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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: February, 2016
Feb 29, 2016

Ricardo explains how he failed with one of his previous teams, and how this failure led him to understand that trying out new approaches is a key factor for leaning and improvement

About Ricardo Fiel

Ricardo has12 years experience in software teams, He had multiple roles from developer to architect to CTO, working in both startups and global corporations. He led teams from 4 to 30 members. Currently, he leads product development (SaaS) teams at Rupeal. You can find Ricardo in linkedin or twitter.

Feb 26, 2016

In this episode we review several systems thinking tools with Zach and discuss their applicability to situations we all face as Scrum Masters. We mention Cynefin as one of the models that can help us wrap our heads around the complex environment we work within.

 

About Zach Bonaker

Zach Bonaker is Benevolent Trouble-Maker from San Diego. He’s an agile coach who specializes in bringing lean thinking to organizations and teams over varying sizes across the country. Zach builds relationships to help transform people, systems, and structures towards safer and faster ways of delivering high quality software. When he isn’t thinking about next-generation agile ideas, Zach can be found enjoying the sunny west coast weather and connecting with people all around the world. Follow Zach Bonaker on Twitter, and connect with Zach Bonaker on Linkedin.

Feb 25, 2016

In this episode, Zach Bonaker explains the three outcomes he thinks are critical for Scrum Masters.

 

About Zach Bonaker

Zach Bonaker is Benevolent Trouble-Maker from San Diego. He’s an agile coach who specializes in bringing lean thinking to organizations and teams over varying sizes across the country. Zach builds relationships to help transform people, systems, and structures towards safer and faster ways of delivering high quality software. When he isn’t thinking about next-generation agile ideas, Zach can be found enjoying the sunny west coast weather and connecting with people all around the world. Follow Zach Bonaker on Twitter, and connect with Zach Bonaker on Linkedin.

Feb 24, 2016

There are many tools that can help us in a process of change. The book Lean Change Management by Jason Little lists many of those in the context of a real story about change. In this episode Zach describes some of those tools and how to use then in our roles as Scrum Masters. We also mention the book Nonviolent Communication by Rosenberg.

 

About Zach Bonaker

Zach Bonaker is Benevolent Trouble-Maker from San Diego. He’s an agile coach who specializes in bringing lean thinking to organizations and teams over varying sizes across the country. Zach builds relationships to help transform people, systems, and structures towards safer and faster ways of delivering high quality software. When he isn’t thinking about next-generation agile ideas, Zach can be found enjoying the sunny west coast weather and connecting with people all around the world. Follow Zach Bonaker on Twitter, and connect with Zach Bonaker on Linkedin.

Feb 23, 2016

We all want to be successful, to have an impact in the lives of the people around us. Teams have the same needs. However, when we increase the pressure on a team that is in trouble we create the conditions that may lead to that team’s implosion.

About Zach Bonaker

Zach Bonaker is Benevolent Trouble-Maker from San Diego. He’s an agile coach who specializes in bringing lean thinking to organizations and teams over varying sizes across the country. Zach builds relationships to help transform people, systems, and structures towards safer and faster ways of delivering high quality software. When he isn’t thinking about next-generation agile ideas, Zach can be found enjoying the sunny west coast weather and connecting with people all around the world. Follow Zach Bonaker on Twitter, and connect with Zach Bonaker on Linkedin.

Feb 22, 2016

Zach shares his journey as a Scrum Master and how important it is to get a pair in your own journey. Apprenticeship for Scrum Masters is not a new idea, but it is an important part in our toolbox for learning as Scrum Masters.

About Zach Bonaker

Zach Bonaker is Benevolent Trouble-Maker from San Diego. He’s an agile coach who specializes in bringing lean thinking to organizations and teams over varying sizes across the country. Zach builds relationships to help transform people, systems, and structures towards safer and faster ways of delivering high quality software. When he isn’t thinking about next-generation agile ideas, Zach can be found enjoying the sunny west coast weather and connecting with people all around the world. Follow Zach Bonaker on Twitter, and connect with Zach Bonaker on Linkedin.

Feb 19, 2016

In this episode Dennis explains the difference between two tools that he uses at the organizations he works with. He explains how he uses these tools to measure System Health and System Productivity.

About Dennis Mansell

Dennis did not start his working life as a developer, but as a sailing yacht skipper and owner of a sailing school and he still trains yacht-racing teams. He always supplemented his sailing job with application maintenance, web development and project management. He has since settled down: based in Amsterdam with his wife and son. Now he works as a full-time Scrum Master and Agile Coach for companies ranging from start-ups to the Dutch governmental institutions. His linkedin and twitter: @dennmans.

Feb 18, 2016

Dennis tells us how he uses a technique known by Henrik Kniberg – happiness index in his daily work. He also explains how important it is to understand what people inside of the team say; he believes that part of a Scrum Master role is to create a good environment within the team. If there are many things being said in a negative way the Scrum Master has a lot of things to do in order to improve the team performance.

About Dennis Mansell

Dennis did not start his working life as a developer, but as a sailing yacht skipper and owner of a sailing school and he still trains yacht-racing teams. He always supplemented his sailing job with application maintenance, web development and project management. He has since settled down: based in Amsterdam with his wife and son. Now he works as a full-time Scrum Master and Agile Coach for companies ranging from start-ups to the Dutch governmental institutions. His linkedin and twitter: @dennmans.

Feb 17, 2016

Dennis tells us a very interesting story from his sailing activities. He explains to our audience how it is important to build an environment of collaboration and most importantly an environment where “things” happen even if the most important persons in the team are not present.

About Dennis Mansell

Dennis did not start his working life as a developer, but as a sailing yacht skipper and owner of a sailing school and he still trains yacht-racing teams. He always supplemented his sailing job with application maintenance, web development and project management. He has since settled down: based in Amsterdam with his wife and son. Now he works as a full-time Scrum Master and Agile Coach for companies ranging from start-ups to the Dutch governmental institutions. His linkedin and twitter: @dennmans.

Feb 16, 2016

Dennis discusses that most of the times when we start to work as a team, we simply put people together expecting that everything will work. We even forget to ask if people do actually want to work together. In this episode he explains how that can go wrong.

About Dennis Mansell

Dennis did not start his working life as a developer, but as a sailing yacht skipper and owner of a sailing school and he still trains yacht-racing teams. He always supplemented his sailing job with application maintenance, web development and project management. He has since settled down: based in Amsterdam with his wife and son. Now he works as a full-time Scrum Master and Agile Coach for companies ranging from start-ups to the Dutch governmental institutions. His linkedin and twitter: @dennmans

Feb 15, 2016

Dennis explains us how most of his learnings came from failures. In his story he explains how he lost a project because he spent only 10% of the total budget. As an outcome, spending just this small part of the budget led Dennis to loose his job.

About Dennis Mansell

Dennis did not start his working life as a developer, but as a sailing yacht skipper and owner of a sailing school and he still trains yacht-racing teams. He always supplemented his sailing job with application maintenance, web development and project management. He has since settled down: based in Amsterdam with his wife and son. Now he works as a full-time Scrum Master and Agile Coach for companies ranging from start-ups to the Dutch governmental institutions. His linkedin and twitter: @dennmans.

Feb 12, 2016

In this episode Dmytro describes how the system impacts the teams and the software deliveries. He explains that in order for the teams to deliver a great quality they must be part of a system, which allows them to experiment and develop features without the daily pressure.

 

About Dmytro Orlyk

Dmytro have an overall 4 years of experience in PM. His latest project has been shown to the Google company. He is an Agile Expert with a strong knowledge of Scrum, Kanban and XP. Few of the engineers that inspire me are Martin Fowler and Chris MacConnell. He can be found in linkedin.

Feb 11, 2016

Dmytro explains that being part of a successful team is part of a Scrum Master success. After all, it is his job to create successful teams. Dmytro also gives us some good tips: in order for Scrum Masters to continue improving, they should develop themselves in areas where they feel they are not so strong. They could take some time to analyze their weakness and take some training to tackle those areas.

About Dmytro Orlyk

Dmytro have an overall 4 years of experience in PM. His latest project has been shown to the Google company. He is an Agile Expert with a strong knowledge of Scrum, Kanban and XP. Few of the engineers that inspire me are Martin Fowler and Chris MacConnell. He can be found in linkedin.

Feb 10, 2016

Dmytro explains how Scrum Masters should be leaders in order to be good change managers. Their work should not be limited to the job: a good scrum master and a good leader is involved in many other activities within the community.

About Dmytro Orlyk

Dmytro have an overall 4 years of experience in PM. His latest project has been shown to the Google company. He is an Agile Expert with a strong knowledge of Scrum, Kanban and XP. Few of the engineers that inspire me are Martin Fowler and Chris MacConnell. He can be found in linkedin.

Feb 9, 2016

Dmytro explains that one of the big reasons for team failures appears when a management put extra people into an ongoing project that is late. He mentions this approach was proven many years ago to not be the right approach, yet many teams suffer from this mistake.

About Dmytro Orlyk

Dmytro have an overall 4 years of experience in PM. His latest project has been shown to the Google company. He is an Agile Expert with a strong knowledge of Scrum, Kanban and XP. Few of the engineers that inspire me are Martin Fowler and Chris MacConnell. He can be found in linkedin.

Feb 8, 2016

Dmytro explains us how technical debt can be one of the reasons for teams to fail. One of the tips that he gives us is to make sure the team has extra time during the sprint to tackle issues that were not planned in the beginning and will appear during the sprint.

About Dmytro Orlyk

Dmytro have an overall 4 years of experience in PM. His latest project has been shown to the Google company. He is an Agile Expert with a strong knowledge of Scrum, Kanban and XP. Few of the engineers that inspire me are Martin Fowler and Chris MacConnell. He can be found in linkedin.

Feb 5, 2016

Agile Retrospectives, in Pedro´s opinion, are a great way to help teams to understand how they interact with the company system. They are a great tool to identify dependencies, interactions and even politics.

About Pedro Gustavo Torres

Pedro Gustavo Torres is an Agile Coach @ SONAE, in Porto, Portugal.
He started his agile quest in 2010. He’s a seasoned Scrum Master, Agile Coach and Trainer. He also has experience acting as a Scrum Product Owner. He’s passionate about scrum, agile and all the practices that can help teams deliver early value to their customers. He is also quite techie and a gadgets fan. You can find him in linkedin. He writes his learning’s on his blog. His twitter: @_pedro_torres

Feb 4, 2016

"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts”, Albert Einstein says. The Scrum Master role contains many things that do not allow success to be measured… For Pedro a success is to watch himself at the mirror and see himself smiling. When he reaches a daily meeting and he sees that the team is smiling, happy and having fun on a positive, that is the success!

About Pedro Gustavo Torres

Pedro Gustavo Torres is an Agile Coach @ SONAE, in Porto, Portugal.

He started his agile quest in 2010. He’s a seasoned Scrum Master, Agile Coach and Trainer. He also has experience acting as a Scrum Product Owner. He’s passionate about scrum, agile and all the practices that can help teams deliver early value to their customers. He is also quite techie and a gadgets fan. You can find him in linkedin. He writes his learning’s on his blog. His twitter: @_pedro_torres

Feb 3, 2016

Every Scrum Master should be a change agent… Unfortunately, many companies see the Scrum Master as a secretary or a team organiser. The Scrum Master as a change agent can help the organisation, especially the senior management, with the mindset transition. Roadmaps in Agile do not make so much sense; Agile Portfolio Management is a better approach in order to help the company to be more successful and that is a huge mindset change that can be initiated by Scrum Masters.

About Pedro Gustavo Torres

Pedro Gustavo Torres is an Agile Coach @ SONAE, in Porto, Portugal.
He started his agile quest in 2010. He’s a seasoned Scrum Master, Agile Coach and Trainer. He also has experience acting as a Scrum Product Owner. He’s passionate about scrum, agile and all the practices that can help teams deliver early value to their customers. He is also quite techie and a gadgets fan. You can find him in linkedin. He writes his learning’s on his blog. His twitter: @_pedro_torres

Feb 2, 2016

Ego is one of the common problems that can cause teams to self destroy. If team dynamics are not well handled it´s quite easy to see brilliant developers becoming “prima-donas”; they feel they are like a god on the earth. At the end, it does not matter who does the work, what matters is a team´s outcome. When there are such “divas" on the team they feel that everyone should be thankful for having them on the team.

About Pedro Gustavo Torres

Pedro Gustavo Torres is an Agile Coach @ SONAE, in Porto, Portugal.
He started his agile quest in 2010. He’s a seasoned Scrum Master, Agile Coach and Trainer. He also has experience acting as a Scrum Product Owner. He’s passionate about scrum, agile and all the practices that can help teams deliver early value to their customers. He is also quite techie and a gadgets fan. You can find him in linkedin. He writes his learning’s on his blog. His twitter: @_pedro_torres

Feb 1, 2016

Pedro explains us how he learned more with failures than with success. In his opinion, a good Scrum Master must have the ability to deal with failure well, because failure is the only road for learning. He believes that failure is so important the he would rather hire someone that has gone through several failures and learned several lessons than someone that was always successful. In his opinion, people that are always successful learn as much as the ones that fail often and have the ability to learn from their mistakes.

About Pedro Gustavo Torres

Pedro Gustavo Torres is an Agile Coach @ SONAE, in Porto, Portugal.
He started his agile quest in 2010. He’s a seasoned Scrum Master, Agile Coach and Trainer. He also has experience acting as a Scrum Product Owner. He’s passionate about scrum, agile and all the practices that can help teams deliver early value to their customers. He is also quite techie and a gadgets fan. You can find him in linkedin. He writes his learning’s on his blog. His twitter: @_pedro_torres

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