Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website.
In certain teams, there’s a need to find “the fall guy”, a person that takes the blame for the collective misses of the team. However, even when there is a fall guy, that search for someone to blame leads to many anti-patterns that destroy the team. In this episode, we talk about how we can help teams get out of this anti-pattern and be ready to take the steps necessary to succeed as a team
In Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willing, Jeffrey found a great reminder that we must always be asking “how may I contribute to help this team/these teams?” This helped Jeffrey understand how to communicate this aspect to teams and stakeholders. It’s only what we think we own that we are ready to improve.
About Jeffrey Koors
Jeff started his studies and career as a fine artist and has gone on to use his creative thinking and vision to help many organizations find ways to design systems, solve problems and embrace Agile. Jeff is also the co-founder and host of Coaching Agile Journeys.
You can link with Jeffrey Koors on LinkedIn and connect with Jeffrey Koors on Twitter.
Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website.
Agile at the team level is not easy, and it has serious challenges that need to be overcome for a team to reach their potential. However, agility in the large is even harder. We have to help teams collaborate across departments, functions, and sometimes even across different companies. In this episode, we dive into collaboration at scale, the challenge for Scrum Masters working with multiple teams in a scaled agile context.
About Jeffrey Koors
Jeff started his studies and career as a fine artist and has gone on to use his creative thinking and vision to help many organizations find ways to design systems, solve problems and embrace Agile. Jeff is also the co-founder and host of Coaching Agile Journeys.
You can link with Jeffrey Koors on LinkedIn and connect with Jeffrey Koors on Twitter.
Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website.
In this episode, we talk about the PO’s role inside the team, and how we can help Product Owners focus on value.
The Product Owner in Scrum is a very difficult role, maybe even a super-human role. Unless we start thinking about the role as part of the success of the team, rather than the only responsible for the product. Great Product Owners focus on helping the team succeed, and learn to say “no” to everything that gets in the way, even if that’s a feature they “love”.
When a PO focuses on the “how”, they miss their ability to communicate with the team in a way that describes what value is. The Value should be the center of the PO’s attention, but when the PO starts telling the team “how” something should be developed, they lose time outside the “value conversation”. In this episode, we explore ways to help the PO focus on, and define value for the team.
In this segment, we refer to an insight by David Hussman called “Dude's Law” (Value = Why? / How?).
Are you having trouble helping the team working well with their Product Owner? We’ve put together a course to help you work on the collaboration team-product owner. You can find it at: bit.ly/coachyourpo. 18 modules, 8+ hours of modules with tools and techniques that you can use to help teams and PO’s collaborate.
About Charles Rodriguez
Charles has been working in software development for 16+ years with roles ranging from a database developer to manager to agile coach all in an effort to 'try to make things better' for future generations joining the IT industry.
You can link with Charles Rodriguez on LinkedIn and connect with Charles Rodriguez on Twitter.
Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website.
Charles provides a clear vision for what success is for a Scrum Master, and we discuss what are some of the growth models that help us improve our performance.
In this episode, we refer to the book Turn The Ship Around! by David Marquet, to the learning model based on Shu-Ha-Ri, and a movie, The Karate Kid, which illustrates a learning journey from the very early moments to a moment of mastery.
Metaphor retrospectives help teams enter a mood of reflection by creating a scene where the team projects their feelings and thoughts. In the sailboat retrospective, the metaphor helps the team talk about what is going on at that time, but also to plan for the future and draw a map to achieve their goals. Watch this video for a hands-on example of the sailboat retrospective.
About Charles Rodriguez
Charles has been working in software development for 16+ years with roles ranging from a database developer to manager to agile coach all in an effort to 'try to make things better' for future generations joining the IT industry.
You can link with Charles Rodriguez on LinkedIn and connect with Charles Rodriguez on Twitter.
Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website.
Charles was visiting an Agile Coach Bootcamp organized for Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches to get a solution to his problem: how to make other changes. It was then he noticed that everyone in that room had the same problem. What Charles realized was that his role as a Scrum Master was not to lead change, but rather to create the conditions for change to happen on its own. In this episode, we talk about the method that Charles uses to foster change-friendly environments. We also refer to a reference book: Leading Change by Kotter.
About Charles Rodriguez
Charles has been working in software development for 16+ years with roles ranging from a database developer to manager to agile coach all in an effort to 'try to make things better' for future generations joining the IT industry.
You can link with Charles Rodriguez on LinkedIn and connect with Charles Rodriguez on Twitter.
Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website.
This team had very talented developers, they were able to work without conflict. But that’s when Charles started to realize that this team might be averse to conflict. Instead of confronting bad ideas, the team would go along with every idea because they didn’t want to start a conflict. In this episode, we talk about The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni, where this pattern is explored in detail as part of one of the dysfunctions.
In Turn the Ship Around! by David Marquet, Charles found a leadership model that he could relate to, and adopt in his work. David Marquet has been a guest on the podcast where he explained the main ideas of Turn The Ship Around!
About Charles Rodriguez
Charles has been working in software development for 16+ years with roles ranging from a database developer to manager to agile coach all in an effort to 'try to make things better' for future generations joining the IT industry.
You can link with Charles Rodriguez on LinkedIn and connect with Charles Rodriguez on Twitter.
Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website.
As Charles joined this team, all seemed to be working perfectly. The team really got Agile, and they were following the ceremonies and producing high-quality software. But something was off. With time it became clear that there was a gap between the team and the stakeholders. Finally, the team realized that their project was about to be canceled. What happened? How could this team’s amazing work be canceled? The lessons Charles learned from that story are a critical warning for all of us. Listen in to learn what happened, and why you should start looking at your own team (even if successful) to look for possible early signals of the same pattern.
About Charles Rodriguez
Charles has been working in software development for 16+ years with roles ranging from a database developer to manager to agile coach all in an effort to 'try to make things better' for future generations joining the IT industry.
You can link with Charles Rodriguez on LinkedIn and connect with Charles Rodriguez on Twitter.
Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website.
About Raphael Branger
Raphael Branger is a Certified Disciplined Agile Practitioner and a pioneer in adapting agile methods in the context of data and analytics projects. He works as a Principal Consultant Data & Analytics at IT-Logix in Switzerland with more than seventeen years of experience in business intelligence and data warehousing.
You can link with Raphael Branger on LinkedIn and connect with Raphael Branger on Twitter.
Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website.
From the common and frequent “too busy to help” anti-pattern to the PO that was ready to handle the natural and predictable unpredictability of business. Two contrasting patterns that can make or break the success of the team and the product.
Good Product Owners have a clear Vision and know how to communicate it to the team and stakeholders. However, great Product Owners also are able to understand how to adapt that Vision and evolve it continuously in uncertain market and business conditions.
In this segment, we refer to the concept of VUCA: Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguity.
One pattern that emerges over and over again is that of the PO who is too busy to help the team succeed. In this episode, Christian shares his own story as a Product Owner, and what he learned about how to step out of the “too busy to help” anti-pattern.
Are you having trouble helping the team working well with their Product Owner? We’ve put together a course to help you work on the collaboration team-product owner. You can find it at: bit.ly/coachyourpo. 18 modules, 8+ hours of modules with tools and techniques that you can use to help teams and PO’s collaborate.
About Christian Hofstetter
Christian is an enthusiastic Release Train Engineer, Certified Professional Co-Active Coach, and Facilitator who started his agile journey as a Product Owner. Later he turned his back on technology and focused on people and relationships. He is passionate about creating space for people and teams to be the best they can be.
You can link with Christian Hofstetter on LinkedIn.
Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website.
Christian has been thinking hard about the question of what success means for Scrum Masters. He describes how the role of the Scrum Master must have a “risk” perspective, and be about minimizing risk. In this episode, we discuss what that may mean for Scrum Masters and what practices help with that goal.
Christian shares his idea on “The Flow Retrospective”, which describes and illustrates how Agile software development can help teams reach much higher productivity and predictability. In this retrospective, Christian helps the team analyze and understand flow metrics to help them make better decisions.
In this segment, we refer to Actionable agile metrics from Dan Vacanti and The #NoEstimates book by Vasco Duarte.
About Christian Hofstetter
Christian is an enthusiastic Release Train Engineer, Certified Professional Co-Active Coach, and Facilitator who started his agile journey as a Product Owner. Later he turned his back on technology and focused on people and relationships. He is passionate about creating space for people and teams to be the best they can be.
You can link with Christian Hofstetter on LinkedIn.
Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website.
In some organizations, the question that emerges over and over again is: “what’s the value a Scrum Master brings?”
As Scrum Masters, we must be ready to answer this question. Christian found inspiration in the work by Barry Overeem, Chris Verwijs (both previous guests on the podcast), and started to work with his colleagues in defining what an impactful and inspiring Scrum Master role would be at his company. Barry Overeem also published his own journey as a Scrum Master for us to read, and learn from.
About Christian Hofstetter
Christian is an enthusiastic Release Train Engineer, Certified Professional Co-Active Coach, and Facilitator who started his agile journey as a Product Owner. Later he turned his back on technology and focused on people and relationships. He is passionate about creating space for people and teams to be the best they can be.
You can link with Christian Hofstetter on LinkedIn.
Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website.
Christian was asked to step in and give his insights on how one team was performing. When he joined a Sprint Planning he saw “finger-pointing” and a culture of blame. When he looked deeper he found some of the patterns that were fostering that culture.
In this episode, we discuss some of the patterns that drive a blame culture.
In Reinventing Organizations by Frederic Laloux, Christian found an explanation that helped him understand how organizations change (and don’t), and what are the cultural models that influence organizations’ evolution. He also understood what “value systems” may help or hinder the change we hope to promote when working as Scrum Masters.
In this segment, we refer to the idea and model of Spiral Dynamics.
About Christian Hofstetter
Christian is an enthusiastic Release Train Engineer, Certified Professional Co-Active Coach, and Facilitator who started his agile journey as a Product Owner. Later he turned his back on technology and focused on people and relationships. He is passionate about creating space for people and teams to be the best they can be.
You can link with Christian Hofstetter on LinkedIn.
Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website.
Christian was working on an Agile transition, helping teams move from traditional project management to Scrum. As it usually happens, someone was trying to micro-manage and control the development team, after all, that’s the default situation in a project management culture. The team tried to push back, but that didn’t work. Christian took it up with the manager himself, confronting him with what was going on. At that time, Christian learned an important lesson: we have to stand for what we think is right.
In this episode, we talk about the book: Radical Candor by Kim Scott.
About Christian Hofstetter
Christian is an enthusiastic Release Train Engineer, Certified Professional Co-Active Coach, and Facilitator who started his agile journey as a Product Owner. Later he turned his back on technology and focused on people and relationships. He is passionate about creating space for people and teams to be the best they can be.
You can link with Christian Hofstetter on LinkedIn.
Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website.
From a Product Owner who spoke the same language as the team to the Product Owner that was absent, in this episode, we explore two patterns and the techniques Raphael used to help the team benefit from the Product Owner’s and stakeholder’s feedback.
In this segment, we talk about a manager that wanted to be involved, wanted to know what the team was working on, and was even able to “speak” SQL with the team. This is an example of how management can bring value to the team by providing insight and quick decisions.
Sometimes, we are given the task to work with a Product Owner that is absent. In this segment, we talk about how Raphael was able to work around that problem and involve the right person to have feedback and quick decisions for the team. A great story of how Scrum Masters can work with what is available, instead of complaining about what is not.
Are you having trouble helping the team working well with their Product Owner? We’ve put together a course to help you work on the collaboration team-product owner. You can find it at: bit.ly/coachyourpo. 18 modules, 8+ hours of modules with tools and techniques that you can use to help teams and PO’s collaborate.
About Raphael Branger
Raphael Branger is a Certified Disciplined Agile Practitioner and a pioneer in adapting agile methods in the context of data and analytics projects. He works as a Principal Consultant Data & Analytics at IT-Logix in Switzerland with more than seventeen years of experience in business intelligence and data warehousing.
You can link with Raphael Branger on LinkedIn and connect with Raphael Branger on Twitter.
Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website.
When we talk about success, we must also talk about what makes teams fail. In this episode, we talk about a common, yet often unresolved anti-pattern: producing software on time, but failing to provide business value for users and stakeholders.
In this episode, we explore Raphael’s approach to designing a way of working that focuses the team on Business Value at all times.
In this episode, we refer to the #NoEstimates book, as well as Raphael’s approach to defining and breaking down stories so that they fit the #NoEstimates heuristic of “one story, one day”.
In The Speed Car Retrospective (here’s’ another podcast episode referring to a different way to implement the Speed Car Retrospective), Raphael found a format that helps the team members verbalize what they “felt” during the Sprint, therefore focusing on underlying trends in the team’s performance, rather than only “the facts”.
About Raphael Branger
Raphael Branger is a Certified Disciplined Agile Practitioner and a pioneer in adapting agile methods in the context of data and analytics projects. He works as a Principal Consultant Data & Analytics at IT-Logix in Switzerland with more than seventeen years of experience in business intelligence and data warehousing.
You can link with Raphael Branger on LinkedIn and connect with Raphael Branger on Twitter.
Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website.
Raphael shares with us the largest change initiative he’s ever worked with: adopting Agile at his company, ITLogix, and in projects with his clients. We go through the deliberate steps he took, and how he built a learning organization first, and - using Scrum - helped his organization adopt Agile, and later move all projects to Agile even with clients that did not use Agile internally.
About Raphael Branger
Raphael Branger is a Certified Disciplined Agile Practitioner and a pioneer in adapting agile methods in the context of data and analytics projects. He works as a Principal Consultant Data & Analytics at IT-Logix in Switzerland with more than seventeen years of experience in business intelligence and data warehousing.
You can link with Raphael Branger on LinkedIn and connect with Raphael Branger on Twitter.
Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website.
When Raphael got started, many of his teams still had the back-end and front-end separation clearly visible, to the point of them being separate teams. Raphael found that, in Business Intelligence projects, that separation would cause communication gaps, and started investigating how to go about removing that gap. That led him to work in developing the concept of “generalizing specialists” for his organization, and he shares that process with us, with many tips on how to slowly, but deliberately move towards cross-skilled team members, and cross-functional teams.
In Agile Data Warehouse Design by Lawrence Core (check the book’s website), Raphael found an idea that helped him “see” how Agile could be adapted to work in Business Intelligence and Data projects. In the process of developing that idea, Raphael also found out how to involve users directly in the data modeling step, therefore benefiting from very early feedback.
In this segment, we also refer to the NoEstimates book by our podcast host Vasco Duarte.
About Raphael Branger
Raphael Branger is a Certified Disciplined Agile Practitioner and a pioneer in adapting agile methods in the context of data and analytics projects. He works as a Principal Consultant Data & Analytics at IT-Logix in Switzerland with more than seventeen years of experience in business intelligence and data warehousing.
You can link with Raphael Branger on LinkedIn and connect with Raphael Branger on Twitter.
Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website.
Raphael quickly realized that Agile could bring his organization a competitive advantage and help solve the problems he was facing in some of the projects he worked at. As he started to understand what being agile meant, however, he found that his initial focus (on the process) was detracting from his ability to learn quickly. In this episode, we cover Raphaeo’s personal transformation, from process to a completely new approach that has helped him continuously learn and improve the agility of his organization over the years.
In this segment, we refer to Raphael’s concept of Agile Business Intelligence Building Blocks, which helped him understand how to apply Agile to Business Intelligence projects.
About Raphael Branger
Raphael Branger is a Certified Disciplined Agile Practitioner and a pioneer in adapting agile methods in the context of data and analytics projects. He works as a Principal Consultant Data & Analytics at IT-Logix in Switzerland with more than seventeen years of experience in business intelligence and data warehousing.
You can link with Raphael Branger on LinkedIn and connect with Raphael Branger on Twitter.
Great Product Owners can engage the team, help them focus on the goals. But the PO’s role is not only about communicating, it is about creating a sense of a shared future. In this segment, we talk about how clear goals can help the team and the PO feel they are part of the team, and collaborate effectively.
Product Owners may try to dictate the focus and tasks to the team. When that happens, the team and PO start drifting apart. As Scrum Masters we must be aware of “how close” PO and team are so that we can tackle the distancing between them, and bring them together with techniques like shared goals, better Story writing techniques (e.g. Story Map), and other approaches.
[IMAGE HERE]Are you having trouble helping the team working well with their Product Owner? We’ve put together a course to help you work on the collaboration team-product owner. You can find it at: bit.ly/coachyourpo. 18 modules, 8+ hours of modules with tools and techniques that you can use to help teams and PO’s collaborate.
About Marianne Erickson
Always an enthusiastic Agilist, Marianne is proud to be a part of the Agile Transformation Team at AAA, a company that empowers its team members to learn, grow, empower, and do the right thing!
You can link with Marianne Erickson on LinkedIn and connect with Marianne Erickson on Twitter.
Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website.
Scrum Masters are tasked with facilitation responsibility, to help teams achieve their goals. In other words, Scrum Masters are successful when the teams are successful. This naturally focuses our work on finding and removing blockers, but there’s a technique that is especially helpful when working with teams to resolve blockers: innovate ways of working. In this segment, we talk about the role of innovation in helping teams succeed, and therefore in the success of our work as Scrum Masters.
Retrospectives are the place where the team reflects, and sometimes simulations like the Envelop Stuffing Game are excellent reflection triggers for the team. In this segment, we explore how Marianne used this game to help teams reflect on WIP limits, inventory, large batches, and collaboration.
About Marianne Erickson
Always an enthusiastic Agilist, Marianne is proud to be a part of the Agile Transformation Team at AAA, a company that empowers its team members to learn, grow, empower, and do the right thing!
You can link with Marianne Erickson on LinkedIn and connect with Marianne Erickson on Twitter.
Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website.
As Marianne worked through a long Agile transformation, she faced a very common pattern: the focus on velocity. A manager was constantly asking for the team’s velocity, and the Scrum Masters have to provide that information. That’s when the change started. Instead of augmenting against that behavior, the Scrum Masters explored why there was that need, and learned about why that manager was requesting that teams report their velocity. That understanding led to a deliberate change process that helped the teams, the organization, and that manager!
About Marianne Erickson
Always an enthusiastic Agilist, Marianne is proud to be a part of the Agile Transformation Team at AAA, a company that empowers its team members to learn, grow, empower, and do the right thing!
You can link with Marianne Erickson on LinkedIn and connect with Marianne Erickson on Twitter.
Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website.
Marianne joined a team that was forced to adopt Agile. That’s never an easy assignment, however, things got even worse. She started hearing comments like “Agile ruined my life!” What’s a Scrum Master to do in that situation? We explore how we can work teams that are stuck in the question “why should we adopt Agile?”.
As part of their interaction with Product Owners and teams, Scrum Masters often have to help facilitation User Story writing sessions. This book helped Marianne learn to think about the user experience. Don Norman’s The Design of Everyday Things, is a seminal book on user experience and usability.
About Marianne Erickson
Always an enthusiastic Agilist, Marianne is proud to be a part of the Agile Transformation Team at AAA, a company that empowers its team members to learn, grow, empower, and do the right thing!
You can link with Marianne Erickson on LinkedIn and connect with Marianne Erickson on Twitter.
Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website.
As Marianne joined this team, she was surprised by the separation between different skills. Working with Product Owner for that team, she then found out that the expectation was that the Scrum Master “become” a project manager and manage siloed functional teams. She learned an important lesson for Scrum Masters: what to do when the work of the Scrum Master is understood as Project Manager
About Marianne Erickson
Always an enthusiastic Agilist, Marianne is proud to be a part of the Agile Transformation Team at AAA, a company that empowers its team members to learn, grow, empower, and do the right thing!
You can link with Marianne Erickson on LinkedIn and connect with Marianne Erickson on Twitter.