over the last 10+ years, his interest in how teams work and how we interact as individuals has only grown. He has worked in both small and large companies and tried to cope with the complexities in both worlds.

You can reach out to Daniel Nielsen on Twitter, and link with Daniel Nielsen on LinkedIn.

You can also read his blog in Danish at QED.dk

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