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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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Now displaying: May, 2017
May 31, 2017

Change is a process. We’ve heard that over and over. But what does that mean in practice? Steve shares with us some lessons and some patterns that help change grow. Listen in to learn about the Unity of Purpose pattern and the tools Steve uses to enable and catalyse that pattern-

 

About Steve Tendon

Steve Tendon popularised the Theory of constraints in some of the agile community and he is also the Creator of the TameFlow systems thinking approach which nurtures breakthrough performance innovation.

This system is described in the book with the same name: Tame the Flow.

You can link with Steve Tendon on LinkedIn and connect with Steve Tendon on Twitter.

May 30, 2017

There are many aspects we need to take into account when we help a team form and reach their potential. In this episode we share many tools and links that can help you create the team’s roadmap to high performance. We discuss the Core Protocols; some tools from Theory of Constraints like the Evaporating cloud - a conflict resolution tool; and POPCORN FLOW, a tool that helps team learn quickly.

 

About Steve Tendon

Steve Tendon popularised the Theory of constraints in some of the agile community and he is also the Creator of the TameFlow systems thinking approach which nurtures breakthrough performance innovation.

This system is described in the book with the same name: Tame the Flow.

You can link with Steve Tendon on LinkedIn and connect with Steve Tendon on Twitter.

May 29, 2017

Steve has studied highly productive teams, and he shares with us some stories as well as what is necessary after Scrum is there. He also shares a tool that may be critical in our work as Scrum Masters.

In this episode we refer to the TameFlow community where he shares his ideas about high performing teams.

 

About Steve Tendon

Steve Tendon popularised the Theory of constraints in some of the agile community and he is also the Creator of the TameFlow systems thinking approach which nurtures breakthrough performance innovation.

This system is described in the book with the same name: Tame the Flow.

You can link with Steve Tendon on LinkedIn and connect with Steve Tendon on Twitter.

May 26, 2017

Start with the team! Paru asks us to consider the team when looking at the overall system. We can use the Squad Health Check (also the Atlassian version) survey or some other similar tool to understand how the system is influencing the performance of the team. As we go through the questions, then consider how the external (to the team) factors may be influencing the team. Listen in to learn how Paru uses these tools and other tools to help understand the system around the team.

 

About Paru Madhavan

Paru works as Scrum Master across two squads at OFX. She's worked in Agile teams and in various roles such as Business Analyst, Product Owner and Scrum Master since 2011. To her, Agile and software development just go hand in hand!

You can link with Paru Madhavan on LinkedIn and connect with Paru Madhavan on Twitter.

May 25, 2017

When we start our journey as Scrum Masters, many of us start from the perspective that the team is the focus of our work, and the product is the outcome a job well done. However, we also need to consider our own development as people and Scrum Masters. Paru shares her thoughts on both the team and the personal aspects of our successful journey as Scrum Masters.

 

About Paru Madhavan

Paru works as Scrum Master across two squads at OFX. She's worked in Agile teams and in various roles such as Business Analyst, Product Owner and Scrum Master since 2011. To her, Agile and software development just go hand in hand!

You can link with Paru Madhavan on LinkedIn and connect with Paru Madhavan on Twitter.

May 24, 2017

Many teams go through a crisis in their Scrum adoption. They don’t feel good about the ceremonies, it’s hard to keep the discipline of regular meetings to review the backlog, keeping the stories small enough to deliver value in a sprint, schedule meetings that fit the stakeholders, etc. Scrum is full of disciplined approaches to specific knowledge work problems. So this team decided to go to Kanban. Listen in to learn what happened to the team, and how Paru helped the team find its way again.

 

About Paru Madhavan

Paru works as Scrum Master across two squads at OFX. She's worked in Agile teams and in various roles such as Business Analyst, Product Owner and Scrum Master since 2011. To her, Agile and software development just go hand in hand!

You can link with Paru Madhavan on LinkedIn and connect with Paru Madhavan on Twitter.

May 23, 2017

It’s hard enough to deliver on time when the backlog is fairly static, but what happens when the backlog is ever changing. The CTO drops-in every other day to change the priorities, all decisions are made on a spur of the moment, the team does not have all the necessary skills to deliver (i.e. not cross-functional)? Listen in as Paru explains how she lived through such a situation.

 

About Paru Madhavan

Paru works as Scrum Master across two squads at OFX. She's worked in Agile teams and in various roles such as Business Analyst, Product Owner and Scrum Master since 2011. To her, Agile and software development just go hand in hand!

You can link with Paru Madhavan on LinkedIn and connect with Paru Madhavan on Twitter.

May 22, 2017

Paru shares with us a story that illustrates one of the biggest risks with spikes: the confidence that we know how to develop something. How can we then help a team that believes they found “the solution” to take advantage and learn from spikes without getting hung up on a particular solution?

 

About Paru Madhavan

Paru works as Scrum Master across two squads at OFX. She's worked in Agile teams and in various roles such as Business Analyst, Product Owner and Scrum Master since 2011. To her, Agile and software development just go hand in hand!

You can link with Paru Madhavan on LinkedIn and connect with Paru Madhavan on Twitter.

May 20, 2017

Gunther will introduce, in this bonus episode, an approach that he has developed over the years, to help companies that are struggling with Scrum in particular or Agile in general. But before that, we have a very interactive conversation about some key questions for Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches.

  • The biggest struggles in Agile Adoption
  • The biggest obstacles to successful Scrum Adoption

  • Removing the obstacles to successful Scrum Adoption
  • "Reversify" your organization with Scrum, after you’ve solved the major obstacles

About Gunther Verheyen

Gunther left consulting in 2013 to partner with Ken Schwaber, Scrum co-creator, at Scrum.org. He represented Ken and Scrum.org in Europe. Gunther left Scrum.org in 2016 to continue his journey of Scrum as an independent Scrum Caretaker.

He calls himself a connector, writer, speaker, humaniser. Gunther assists, serves, advices teams, individuals and executives.

Gunther believes that Scrum – the most applied software development framework – will not only increase the value that software delivers to organizations but is also a way to re-humanise the workplace for people. Gunther likes to inspire individuals, teams, departments, and organizations to realize their potential.

Beyond Scrum, Gunther is all about his family, life, books, and music. He communicates in Dutch and in English. Gunther is co-creator to Agility Path and the Nexus framework for Scaled Professional Scrum.

You can link with Gunther Verheyen on LinkedIn and connect with Gunther Verheyen on Twitter.

May 19, 2017

The purpose of the organization is a big influencer on the team’s performance. But once that obstacle is surpassed we need to help the team take ownership of their own development, and Khaja shares a technique that can help the team find it’s place and flow within the organization.

 

About Khaja Mohiuddin

An accomplished and fluent communicator with strong investigation, problem-solving and decision-making skills. Managing the work from initial request through estimation, approval, requirements, build and implementation.

You can link with Khaja Mohiuddin on LinkedIn.

May 18, 2017

A lot has been said about what it means for a Scrum Master to succeed. Khaja takes a different approach in this episode and shares with us how we can help our teams succeed. He shares 4 steps he has successfully used in this own practice when taking on new teams, or reaching a tough spot with an existing team.

 

About Khaja Mohiuddin

An accomplished and fluent communicator with strong investigation, problem-solving and decision-making skills. Managing the work from initial request through estimation, approval, requirements, build and implementation.

You can link with Khaja Mohiuddin on LinkedIn.

May 17, 2017

There are many reasons why teams don’t like or even resist change. One of those reasons is the perceived difficulty or size of the change. It’s ok to take on big challenges, but sometimes they just feel impossible. Khaja shares with us how he approached such a situation where a team felt that Agile itself was a change large enough that it was scary. How do we help teams like that? Listen in.

 

About Khaja Mohiuddin

An accomplished and fluent communicator with strong investigation, problem-solving and decision-making skills. Managing the work from initial request through estimation, approval, requirements, build and implementation.

You can link with Khaja Mohiuddin on LinkedIn.

May 16, 2017

We’ve all been there. We are working with a team that is struggling to keep the flow. They are missing deliveries, can’t get enough time to hold a retrospective, and is even too busy to pay attention to the quality of their code. How to help such a team? Khaja shares his recipe for how to help teams that are overwhelmed with work.

 

About Khaja Mohiuddin

An accomplished and fluent communicator with strong investigation, problem-solving and decision-making skills. Managing the work from initial request through estimation, approval, requirements, build and implementation.

You can link with Khaja Mohiuddin on LinkedIn.

May 15, 2017

In this episode Khaja shares a story of a team that was only a team in name. Their setup was influenced by a manager that did not get Agile. How to handle such a situation? Khaja shares his recipe for handling such situations, and advises us to be careful as some organizations are just not ready to change.

 

About Khaja Mohiuddin

An accomplished and fluent communicator with strong investigation, problem-solving and decision-making skills. Managing the work from initial request through estimation, approval, requirements, build and implementation.

You can link with Khaja Mohiuddin on LinkedIn.

May 12, 2017

Intuition is said to be the symptom of knowledge meeting experience in a sudden burst of creativity (actually I just made that up ;). What is the role of intuition for us as Scrum Masters? Specifically, how can intuition help us understand the system that affects the teams we work with? Listen in for a trip to the 3rd dimension of being a Scrum Master. Oh, and happy Friday! :)

About Peter Götz

Peter is working as a consultant, trainer and coach based in Munich. He started working as a Java software developer in 2001, changed to consulting in 2006 and has been working as software developer, software architect, technical project manager or team lead. He is a Professional Scrum Trainer at scrum.org and supports teams in adopting Scrum since 2008.

You can link with Peter Götz on LinkedIn and connect with Peter Götz on Twitter. And our listeners in Germany can find Peter Götz on Xing.

May 11, 2017

Peter has a specific perspective on the Scrum Master role that is influenced by his own role as an external consultant that comes in to help a client reach certain goals. In this episode he shares with us what he has learned from that experience as well as the practices he now takes into use when in such an assignment.

 

About Peter Götz

Peter is working as a consultant, trainer and coach based in Munich. He started working as a Java software developer in 2001, changed to consulting in 2006 and has been working as software developer, software architect, technical project manager or team lead. He is a Professional Scrum Trainer at scrum.org and supports teams in adopting Scrum since 2008.

You can link with Peter Götz on LinkedIn and connect with Peter Götz on Twitter. And our listeners in Germany can find Peter Götz on Xing.

May 10, 2017

Peter has gone through many change processes in his career, but in this episode he shares one specific process that helped him improve his own approach to change management. He shares some of the patterns implemented back then that are still used today by him in his work.

In this Episode we refer to the #NoEstimates movement and #NoEstimates book as well as the the book Non-Violent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg.

 

About Peter Götz

Peter is working as a consultant, trainer and coach based in Munich. He started working as a Java software developer in 2001, changed to consulting in 2006 and has been working as software developer, software architect, technical project manager or team lead. He is a Professional Scrum Trainer at scrum.org and supports teams in adopting Scrum since 2008.

You can link with Peter Götz on LinkedIn and connect with Peter Götz on Twitter. And our listeners in Germany can find Peter Götz on Xing.

May 9, 2017

A pattern that we often see is that of the silo-thinking and lack of common, shared goals in the teams. Peter shares such a story as well as the steps he took to climb out of that whole and build a great team that is still in contact with him to this day.

 

About Peter Götz

Peter is working as a consultant, trainer and coach based in Munich. He started working as a Java software developer in 2001, changed to consulting in 2006 and has been working as software developer, software architect, technical project manager or team lead. He is a Professional Scrum Trainer at scrum.org and supports teams in adopting Scrum since 2008.

You can link with Peter Götz on LinkedIn and connect with Peter Götz on Twitter. And our listeners in Germany can find Peter Götz on Xing.

May 8, 2017

There are so many pitfalls in Distributed Software Development (DSD). Peter shares with us a true story of his own life as a “proxy” between local business and remote software team. He also shares with us what he learned from that experience that he tries to use when in similar settings today.

 

About Peter Götz

Peter is working as a consultant, trainer and coach based in Munich. He started working as a Java software developer in 2001, changed to consulting in 2006 and has been working as software developer, software architect, technical project manager or team lead. He is a Professional Scrum Trainer at scrum.org and supports teams in adopting Scrum since 2008.

You can link with Peter Götz on LinkedIn and connect with Peter Götz on Twitter. And our listeners in Germany can find Peter Götz on Xing.

May 5, 2017

Mapping out the system conditions, or even understanding what is going on in the team is not an easy task. But without that, can we really help the team? Ruben reminds is that we can use peers to find the solutions that are illuding us. In the process, make sure that you listen to the team’s experience. After all, they are in a journey that goes beyond your involvement. Step into their shoes before you try to help them.

 

About Ruben Betancourt

Ruben Betancourt is a computer systems engineer with experience in project management. Currently in love with agile software development methodologies.  

You can link with Ruben Betancourt on LinkedIn and connect with Ruben Betancourt on Twitter.

May 4, 2017

Would you drive to a new location without knowing where it was, and without a map to help you get there? This is where many of us are regarding our own success and impact as a Scrum Master. Ruben shares his 2 most important metrics to measure his success and impact as a Scrum Master. Which ones do you measure?

 

About Ruben Betancourt

Ruben Betancourt is a computer systems engineer with experience in project management. Currently in love with agile software development methodologies.  

You can link with Ruben Betancourt on LinkedIn and connect with Ruben Betancourt on Twitter.

May 3, 2017

Sprints fail for many reasons, and in this episode we explore one specific Anti-Pattern: “the disengaged PO anti-pattern.” How do we bring the PO into the work of the team, to ensure that we are always progressing in the right direction, instead of finding at the end of the Sprint that we were missing some critical information.

 

About Ruben Betancourt

Ruben Betancourt is a computer systems engineer with experience in project management. Currently in love with agile software development methodologies.  

You can link with Ruben Betancourt on LinkedIn and connect with Ruben Betancourt on Twitter.

May 2, 2017

It’s hard enough to deliver a small increment of a product, yet we often find ourselves and our teams in positions where they need to deliver a whole product, project or release in 1 go. No change for mistake. And you know what happens: when failure is not an option, failure is the only option!

 

About Ruben Betancourt

Ruben Betancourt is a computer systems engineer with experience in project management. Currently in love with agile software development methodologies.  

You can link with Ruben Betancourt on LinkedIn and connect with Ruben Betancourt on Twitter.

May 1, 2017

Fixed scope, fixed time, fixed cost: a recipe for failure, you say? Perhaps you are right, but what can we do as Scrum Masters when we are stuck in those situations? Ruben shares his own story, and what he learned from such a story that he still applies today.

 

About Ruben Betancourt

Ruben Betancourt is a computer systems engineer with experience in project management. Currently in love with agile software development methodologies.  

You can link with Ruben Betancourt on LinkedIn and connect with Ruben Betancourt on Twitter.

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