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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, 2016
Jul 29, 2016

There are many tools we can use to explore the system where the team lives. And Scott explains many of those tools. System thinking tools that help us understand the system conditions that affect team performance.

 

About Scott Duncan

Scott's been involved with software development since 1972 and exclusively with Agile approaches since 2002. He had a background in metrics and processes, but had experience with Agile in the late 70’s. Scott is now an independent in the field of software and product development.

You can connect with Scott Duncan on LinkedIn and interact with Scott Duncan on his blog.

Jul 28, 2016

Asking questions, involving people in the process of adaptation and including (rather than excluding) multiple views and options is one of the key tasks for us as Scrum Masters. The Socratic Method is one tool we can use to achieve that goal. Scott explains his use of the method.

 

About Scott Duncan

Scott's been involved with software development since 1972 and exclusively with Agile approaches since 2002. He had a background in metrics and processes, but had experience with Agile in the late 70’s. Scott is now an independent in the field of software and product development.

You can connect with Scott Duncan on LinkedIn and interact with Scott Duncan on his blog.

Jul 27, 2016

Retrospectives are incredible tools for change. We know that retrospectives are important for team improvement, but they can be the engine of change at the team, and organizational level. Scott explains how.

 

About Scott Duncan

Scott's been involved with software development since 1972 and exclusively with Agile approaches since 2002. He had a background in metrics and processes, but had experience with Agile in the late 70’s. Scott is now an independent in the field of software and product development.

You can connect with Scott Duncan on LinkedIn and interact with Scott Duncan on his blog.

Jul 26, 2016

Instead of focusing on what did not work, Scott asks the teams a completely different question. A questions that focuses the teams on what we should do differently instead of what we “need”/”must” change.

 

About Scott Duncan

Scott's been involved with software development since 1972 and exclusively with Agile approaches since 2002. He had a background in metrics and processes, but had experience with Agile in the late 70’s. Scott is now an independent in the field of software and product development.

You can connect with Scott Duncan on LinkedIn and interact with Scott Duncan on his blog.

Jul 25, 2016

There are many difficult transitions out there. Even when things seem to be going right, any change in management can easily derail the Agile adoption at the team level, project level or overall at the enterprise level. One of the most critical tasks for us is to setup our role and expectations as well as our support base for the work we need to do. Scott shares with us such a story and how he would do it today if he had a magic time machine.

About Scott Duncan

Scott's been involved with software development since 1972 and exclusively with Agile approaches since 2002. He had a background in metrics and processes, but had experience with Agile in the late 70’s. Scott is now an independent in the field of software and product development.

You can connect with Scott Duncan on LinkedIn and interact with Scott Duncan on his blog.

Jul 22, 2016

Yves shares with us many different approaches to “measure” the system where we work, and describes how impactful a bad system can been the performance of a team or individual. Yves also shares with us an easy technique that can help teams learn to give and receive feedback, thereby creating a very important condition for the team system to improve.

In this episode we refer to the book by Portia Tung and the concept of EduScrum, or Scrum applied to education.

 

About Yves Hanoulle

Yves is all about collaboration. His goal is to inspire people to create more collaborators.

Creating self-sustaining communities from home allows him to spend more time with his kids.

And to get a better work-life fusion. For him agile and communities share a common element called trust. As Yves puts it: “with trust anything is possible, without trust, some things might be possible, yet very hard and expensive…”

You can connect with Yves Hanoulle on Twitter and link with Yves Hanoulle on LinkedIn.

Jul 21, 2016

With his very unique definition of a successful outcome for Scrum Masters’ work, Yves points us to one important lesson: our work does not end, we must help others continue our work.

In this episode we refer to the Tuckman Model of team evolution where the famous Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing stages come from. And we also mention Visualisation as a key tool for us Scrum Masters, and link to the book by Jimmy Jalen with 96 visualisation examples every Scrum Master should know.

 

About Yves Hanoulle

Yves is all about collaboration. His goal is to inspire people to create more collaborators.

Creating self-sustaining communities from home allows him to spend more time with his kids.

And to get a better work-life fusion. For him agile and communities share a common element called trust. As Yves puts it: “with trust anything is possible, without trust, some things might be possible, yet very hard and expensive…”

You can connect with Yves Hanoulle on Twitter and link with Yves Hanoulle on LinkedIn.

Jul 20, 2016

One of the most difficult responsibilities for a Scrum Master is to help teams lead themselves. This is perhaps the biggest change we are responsible for in our work as Scrum Masters. Yves shares a story of how he helped a group of teams change their composition, and break through their fears.

About Yves Hanoulle

Yves is all about collaboration. His goal is to inspire people to create more collaborators.

Creating self-sustaining communities from home allows him to spend more time with his kids.

And to get a better work-life fusion. For him agile and communities share a common element called trust. As Yves puts it: “with trust anything is possible, without trust, some things might be possible, yet very hard and expensive…”

You can connect with Yves Hanoulle on Twitter and link with Yves Hanoulle on LinkedIn.

Jul 19, 2016

Teams want to help their stakeholders and that sometimes leads to saying YES too often and too quickly. This pattern can cause many side effects, for example disappointing important clients and stakeholders. In this episode Yves shares that story and an easy trick to stop saying yes, when you really mean: “no way!”

 

About Yves Hanoulle

Yves is all about collaboration. His goal is to inspire people to create more collaborators.

Creating self-sustaining communities from home allows him to spend more time with his kids.

And to get a better work-life fusion. For him agile and communities share a common element called trust. As Yves puts it: “with trust anything is possible, without trust, some things might be possible, yet very hard and expensive…”

You can connect with Yves Hanoulle on Twitter and link with Yves Hanoulle on LinkedIn.

Jul 18, 2016

Sometimes we want to help too much. Is that possible? Listen in while Yves explains his own personal failure story and what he learned from having tried too hard to help. This episode also contains some important insights to those interested in Systems Thinking.

About Yves Hanoulle

Yves is all about collaboration. His goal is to inspire people to create more collaborators.

Creating self-sustaining communities from home allows him to spend more time with his kids.

And to get a better work-life fusion. For him agile and communities share a common element called trust. As Yves puts it: “with trust anything is possible, without trust, some things might be possible, yet very hard and expensive…”

You can connect with Yves Hanoulle on Twitter and link with Yves Hanoulle on LinkedIn.

Jul 15, 2016

Anna describes a model to help us survey and understand the system conditions that affect our teams.

 

About Anna Zalucka

Ana has a solid technical background since she started her IT career as a C++ developer. She chose the architect and project manager path at first, but quickly noticed that classic management is not very effective as she encountered the same issues over and over again. In 2012 she experienced a paradigm shift: Agile software development. Ana has been developing Scrum Master skills ever since. Working as dedicated Scrum Master in two teams in a Latvian company named Eptron.

You can link with Anna Zalucka on LinkedIn. You can also find her on the Facebook Scrum Master Community.

Jul 14, 2016

Surveys can be powerful tools to measure the impact of our work as Scrum Masters. Anna explains how she started to measure her success as Scrum Master and why she started using surveys as a way to complement her feedback collection.

 

About Anna Zalucka

Ana has a solid technical background since she started her IT career as a C++ developer. She chose the architect and project manager path at first, but quickly noticed that classic management is not very effective as she encountered the same issues over and over again. In 2012 she experienced a paradigm shift: Agile software development. Ana has been developing Scrum Master skills ever since. Working as dedicated Scrum Master in two teams in a Latvian company named Eptron.

You can link with Anna Zalucka on LinkedIn. You can also find her on the Facebook Scrum Master Community.

Jul 13, 2016

Agile adoption brings many different changes to teams and organizations. In this episode we mention some of those tools and how to help teams and organizations benefit from those tools to adopt Agile.

We also mention the following books: How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie and Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg.

 

About Anna Zalucka

Ana has a solid technical background since she started her IT career as a C++ developer. She chose the architect and project manager path at first, but quickly noticed that classic management is not very effective as she encountered the same issues over and over again. In 2012 she experienced a paradigm shift: Agile software development. Ana has been developing Scrum Master skills ever since. Working as dedicated Scrum Master in two teams in a Latvian company named Eptron.

You can link with Anna Zalucka on LinkedIn. You can also find her on the Facebook Scrum Master Community.

Jul 12, 2016

Blaming is a very common pattern in teams. Either from the outside (stakholders) or from the inside (towards other teams and stakeholders). Blaming can take many forms and can also become a team anti-pattern, one that removes responsibility and ultimately destroys the teams’ ability to improve.

In this episode we mention a tool that can be used to analyze and remove blame from the team’s behavior: 5 Whys.

About Anna Zalucka

Ana has a solid technical background since she started her IT career as a C++ developer. She chose the architect and project manager path at first, but quickly noticed that classic management is not very effective as she encountered the same issues over and over again. In 2012 she experienced a paradigm shift: Agile software development. Ana has been developing Scrum Master skills ever since. Working as dedicated Scrum Master in two teams in a Latvian company named Eptron.

You can link with Anna Zalucka on LinkedIn. You can also find her on the Facebook Scrum Master Community.

Jul 11, 2016

There are many anti-patterns of behavior in teams, but perhaps one of the most disturbing is bullying. Bullying does not only happen in schools, it is alive and affecting many people at work as well. We, as Scrum Masters need to know how to face this kind of behavior, as it is also our responsibility to help create a safe environment for our teams. Listen to Anna describe the situation, what she learned from it, and how she handles bullying now, with more experience.

About Anna Zalucka

Ana has a solid technical background since she started her IT career as a C++ developer. She chose the architect and project manager path at first, but quickly noticed that classic management is not very effective as she encountered the same issues over and over again. In 2012 she experienced a paradigm shift: Agile software development. Ana has been developing Scrum Master skills ever since. Working as dedicated Scrum Master in two teams in a Latvian company named Eptron.

You can link with Anna Zalucka on LinkedIn. You can also find her on the Facebook Scrum Master Community.

Jul 8, 2016

Tools that help us understand the whole system are key for us to be able to understand the system and take action to change the system conditions that limit our and the teams’ performance. Jari describes one tool: the conversation.

About Jari Laakso

Jari has a wide range of interests, which helps him to find discussion topics with people. Jari says he is abnormally talkative to be Finnish, which is partially why he has not lived there since 2007. Jari  started with all-things-related-with-testing and has moved to a dedicated ScrumMaster role. He did that because he feels it matches better his personality and professional focus.

You can link up with Jari Laakso on LinkedIn and connect with Jari Laakso on twitter.

Jul 7, 2016

Success is something we strive to achieve as Scrum Masters. In this podcast series we’ve looked at many different kinds of definition of success. In this episode we look at one more. Jari explains how we can look for signs of success in other people’s behavior.

About Jari Laakso

Jari has a wide range of interests, which helps him to find discussion topics with people. Jari says he is abnormally talkative to be Finnish, which is partially why he has not lived there since 2007. Jari  started with all-things-related-with-testing and has moved to a dedicated ScrumMaster role. He did that because he feels it matches better his personality and professional focus.

You can link up with Jari Laakso on LinkedIn and connect with Jari Laakso on twitter.

Jul 6, 2016

Every team, every person will at some point fail to achieve their goal or do the right thing. We can choose to look at those events as failures or as learning opportunities. That small change of attitude can shift our attitudes towards failure.

About Jari Laakso

Jari has a wide range of interests, which helps him to find discussion topics with people. Jari says he is abnormally talkative to be Finnish, which is partially why he has not lived there since 2007. Jari  started with all-things-related-with-testing and has moved to a dedicated ScrumMaster role. He did that because he feels it matches better his personality and professional focus.

You can link up with Jari Laakso on LinkedIn and connect with Jari Laakso on twitter.

Jul 5, 2016

Naming anti-patterns helps us create a language that we can later use to recognize recurring problems in team behavior. Jari shares with us 3 anti-patterns he witnessed in his career and what can be tried to overcome each of those.

About Jari Laakso

Jari has a wide range of interests, which helps him to find discussion topics with people. Jari says he is abnormally talkative to be Finnish, which is partially why he has not lived there since 2007. Jari  started with all-things-related-with-testing and has moved to a dedicated ScrumMaster role. He did that because he feels it matches better his personality and professional focus.

You can link up with Jari Laakso on LinkedIn and connect with Jari Laakso on twitter.

Jul 4, 2016

There are challenges in every personal transformation. Perhaps the hardest transformation is one that requires us to change our paradigm for action. This is what Jari went through when moving from a traditional command and control management position to the Scrum Master role. A journey we can all learn from.

About Jari Laakso

Jari has a wide range of interests, which helps him to find discussion topics with people. Jari says he is abnormally talkative to be Finnish, which is partially why he has not lived there since 2007. Jari  started with all-things-related-with-testing and has moved to a dedicated ScrumMaster role. He did that because he feels it matches better his personality and professional focus.

You can link up with Jari Laakso on LinkedIn and connect with Jari Laakso on twitter.

Jul 1, 2016

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.

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