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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
As Scrum Masters we need to understand the overall conditions that affect the teams we work with. Those teams are part of what we call the system. Jonathan asks 3 questions to help him understand the system, and how it may affect the teams he works with. Listen in to learn his three questions and how he applies them.
About Jonathan Fulton
Agile Coach, Scrum Master and former Developer who has applied Lean and Agile approaches in a variety of organisations and projects such as tickets and turnstiles at the London Olympics park, online gambling websites, and kids TV streaming to mobile devices.
You can link with Jonathan Fulton on LinkedIn and connect with Jonathan Fulton on Twitter.
As Scrum Masters we seek to help, support others, but also to reach a point where we are happy with our work and the results we get. That’s our success. Jonathan shares what he looks at when defining his successful contribution to the teams and organisations he works with. Jonathan takes 3 aspects into consideration when assessing his contribution. Listen in to learn more.
About Jonathan Fulton
Agile Coach, Scrum Master and former Developer who has applied Lean and Agile approaches in a variety of organisations and projects such as tickets and turnstiles at the London Olympics park, online gambling websites, and kids TV streaming to mobile devices.
You can link with Jonathan Fulton on LinkedIn and connect with Jonathan Fulton on Twitter.
Conversations are how we relate to the people around us. We connect, we discuss, we fight, but we also agree and come to a common course of action. All those aspects are critical in a change process. Jonathan explains how he uses conversations as a way to foster and support change over time. Listen in to learn about such a moment and how Jonathan used conversations in that specific moment to support the change process.
About Jonathan Fulton
Agile Coach, Scrum Master and former Developer who has applied Lean and Agile approaches in a variety of organisations and projects such as tickets and turnstiles at the London Olympics park, online gambling websites, and kids TV streaming to mobile devices.
You can link with Jonathan Fulton on LinkedIn and connect with Jonathan Fulton on Twitter.
One of the consequences of adopting Scrum is that many things that were previously hidden become visible. That’s not always an easy process, so many teams try to avoid that. In this episode we talk about such a team. That went from Scrum to Kanban to avoid the pain of transparency that Scrum brought in. Luckily Jonathan was keeping track of some of the key metrics for that team. Listen in to learn what happened.
About Jonathan Fulton
Agile Coach, Scrum Master and former Developer who has applied Lean and Agile approaches in a variety of organisations and projects such as tickets and turnstiles at the London Olympics park, online gambling websites, and kids TV streaming to mobile devices.
You can link with Jonathan Fulton on LinkedIn and connect with Jonathan Fulton on Twitter.
We’ve learned since early age that it is unwise to enrage the people around us. It probably started with our parents, and then we go to work and we want to keep that strategy: avoid conflict. But is it really wise to avoid conflict in a team? Listen in as Jonathan walks us through one such case, and the inevitable consequences.
About Jonathan Fulton
Agile Coach, Scrum Master and former Developer who has applied Lean and Agile approaches in a variety of organisations and projects such as tickets and turnstiles at the London Olympics park, online gambling websites, and kids TV streaming to mobile devices.
You can link with Jonathan Fulton on LinkedIn and connect with Jonathan Fulton on Twitter.
When working with organizations, we are part of facilitating the right aspects. Gunther asks us to facilitate the system, not the mechanics of the system. What that means for us as Scrum Masters will depend on the phase of transition the organization is in. Listen in to hear Gunther’s views on how to facilitate a system (not the mechanics of the system).
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.
Is your organization shifting to the left of the Agile Manifesto? Even if the minimal unit of success for the Scrum Master might be the team, and the Sprint. The overall goal for us should be to enable agility at the organizational level. How do we do that? Listen in on Gunther’s views on organizational change.
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.
Is Scrum a team framework? Gunther disagrees, and explains why he thinks that Scrum is fundamentally a framework for the whole organization. Maybe starting from the team (check out the upcoming BONUS episode with Gunther on this topic), but then it goes beyond. If we limit the role of the Scrum Master to the team, we are missing one of the largest contributions of Scrum to Agile organizations.
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.
As Scrum Masters we try to help our teams, and team members find their inner motivation. The intrinsic motivation that helps them grow and succeed. Gunther shares his views on where intrinsic motivation comes from. In this episode Gunther also covers self-organization and its impact and role for scrum teams.
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.
Gunther’s journey has taken him to very different places, but where he feels at homes is with teams. Helping teams reach their potential. Finding what drives him was a pivotal moment in his career and he shares his view of why that may also be an important realization for you.
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.
No, the title is not a joke. It is actually one of the topics we discuss in this episode. Think about it. Why would we want to be part of the stale, slow, burocratic navy when we can be a pirate and share the benefits of our work? This is a metaphor for many of our organizations where the team and we feel much more like in the navy instead of a self-directed, clearly organized, adaptable pirate ship. There’s only one problem: what happens if you start a small pirate ship in a large navy-like organization? That’s the Systems Thinking question we must answer for every Agile team will at some point be like that small Pirate ship surrounded by a large fleet of burocrats. How you tackle that situation will be critical for the survival of your team, and your own survival in that organization.
In this episode we refer to The New New Product Development Game by Takeuchi and Nonaka. We also refer to Jim Benson’s Why Plans Fail.
About Scott Seivwright
Scott works as Scrum Master, transformation lead and Agile coach. He is passionate about building great teams and create great places to work. He is interested in Agile, Management 3.0 and constantly looking for better ways of working.
You can link with Scott Seivwright on LinkedIn and connect with Scott Seivwright on Twitter.
What is our critical role in an organization? Help the team? Protect the team? Remove impediments? Surely you’ve heard of all of these being a critical role for the Scrum Master. But what if that’s not the case? What if the role of the Scrum Master is quite different from what you have been told thus far? Check out this episode to learn about what is the critical role of the Scrum Master according to Scott Seivwright.
About Scott Seivwright
Scott works as Scrum Master, transformation lead and Agile coach. He is passionate about building great teams and create great places to work. He is interested in Agile, Management 3.0 and constantly looking for better ways of working.
You can link with Scott Seivwright on LinkedIn and connect with Scott Seivwright on Twitter.