Scrum is a relatively small framework for teams to adopt. Certainly much smaller than some of the Agile at scale frameworks. However, even small frameworks can take a while to adopt. In this episode, we reflect on some of the most common mistakes Scrum Masters make when helping teams adopt Scrum.
About Varun Maheshwari
Varun is a Scrum Master and agile practitioner in Australia. He believes in “being agile” rather than “doing agile”. For him, Agile frameworks are not the goal, but rather "Delighting customers, Zero Defects, Quick ROI, Better team work, Excellent Quality & Shortest ‘Time to Market’" are some of the possible goals.
You can link with Varun Maheshwari on LinkedIn.
Innovation is a topic that gets a lot of attention. There are innovation processes, specific creative games for teams to work with to seek innovative ideas. There’s the Lean Startup movement that tries to codify innovation-friendly processes, and there’s also the UX community pushing the argument that we need more innovation in software companies.
You’ve probably heard the same argument at work. We need to be more innovative to be competitive. Great! But how?
In this episode, we explore how leaders can set up their organizations for innovation. Ryan Jacoby helps us explore the how of that critical question: how can we be more innovative?
Ryan describes an approach that aims to focus on the team and organization on the customer needs. His approach is simple and immediately actionable. First start by jotting down in plain language and from the point-of-view of the user/customer: what problems are you trying to solve for that customer? Select the top 3.
The other dimension of innovation is your organization’s goals. Define what it means to meaningfully grow the impact of the organization over 6 to 18 months. This growth could be in the number of customers, revenue growth, profit, etc.
Now you have the start of a growth strategy that is centered on customer needs and also directly linked to the company’s/organization’s growth. Next, we talk about innovation in practice.
For complete notes, visit https://scrum-master-toolbox.org/.
About Ryan Jacoby
Ryan Jacoby, is the founder of MACHINE, a strategy, and innovation company that helps its clients Think Big and Act Small.
MACHINE clients over the years have included people responsible for growth and innovation at The New York Times, Marriott, Viacom, Etsy, Google, Nike, The Washington Post, Feeding America, Fresh Direct, NBC Universal, and The Knight Foundation.
Prior to founding MACHINE, Ryan led teams and relationships at the design and innovation firm IDEO. He was a founding member and location head of the IDEO New York office and built the Business Design discipline at the firm.
Ryan is also the author of the book named “Making Progress” with Sense and Respond press. A book he describes as “a tactical guide for you, the person charged with leading innovation"
You can link with Ryan Jacoby on LinkedIn and connect with Ryan Jacoby on Twitter.
For more on Ryan Jacoby’s work, visit his company’s site at Machine.io.
Jeff is the author of Actionable Agile tools (available on Amazon, and direct from the author at bit.ly/aatbook). He joins us on this series of Q&A shows to answer questions you’ve submitted. You can submit your questions via our survey (short, about 2 min to fill-in) or by tweeting us @scrumpodcast with #agilejeff.
In this episode, we talk about getting management to be involved and buy-in to the agile transformation.
We've all been there, when a front-end developer can't work on a feature because only the back-end part of the feature is missing, but the backend developer is busy or even better: waiting for the DB admin to make some changes.
This is just another form of siloed skillsets. Where one person can only do one task and the other person needs to wait.
How do we help teams understand and practice shared ownership of their work? Sharing knowledge and ultimately making sure that the team can always deliver, no matter who is there?
This is the question we explore in this episode with Jeff Campbell. We discuss the possible reasons why team members are reluctant to share their knowledge, and share tools that can help teams “see” the need for cross-skilling of the team. Kanban is mentioned as an approach that makes the dependency on one skill visible to all in the team.
About Jeff Campbell
Jeff Campbell is the author of Actionable Agile Tools, a book with practical tools and practices to help you amplify your impact as a coach and Scrum Master
Jeff is an Agile Coach who considers the discovery of Agile and Lean to be one of the most defining moments of his life and considers helping others to improve their working life not to simply be a job, but a social responsibility. As an Agile Coach, he has worked with driving Agile transformations in organizations both small and large.
Jeff is also involved in the Agile community and is one of the founding members of Gothenburg Sweden’s largest agile community at 1500+ members www.scrumbeers.com, and he also organizes the yearly conference www.brewingagile.org.
You can link with Jeff Campbell on LinkedIn and connect with Jeff Campbell on Twitter.
"Culture eats strategy for breakfast” is a popular phrase that tries to highlight the importance of culture. However, sometimes culture can be used to hide. Teams that use the “it’s not in our culture” phrase a lot may be avoiding facing a change that is staring them in the face. How do we know when culture is a real obstacle or just an excuse? That’s what we talk about in this Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast.
About Elena Astilleros
Elena coaches people who hate wasting their time with badly run agile ceremonies, meetings or projects. She gives them tools to get more out of their time while sprinkling in a little enthusiasm and cheerleading. You can find some of her tools in the forthcoming book Invisible Leader.
You can link with Elena Astilleros on LinkedIn and connect with Elena Astilleros on Twitter.
Scrum Masters can use their self-check-in every day to assess their progress. In this episode, we talk about questions you can ask yourself to assess your progress and find the areas that are working or need more focus.
The Agile Retrospectives steps that Derby and Larsen shared in Agile Retrospectives can take a while to execute in a retrospective setting. Sometimes we don’t have that much time. In this episode, we discuss how we can implement the standard 5 steps of a retrospective even when time is of the essence and we only have 30 min or less.
About Elena Astilleros
Elena coaches people who hate wasting their time with badly run agile ceremonies, meetings or projects. She gives them tools to get more out of their time while sprinkling in a little enthusiasm and cheerleading. You can find some of her tools in the forthcoming book Invisible Leader.
You can link with Elena Astilleros on LinkedIn and connect with Elena Astilleros on Twitter.
Sometimes, the teams and organization are excited about the change. Possibly the adoption of Scrum or some other Agile methodology. However, it is not enough to have the enthusiasm of the team. Without a clear direction for the change process, “business as usual” will catch up, the pressures of daily work will take over and the change will stall. We talk about how we can avoid, or recover from the “business as usual” pressure cooker that teams will inevitably face during the change process.
About Elena Astilleros
Elena coaches people who hate wasting their time with badly run agile ceremonies, meetings or projects. She gives them tools to get more out of their time while sprinkling in a little enthusiasm and cheerleading. You can find some of her tools in the forthcoming book Invisible Leader.
You can link with Elena Astilleros on LinkedIn and connect with Elena Astilleros on Twitter.
Elena joined a team that was about to implode. We discuss the context, what was causing the problems, and then share a step-by-step approach to help teams that are in crisis.
Elena shares with us 3 books, from The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance by Steven Kotler, to Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone by Brené Brown and Coaching Agile Teams by Lysa Adkins.
In Coaching Agile Teams, Elena found a good reminder of how Scrum Masters and team members should be aware of how they relate to each other and how that can have a huge impact on the team’s performance.
About Elena Astilleros
Elena coaches people who hate wasting their time with badly run agile ceremonies, meetings or projects. She gives them tools to get more out of their time while sprinkling in a little enthusiasm and cheerleading. You can find some of her tools in the forthcoming book Invisible Leader.
You can link with Elena Astilleros on LinkedIn and connect with Elena Astilleros on Twitter.
After a successful assignment as a Scrum Master, it is possible we think we’ve got the role down to a T. However, reality between teams is so different that even great Scrum Masters can struggle when moving from one team to another. We share one such story, and what principles and practices we can take as Scrum Masters to focus our work on the new team.
About Elena Astilleros
Elena coaches people who hate wasting their time with badly run agile ceremonies, meetings or projects. She gives them tools to get more out of their time while sprinkling in a little enthusiasm and cheerleading. You can find some of her tools in the forthcoming book Invisible Leader.
You can link with Elena Astilleros on LinkedIn and connect with Elena Astilleros on Twitter.
This is a Spanish language episode where we introduce the Lean Change Management book for our Spanish speaking listeners.
For more on the Lean Change Mangement approach, check out our week of episodes with Jason Little, or visit the book page at http://leanchange.happymellyexpress.com.
Our guests in this episode are Ivan Corps Lopez and Patrick Verdonk who was part of the translators for the Lean Change Management book, Spanish edition.
About Ivan Corps Lopez
Nacido en Ciudad Real (España). Completó Ingeniería informática en la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. Apasionado por Lean y Agile desde 2013 para ayudar a las empresas a obtener lo mejor de su gente con esta nueva mentalidad. Ahora trabajando en ING ayudando con la transformación ágil de toda la entidad. Mis valores fundamentales son Libertad, Coraje, Curiosidad, Integridad y Diversión
About Patrick Verdonk
Patrick siempre ha estado involucrado en cambios que afectan a las personas en muchos roles diferentes. El "cambio", especialmente el impacto del cambio en las personas, siempre ha tenido mi interés. En octubre de 2017, Patrick dejó su rol corporativo y se juntó a Alquimia del Talento. Començó a ayudar a otras personas y empresas con la gestión de sus cambios (personales y organizativos) a través de consultoría y capacitación.
Jeff is the author of Actionable Agile tools (available on Amazon, and direct from the author at bit.ly/aatbook). He joins us on this series of Q&A shows to answer questions you’ve submitted. You can submit your questions via our survey (short, about 2 min to fill-in) or by tweeting us @scrumpodcast with #agilejeff.
In this episode, we talk about getting management to be involved and buy-in to the agile transformation.
I was working with a team that was experiencing a serious issue. They were not able to finish the work on time or finish what they planned for the Sprint
There could be many reasons for that, but in this team what I saw when I came it was that they had one task (not story) going on per developer all the time. Stories were not delivered except in the last day of the Sprint.
It was very hard to get the team members to collaborate and feel ownership for what they had planned to deliver.
How do you solve problems like this?
About Jeff Campbell
Jeff Campbell is the author of Actionable Agile Tools, a book with practical tools and practices to help you amplify your impact as a coach and Scrum Master
Jeff is an Agile Coach who considers the discovery of Agile and Lean to be one of the most defining moments of his life and considers helping others to improve their working life not to simply be a job, but a social responsibility. As an Agile Coach, he has worked with driving Agile transformations in organizations both small and large.
Jeff is also involved in the Agile community and is one of the founding members of Gothenburg Sweden’s largest agile community at 1500+ members www.scrumbeers.com, and he also organizes the yearly conference www.brewingagile.org.
You can link with Jeff Campbell on LinkedIn and connect with Jeff Campbell on Twitter.
In some cultures, people value tradition and what has happened before. They might even look wearingly to the outside and focus more on their “internal” knowledge. That’s a problem for Scrum teams, but some teams live and breath that kind of culture. How can Scrum Masters help teams get out of their “self” focus and learn more from others and newer approaches to work? That’s the question we discuss in this episode.
About Eduardo Ribeiro
Eddy is passionate about helping people, teams, and organizations foster a culture of continuous improvement where experimentation and embracing change becomes part of their DNA.
He’s also the author of the Beyond Lean Agile Blog, a Co-Founder of the Lean Coffee Portugal Community, Founder of Agile Online Community and Co-Founder & Director of Startup Grind Porto.
You can link with Eduardo Ribeiro on LinkedIn and connect with Eduardo Ribeiro on Twitter.
When working with teams, the team’s metrics should also become the Scrum Master’s metrics. In this episode, we talk about metrics that teams use but can also be important for Scrum Masters to assess their success, and help the teams.
The Hot Air Balloon Retrospective format is a format that helps teams use a metaphor to explore their current problems (ballast) and the things that are working well (heat, wind, etc.) Metaphors help teams get out of their minute task focus and focus more on themselves as a group.
About Eduardo Ribeiro
Eddy is passionate about helping people, teams, and organizations foster a culture of continuous improvement where experimentation and embracing change becomes part of their DNA.
He’s also the author of the Beyond Lean Agile Blog, a Co-Founder of the Lean Coffee Portugal Community, Founder of Agile Online Community and Co-Founder & Director of Startup Grind Porto.
You can link with Eduardo Ribeiro on LinkedIn and connect with Eduardo Ribeiro on Twitter.
Scrum Masters can be change catalysts, and often they become an active part of Agile adoption at their organization. However, even motivated, energetic Scrum Master can burn out. Change is a long process, and it can’t keep going if only you are working on it. In this episode, we talk about the importance of creating a “guiding coalition” to ensure that change takes hold and progresses in an organization.
About Eduardo Ribeiro
Eddy is passionate about helping people, teams, and organizations foster a culture of continuous improvement where experimentation and embracing change becomes part of their DNA.
He’s also the author of the Beyond Lean Agile Blog, a Co-Founder of the Lean Coffee Portugal Community, Founder of Agile Online Community and Co-Founder & Director of Startup Grind Porto.
You can link with Eduardo Ribeiro on LinkedIn and connect with Eduardo Ribeiro on Twitter.
Sometimes, Scrum teams are not facing any challenges. They might even be “good” at what they are doing. When that happens, it is a sign that Scrum Masters must pay extra attention to the team dynamics and the relationship with their stakeholders. Is the team really that good, or is it so that they are just getting comfortable with the status quo and not willing to improve anymore?
The “black book of Scrum”, Agile Software Development by Schwaber and Beedle was the first book published on Scrum and it helped Eduardo understand Scrum and why it was created. It also helps Scrum Masters prepare their arguments for the adoption of Scrum when that is necessary.
About Eduardo Ribeiro
Eddy is passionate about helping people, teams, and organizations foster a culture of continuous improvement where experimentation and embracing change becomes part of their DNA.
He’s also the author of the Beyond Lean Agile Blog, a Co-Founder of the Lean Coffee Portugal Community, Founder of Agile Online Community and Co-Founder & Director of Startup Grind Porto.
You can link with Eduardo Ribeiro on LinkedIn and connect with Eduardo Ribeiro on Twitter.
Scrum Masters naturally want their teams to apply Scrum “the right way”, but there are risks with that approach. As Scrum Masters, we must be able to detect when a team is getting frustrated by our actions, no matter how well-intentioned they might be. In this episode, we talk about a team that started to feel frustrated by Eddy’s approach and how he reacted to that. Helping the team get back to the positive adoption of Scrum
About Eduardo Ribeiro
Eddy is passionate about helping people, teams, and organizations foster a culture of continuous improvement where experimentation and embracing change becomes part of their DNA.
He’s also the author of the Beyond Lean Agile Blog, a Co-Founder of the Lean Coffee Portugal Community, Founder of Agile Online Community and Co-Founder & Director of Startup Grind Porto.
You can link with Eduardo Ribeiro on LinkedIn and connect with Eduardo Ribeiro on Twitter.
Jeff is the author of Actionable Agile tools (available on Amazon, and direct from the author at bit.ly/aatbook). He joins us on this series of Q&A shows to answer questions you’ve submitted. You can submit your questions via our survey (short, about 2 min to fill-in) or by tweeting us @scrumpodcast with #agilejeff.
In this episode, we talk about getting management to be involved and buy-in to the agile transformation.
There was this one team. They were actually quite good!
That was the good part. However, after a while, they were so good that they started to act is if they didn't want to improve anymore.
They thought they were good, but I knew they had a serious lack of innovation, they were stuck in the same old methods and processes.
They thought they were better than the rest, but I knew they were just doing the same thing for a long time and were far from their potential!
How do you help your teams challenge themselves to try new things?
About Jeff Campbell
Jeff Campbell is the author of Actionable Agile Tools, a book with practical tools and practices to help you amplify your impact as a coach and Scrum Master
Jeff is an Agile Coach who considers the discovery of Agile and Lean to be one of the most defining moments of his life and considers helping others to improve their working life not to simply be a job, but a social responsibility. As an Agile Coach, he has worked with driving Agile transformations in organizations both small and large.
Jeff is also involved in the Agile community and is one of the founding members of Gothenburg Sweden’s largest agile community at 1500+ members www.scrumbeers.com, and he also organizes the yearly conference www.brewingagile.org.
You can link with Jeff Campbell on LinkedIn and connect with Jeff Campbell on Twitter.
Nedeljo is a natural of Serbia, a place where people are hospitable and friendly. In this episode, we talk about how do teams interact and integrate new team members. We also talk about how some cultures will accept that approach much more eagerly than others. How do your teams receive and integrate new team members?
In this episode, we refer to Management 3.0, the framework developed by Jurgen Appelo that offers simple techniques for many of the challenges Scrum Masters and managers face when working with Scrum teams.
About Nedeljko Damnjanovic
Nedeljko is a Scrum Master and a full-stack developer who has been in the IT industry for the better part of the decade. He spent the last 5 years actively working as a Scrum Master with many diverse teams and projects who has helped him understand his role better. One of the core developers of the first VivifyScrum release, he has participated in its development product-wise ever since.
You can link with Nedeljko Damnjanovic on LinkedIn.
You can find Nedeljko and the rest of the team at VivifyScrum on twitter.
Scrum Masters must pay attention to how Scrum teams adhere to the Sprint Goal, how they collaborate with the Product Owner and other aspects that make teams perform.
In this episode, we talk about 5 different success metrics for Scrum Masters.
Scrum Masters usually have multiple retrospective formats in their “back-pocket”. The Sailboat Retrospective format is one that is easy to setup (a flipchart and markers/post-its are enough), and can engage the team in a creative assessment of their ways of working.
About Nedeljko Damnjanovic
Nedeljko is a Scrum Master and a full-stack developer who has been in the IT industry for the better part of the decade. He spent the last 5 years actively working as a Scrum Master with many diverse teams and projects who has helped him understand his role better. One of the core developers of the first VivifyScrum release, he has participated in its development product-wise ever since.
You can link with Nedeljko Damnjanovic on LinkedIn.
You can find Nedeljko and the rest of the team at VivifyScrum on twitter.
One rainy Monday, a developer runs a script. The whole database is wiped out, and there are no backups. What can we learn from this story? Scrum Masters must help teams prepare, and sometimes recover, from disasters. This is such a story. We also discuss how we can prepare our teams to avoid catastrophic failures.
In this episode we refer to Modern Agile, a community started by Joshua Kerievsky of Industrial Logic.
About Nedeljko Damnjanovic
Nedeljko is a Scrum Master and a full-stack developer who has been in the IT industry for the better part of the decade. He spent the last 5 years actively working as a Scrum Master with many diverse teams and projects who has helped him understand his role better. One of the core developers of the first VivifyScrum release, he has participated in its development product-wise ever since.
You can link with Nedeljko Damnjanovic on LinkedIn.
You can find Nedeljko and the rest of the team at VivifyScrum on twitter.
As Scrum Masters, sometimes we work with teams that are at the start of their learning journey with Scrum. These teams might even be motivated, and committed teams. But there are many aspects of Scrum that can only be learned with experience. In this episode, we talk about the possible problems we face when working with “new” teams, and how we can help them survive their first Scrum implementation.
In Scrum Mastery by Geoff Watts, Nedeljko found a great list of examples on what differentiates good from great Scrum Masters. He found also many patterns that helped him solve the problems he was facing in his Scrum Master role.
You can find the Scrum Master Toolbox episode with Geoff Watts here.
About Nedeljko Damnjanovic
Nedeljko is a Scrum Master and a full-stack developer who has been in the IT industry for the better part of the decade. He spent the last 5 years actively working as a Scrum Master with many diverse teams and projects who has helped him understand his role better. One of the core developers of the first VivifyScrum release, he has participated in its development product-wise ever since.
You can link with Nedeljko Damnjanovic on LinkedIn.
You can find Nedeljko and the rest of the team at VivifyScrum on twitter.
Many Scrum Masters have a background in other roles within their teams. Some were developers, others Project Managers, others Testers, etc.
Many of those roles are “doer” roles. Roles that focus more on execution and less on helping others execute.
As Scrum Masters, we must be able to transition from “doer” to “enabler”, and Nedeljko shares his journey with us.
About Nedeljko Damnjanovic
Nedeljko is a Scrum Master and a full-stack developer who has been in the IT industry for the better part of the decade. He spent the last 5 years actively working as a Scrum Master with many diverse teams and projects who has helped him understand his role better. One of the core developers of the first VivifyScrum release, he has participated in its development product-wise ever since.
You can link with Nedeljko Damnjanovic on LinkedIn.
You can find Nedeljko and the rest of the team at VivifyScrum on twitter.
Jeff is the author of Actionable Agile tools (available on Amazon, and direct from the author at bit.ly/aatbook). He joins us on this series of Q&A shows to answer questions you’ve submitted. You can submit your questions via our survey (short, about 2 min to fill-in) or by tweeting us @scrumpodcast with #agilejeff.
In this episode, we talk about getting management to be involved and buy-in to the agile transformation.
Complete show notes can be found at https://scrum-master-toolbox.org/.
About Jeff Campbell
Jeff Campbell is the author of Actionable Agile Tools, a book with practical tools and practices to help you amplify your impact as a coach and Scrum Master
Jeff is an Agile Coach who considers the discovery of Agile and Lean to be one of the most defining moments of his life and considers helping others to improve their working life not to simply be a job, but a social responsibility. As an Agile Coach, he has worked with driving Agile transformations in organizations both small and large.
Jeff is also involved in the Agile community and is one of the founding members of Gothenburg Sweden’s largest agile community at 1500+ members www.scrumbeers.com, and he also organizes the yearly conference www.brewingagile.org.
You can link with Jeff Campbell on LinkedIn and connect with Jeff Campbell on Twitter.
When working with teams from different cultures, one of the characteristics that Scrum Masters will notice is the introvert/extrovert culture split. Some teams will naturally be more extrovert, while other teams will naturally be more introvert. Scrum Masters must be aware of the dominant temperament for their teams and use that to help teams collaborate, especially when there are contrasting cultures in one team.
About Henrique Centieiro
Henrique is a Blockchain Product Manager (i.e. dealing with the blockchain related features/user stories of the product). He is passionate about teams and agile, using scrum to manage even his personal tasks.
You can link with Henrique Centieiro on LinkedIn.
When working with teams from different cultures, one of the characteristics that Scrum Masters will notice is the introvert/extrovert culture split. Some teams will naturally be more extrovert, while other teams will naturally be more introvert. Scrum Masters must be aware of the dominant temperament for their teams and use that to help teams collaborate, especially when there are contrasting cultures in one team.
About Henrique Centieiro
Henrique is a Blockchain Product Manager (i.e. dealing with the blockchain related features/user stories of the product). He is passionate about teams and agile, using scrum to manage even his personal tasks.
You can link with Henrique Centieiro on LinkedIn.
Prioritization is not a simple, or easy task for Product Owners and teams. Sometimes, the teams focus on what they want to work on, sometimes on what is easy to do, but those are prioritization anti-patterns.
As Scrum Masters, we must assess the prioritization practices of our teams. When necessary, we must help them adopt new approaches to prioritization. Henrique shares one of those times with us.
About Henrique Centieiro
Henrique is a Blockchain Product Manager (i.e. dealing with the blockchain related features/user stories of the product). He is passionate about teams and agile, using scrum to manage even his personal tasks.
You can link with Henrique Centieiro on LinkedIn.