Troy, in this Agile Uprising podcast episode, delves into his intriguing journey in the realm of forecasting and estimation for software development. Inspired by that episode, we discuss the concept of Gambler's Ruin, a mathematical problem turned into a game. Troy shares the main insights from Gambler’s Ruin and mentions Prateek Singh of ProKanban.org who has used this concept to demonstrate that even a slight skill advantage can lead to success when focusing product development on what Troy calls “Small Bets”
Small bets relate to the implications of spending money on a product idea. It's not just an expense; it's an investment with an anticipated return on investment (ROI). The crucial question arises: how do we strategically place these bets in product development? Here, Troy exposes the fallacy of assuming we can determine value upfront. We also discuss the concept of anti-fragility and highlight how many processes are inadvertently designed to be fragile. In this context, the size of the bet correlates with cycle time, and "time" itself becomes the bet's magnitude. As Annie Duke advocates in her book "Thinking in Bets," small bets bolster resilience, while large bets can lead to vulnerability.
How do we know we are making small bets? Troy sheds light on the pivotal flow metrics that software development teams should diligently track. He explains the relationship between Work In Progress (WIP) and cycle time, referring to Little's law formula. And he introduces work item age as a metric that can help predict WIP and Cycle time, which gives teams a tangible representation of their current investment. This metric aids in decision-making and fosters a more effective approach to forecasting.
In the podcast, Troy advocates for a paradigm shift in prioritization practices. He highlights that the more time spent prioritizing work, the larger the bet size (planning time directly affects bet size). Drawing from the wisdom of Don Reinertsen and the principles outlined in the book "Principles of Product Development Flow," he stresses the intrinsic cost associated with all work undertaken. Aligning individuals and teams on priorities is essential, yet the priority itself may hold uncertainty.
To aid teams in this endeavor, Troy discusses the Weighted Shortest Job First (WSJF) framework, and how it offers a pragmatic approach to prioritize tasks based on contributing factors. However, prioritization is directly affected by dependencies, which means that eliminating dependencies becomes a critical step towards making smaller, more manageable bets. For example, by segregating dependencies, teams can significantly reduce bet sizes and enhance predictability.
In this episode, Troy elucidates how conventional prioritization techniques can inadvertently hinder forecasting and predictability. He provides insights into alternative approaches that foster adaptability and more accurate forecasts.
For those eager to dive deeper into the world of Agile metrics and predictability, Troy recommends Dan Vacanti's book, "Actionable Agile Metrics for Predictability," as an invaluable resource.
About Troy Lightfoot
Troy is a Lean Product Development Coach and trainer for ProKanban.Org. He coaches and trains Scrum, Kanban, and SAFe and other Agile Scaling approaches. Troy transitioned from computer science to full-time Agile coaching, specializing in Lean Portfolio and Program Management. He is also a co-founder of the Agile Uprising Podcast, and an active blogger. For further insights into Troy's work and methodologies, visit ProKanbanTraining.com and explore the Agile Uprising podcast. Additionally, you can delve deeper into Troy's teachings at ProKanban.org.
Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.
In this episode, Tom highlights anti-patterns like a lack of trust in the team's judgment and over-explanation of implementation details. Tom offers a valuable tip of using stories to illustrate the distinction between "how" and "why" for effective communication. He underscores the importance of clearly defining Acceptance Criteria (ACs) while avoiding dictating the solution's appearance. Tom also emphasizes the need for coaching efforts directed towards the team's understanding and collaboration, demonstrating the reciprocal nature of the Product Owner role.
Tom delves into the nuances of an effective Product Owner (PO). Tom shares a cautionary tale of a PO's performance shift after changing teams, emphasizing the importance of aligning behavior with team needs. He advises against expecting uniformity and highlights the role of self-awareness in fostering an environment of growth and effectiveness. He emphasizes the need to adapt PO behaviors between different teams, underscoring the need for refined communication. Prioritization, a crucial aspect, is explored in depth.
[IMAGE HERE] Are you having trouble helping the team work 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 Tom Siebeneicher
Tom is an engaging speaker, who has delivered presentations at conferences like the Atos DREAM Conference, the Agile Leadership Day, and TED XKE by Xebia. Their enthusiasm for discussing Agile is evident in those talks.
You can link with Tom Siebeneicher 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: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.
In this episode, we explore Tom’s thoughts on the factors for Scrum Master success. He emphasizes the importance of team members feeling safe to share impediments and the prompt resolution of such issues. Tom encourages actions that promote collaboration and the consistent identification of impediments. He advises a perpetual drive for improvement and stresses the necessity of measuring progress. Tom underlines the need for a space where honesty and constructive criticism can be part of the team dynamics to ensure continuous growth and success in the Scrum Master role.
Tom shares his preferred Agile retrospective format, emphasizing the increased impact of being physically together in one room. He advocates for a simple start/stop/continue approach, focusing not only on the retro itself but also on the moments leading up to it. Tom underscores the importance of observing non-verbal cues to gauge team dynamics and potential pressure points. For remote retrospectives, he advises a thorough check-in with each participant. He stresses the significance of verbally setting the scene, considering it a critical aspect of a successful retrospective.
[IMAGE HERE] Retrospectives, planning sessions, vision workshops, we are continuously helping teams learn about how to collaborate in practice! In this Actionable Agile Tools book, Jeff Campbell shares some of the tools he’s learned over a decade of coaching Agile Teams. The pragmatic coaching book you need, right now! Buy Actionable Agile Tools on Amazon, or directly from the author, and supercharge your facilitation toolbox!
About Tom Siebeneicher
Tom is an engaging speaker, who has delivered presentations at conferences like the Atos DREAM Conference, the Agile Leadership Day, and TED XKE by Xebia. Their enthusiasm for discussing Agile is evident in those talks.
You can link with Tom Siebeneicher 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: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.
Tom explores the process of change management when adopting Scrum. He shares some of the lessons he’s learned over the years, emphasizing the importance of understanding the "why" behind the change and garnering leadership support. Tom advocates for open communication through town hall meetings and QA sessions, fostering knowledge acquisition. He highlights the significance of individual empowerment and addresses the limitations of change capacity for teams and organizations. Tom offers a valuable tip to assess if teams are adopting change willingly or being pressured, underscoring the need to gauge the optimal pace of change adoption. In this episode, we refer to the Lean Change Management framework for effective implementation, which is described in Jason Little’s book: Lean Change Management.
[IMAGE HERE] As Scrum Master we work with change continuously! Do you have your own change framework that provides the guidance, and queues you need when working with change? The Lean Change Management framework is a fully defined, lean-startup inspired change framework that can be used as the backbone of any change process! You can buy Lean Change Management the book at Amazon. Also available in French, Spanish, German and Portuguese.
About Tom Siebeneicher
Tom is an engaging speaker, who has delivered presentations at conferences like the Atos DREAM Conference, the Agile Leadership Day, and TED XKE by Xebia. Their enthusiasm for discussing Agile is evident in those talks.
You can link with Tom Siebeneicher 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: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.
Tom shares the story of a team that slowly drifted away from Scrum, and it’s values, but without noticing it themselves! The team followed the rituals, but their retrospectives pushed them aways from Agile and Scrum principles. The team inadvertently, and over time, adopted a waterfall approach. To avoid this in your teams, Tom advocates for digging into root causes instead of symptom-fixing. Eventually, Tom helped the team do a “scrum reset” which realigned the team, prompting a valuable tip: conduct resets every six months. Tom emphasizes double-loop learning, urging a focus on long-term improvement amidst day-to-day challenges.
Tom delves into the transformative impact of Eric Ries' "The Lean Startup." The book revolutionized his perspective on Minimum Viable Products (MVPs), emphasizing radical experimentation and learning over rigid planning. It liberated him from the constraints of plan-driven approaches, emphasizing the dynamic nature of execution. Tom underscores the criticality of continuous measurement and learning, a principle he now prioritizes in his approach. He shares valuable advice: never underestimate the power of measuring and learning in the pursuit of agile success.
[IMAGE HERE] Do you wish you had decades of experience? Learn from the Best Scrum Masters In The World, Today! The Tips from the Trenches - Scrum Master edition audiobook includes hours of audio interviews with SM’s that have decades of experience: from Mike Cohn to Linda Rising, Christopher Avery, and many more. Super-experienced Scrum Masters share their hard-earned lessons with you. Learn those today, make your teams awesome!
About Tom Siebeneicher
Tom is an engaging speaker, who has delivered presentations at conferences like the Atos DREAM Conference, the Agile Leadership Day, and TED XKE by Xebia. Their enthusiasm for discussing Agile is evident in those talks.
You can link with Tom Siebeneicher 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: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.
In this episode, Tom reflects on his experience as an Agile coach overseeing multiple Scrum teams. Initially observing signs of stress, he attempted a collective retrospective to address concerns. However, when it faltered, he realized that the team was struggling with deeper issues. Notably, key team members struggled to collaborate, leading to discomfort and communication blockers. Tom's hesitation to engage directly with these team members impacted the team's cohesion. He emphasizes the importance of fostering a safe environment for open dialogue and encourages connecting with the people in the team to enhance coaching effectiveness. Tom also shares some of the pivotal moments that influenced his coaching journey.
[IMAGE HERE] Recovering from failure, or difficult moments is a critical skill for Scrum Masters. Not only because of us, but also because the teams, and stakeholders we work with will also face these moments! We need inspiring stories to help them, and ourselves! The Bungsu Story, is an inspiring story by Marcus Hammarberg which shows how a Coach can help organizations recover even from the most disastrous situations! Learn how Marcus helped The Bungsu, a hospital in Indonesia, recover from near-bankruptcy, twice! Using Lean and Agile methods to rebuild an organization and a team! An inspiring story you need to know about! Buy the book on Amazon: The Bungsu Story - How Lean and Kanban Saved a Small Hospital in Indonesia. Twice. and Can Help You Reshape Work in Your Company.
About Tom Siebeneicher
Tom is an engaging speaker, who has delivered presentations at conferences like the Atos DREAM Conference, the Agile Leadership Day, and TED XKE by Xebia. Their enthusiasm for discussing Agile is evident in those talks.
You can link with Tom Siebeneicher 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: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.
In this segment, Toby discusses common anti-patterns associated with Product Owners (POs), particularly the issue of them treating their role as a part-time role. Many organizations assign PO responsibilities as a secondary task, causing problems like absenteeism during critical team interactions. This particular PO, who had a full-time job outside of their role, lacked both Agile and software development experience, along with emotional intelligence. The key takeaway was the importance of PO presence and engagement with the team, with a suggestion to have them spend a full day working alongside the team to improve collaboration.
In this segment, Toby discusses the qualities of a great Product Owner (PO). The exceptional PO he describes, was known for their easy collaboration with the team and their constant availability. The PO emphasized understanding before imposing their views and consistently approached discussions from the perspective of the key Personas for the product. The PO also encouraged the team to consider the system from the customer/user standpoint, this PO deeply comprehended the team's workflow, which made collaboration easy. Additionally, they recognized the efficiency of pre-refinement in the team's processes, and made the necessary adaptation to their own workflow.
[IMAGE HERE] Are you having trouble helping the team work 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 Toby Rao
Toby is an ICF-credentialed Coach and accredited IC Agile trainer, and practices as a certified Executive coach. With a dynamic Agile journey beginning in 2007, he's an active contributor to the global Agile community. He is based in Washington DC Metro, and speaks at Agile events worldwide and co-founded the A20 Agile conference. Toby also co-founded two thriving Agile meetups in the Washington DC area, with a combined 1300 members.
You can link with Toby Rao on LinkedIn and connect with Toby Rao 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: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.
In this episode, we discuss how to achieve true self-organization within the team. Toby’s perspective is that success is measured by several key factors, including active participation and engagement in daily standup meetings. Toby suggests we assess our success by observing if team members are paying attention, interacting with one another, and openly sharing solutions during these meetings.
Toby’s favorite retrospective format is the "4 L's retrospective," which stands for Liked, Learned, Lacked, and Longed for. In this segment, he highlights its effectiveness in generating ideas, with a particular emphasis on the "learned" component. Toby stressed the importance of continuous learning for both himself and his team, making it a central theme in his retrospectives. The format encourages sharing valuable learning moments and contributes to the team's growth and improvement.
[IMAGE HERE] Retrospectives, planning sessions, vision workshops, we are continuously helping teams learn about how to collaborate in practice! In this Actionable Agile Tools book, Jeff Campbell shares some of the tools he’s learned over a decade of coaching Agile Teams. The pragmatic coaching book you need, right now! Buy Actionable Agile Tools on Amazon, or directly from the author, and supercharge your facilitation toolbox!
About Toby Rao
Toby is an ICF-credentialed Coach and accredited IC Agile trainer, and practices as a certified Executive coach. With a dynamic Agile journey beginning in 2007, he's an active contributor to the global Agile community. He is based in Washington DC Metro, and speaks at Agile events worldwide and co-founded the A20 Agile conference. Toby also co-founded two thriving Agile meetups in the Washington DC area, with a combined 1300 members.
You can link with Toby Rao on LinkedIn and connect with Toby Rao 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: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.
In this episode, Toby talks about a team whose burndown chart resembled a cliff, indicating possible problems in the way they managed their sprints. The team was essentially following a mini-waterfall approach, with stories remaining open until the last two days of the sprint. Toby realized the need for change and emphasized the importance of observing what's happening beyond the team's actions. He acknowledged that change couldn't happen overnight and worked with the team to break down stories for better progress transparency. But that wasn’t an easy process! Toby shares how he got the team from “you are criticizing us” to having the team take ownership of their process and make the necessary changes.
[IMAGE HERE] As Scrum Master we work with change continuously! Do you have your own change framework that provides the guidance, and queues you need when working with change? The Lean Change Management framework is a fully defined, lean-startup inspired change framework that can be used as the backbone of any change process! You can buy Lean Change Management the book at Amazon. Also available in French, Spanish, German and Portuguese.
About Toby Rao
Toby is an ICF-credentialed Coach and accredited IC Agile trainer, and practices as a certified Executive coach. With a dynamic Agile journey beginning in 2007, he's an active contributor to the global Agile community. He is based in Washington DC Metro, and speaks at Agile events worldwide and co-founded the A20 Agile conference. Toby also co-founded two thriving Agile meetups in the Washington DC area, with a combined 1300 members.
You can link with Toby Rao on LinkedIn and connect with Toby Rao 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: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.
In this episode, Toby shares his experience working with a once high-performing team that faced challenges after a leadership change and the introduction of new team members. The established team members, deeply bonded, struggled to share information with the newcomers who questioned team practices. The team found itself stuck in the "storming" phase of development, with trust being a significant issue. Toby emphasized the importance of creating new working agreements when a team undergoes significant changes and promoting collaboration with a "yes, and" approach. He highlighted the need for trust-building interventions, engaging retrospectives, celebrating small successes, and conducting 1-on-1 conversations to address the trust imbalance and improve team dynamics.
In this episode, we refer to the Tuckman Stages Of Group Development and TastyCupcakes.org.
In Toby's discussion about his favorite book, "Atomic Habits" by James Clear, he highlighted how the book transformed his perspective. He successfully encouraged team members and friends to read it by emphasizing its approach to change. The book's principle of breaking down significant changes into small daily habits resonated with Toby. It underscored the idea that consistent small actions can result in substantial transformations. Toby also mentioned how the book influenced his coaching style, particularly by suggesting the effective question, "What's your plan to solve that problem?" It emphasized the power of incremental changes and thoughtful problem-solving strategies.
[IMAGE HERE] Do you wish you had decades of experience? Learn from the Best Scrum Masters In The World, Today! The Tips from the Trenches - Scrum Master edition audiobook includes hours of audio interviews with SM’s that have decades of experience: from Mike Cohn to Linda Rising, Christopher Avery, and many more. Super-experienced Scrum Masters share their hard-earned lessons with you. Learn those today, make your teams awesome!
About Toby Rao
Toby is an ICF-credentialed Coach and accredited IC Agile trainer, and practices as a certified Executive coach. With a dynamic Agile journey beginning in 2007, he's an active contributor to the global Agile community. He is based in Washington DC Metro, and speaks at Agile events worldwide and co-founded the A20 Agile conference. Toby also co-founded two thriving Agile meetups in the Washington DC area, with a combined 1300 members.
You can link with Toby Rao on LinkedIn and connect with Toby Rao 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: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.
In this episode, Toby shares his experience of working with a team in this transition. Toby emphasized the importance of addressing the initial challenges, including stakeholder engagement and logistics. He highlights the need to overcome mindset barriers within the organization. Key takeaways from this conversation include: the importance of seeking to understand before being understood, helping others grasp the team's needs, involving leads and stakeholders from other teams to identify blockers, and being open to negotiation for the team's success. Ultimately, creating shared understanding and transparency led to successful collaboration.
In this episode, we refer to the Tuckman Stages Of Group Development.
[IMAGE HERE] Recovering from failure, or difficult moments is a critical skill for Scrum Masters. Not only because of us, but also because the teams, and stakeholders we work with will also face these moments! We need inspiring stories to help them, and ourselves! The Bungsu Story, is an inspiring story by Marcus Hammarberg which shows how a Coach can help organizations recover even from the most disastrous situations! Learn how Marcus helped The Bungsu, a hospital in Indonesia, recover from near-bankruptcy, twice! Using Lean and Agile methods to rebuild an organization and a team! An inspiring story you need to know about! Buy the book on Amazon: The Bungsu Story - How Lean and Kanban Saved a Small Hospital in Indonesia. Twice. and Can Help You Reshape Work in Your Company.
About Toby Rao
Toby is an ICF-credentialed Coach and accredited IC Agile trainer, and practices as a certified Executive coach. With a dynamic Agile journey beginning in 2007, he's an active contributor to the global Agile community. He is based in Washington DC Metro, and speaks at Agile events worldwide and co-founded the A20 Agile conference. Toby also co-founded two thriving Agile meetups in the Washington DC area, with a combined 1300 members.
You can link with Toby Rao on LinkedIn and connect with Toby Rao 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: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.
Squirrel delves into the misconception that outsourcing engineers overseas automatically leads to cost reduction in software organizations. He explains that while the salary expenses might be lower for offshore teams, other costs come into play.
He illustrates the situation with an example involving two tech teams, one located onshore in California, USA, and the other in India. The Indian team had one quarter the salary of the onshore team, prompting the question of why the more expensive US engineers are retained. The discussion highlights the importance of evaluating the genuine costs of offshoring beyond just salaries. Additionally, Squirrel raises the question of which team is more productive and points out the time zone difference as a significant factor impacting communication and coordination.
Surprisingly, when the overall costs are tallied, they often don't exhibit a substantial difference due to various expenses that often get ignored. The aspect of speed of delivery is also examined, and the suggestion is made to have a local representative support the outsourced team to facilitate smoother communication. Beyond the operational costs, we also talk about how difficult it is to maintain effective communication between teams, and the cost of frequent international travel.
Squirrel emphasizes the necessity of having experienced individuals in the offshore team, highlighting that it’s even more important to hire very senior people in offshore teams. We also discuss how hard it is to find accommodation for senior engineers that move to the offshore locations.
Squirrel delves into the patterns that can enhance the effectiveness of offshoring. The concept of near shoring is introduced, especially when there are significant challenges in finding talent close to the headquarters.
The discussion then pivots to the importance of team organization for offshoring success. The idea of cross-functional teams or feature teams is introduced as an effective approach. Squirrel references FeatureTeams.org, emphasizing that these teams possess the flexibility to work on any feature, thereby minimizing communication dependencies.
A strategy to integrate feature teams across regions is presented through the "ambassador pattern," which involves designated individuals who bridge the communication gaps between teams in different locations.
We also discuss how to optimize communication and resources for remote teams. Squirrel introduces the notion that outsourcing and offshoring may be a possible solution to solve the talent problem by tapping into global talent pools. He offers practical tips, such as conducting all meetings online and making it a rule to always include offshore team members. Creating opportunities for "osmotic communication" – the exchange of information through casual interactions – is suggested as a means to foster team cohesion across distances.
The episode concludes with a list of recommended resources for further exploration. These include Stack Overflow’s own experience about fully remote work, Squirrel's own website (DouglasSquirrel.com), Team Topologies (a topic which has been presented on the podcast by its authors Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais), the FeatureTeams.org website, and the virtual office platform Sococo.
Throughout the conversation, Squirrel provides insights into the complexities of offshoring, shedding light on the multifaceted considerations that impact its success. From cost evaluation to effective team organization and communication strategies, the episode offers a comprehensive overview of the nuances surrounding offshore software development teams.
About Douglas Squirrel
Squirrel has been coding for more than forty years and has led software teams for twenty. He uses the power of conversations to create dramatic productivity gains in technology organisations of all sizes. Squirrel’s experience includes growing software teams as a CTO in startups from fintech to biotech to music, and everything in between. He lives in Frogholt, England, in a timber-framed cottage built in the year 1450.
You can link with Douglas Squirrel on LinkedIn and connect with Douglas Squirrel on his website.
Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.
In this episode, Seye highlights a remarkable product owner with a background as a Scrum Master. Her calm demeanor and willingness to experiment, even without a clear endpoint, stood out. She actively engaged in collaborative experimentation, asking "Can we try this?" and collectively defining and learning from experiments with the team. This experimental mindset contributed to her effectiveness as a Product Owner. Moreover, she adeptly interacted with all team members and had the valuable skill of calming down heated discussions.
In this episode, Seye discusses the disengaged Product Owner (PO) anti-pattern. He underscores the significant impact of PO engagement on performance, highlighting the necessity for their active involvement in discussions that lead to clarity. Other anti-patterns include treating the backlog as a simple "to do list" and having insufficiently detailed backlog items (DEEP Backlog) for prioritization and estimation. These issues stem from diverse causes, such as organizational oversight of product ownership. Seye suggests assisting POs in understanding their role, offering guidance to rectify these patterns and enhance their effectiveness in Agile teams.
[IMAGE HERE] Are you having trouble helping the team work 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 Seye Kuyinu
Seye has been a Scrum Master for about a decade now. He first connected to Agile, frustrated with the lack of adequate communication that plagues traditional complex projects. He finds People and Interactions over Processes & Tools cannot be overstated, while seeing that everything is a fractal- our individual, team, organization and societal challenges are the very same. The solution in every layer is the same- an understanding of ONENESS!
You can link with Seye Kuyinu on LinkedIn and connect with Seye Kuyinu 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: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.
In this episode, Seye delves into his multi-layered perspective on success as a Scrum Master. Firstly, he emphasizes understanding success from the perspective of those he serves, suggesting collaboration to define it. He also sees success in terms of "working software" and advises teams to contextualize its meaning. Seye underscores the human aspect of product development and references the concept of "making people awesome" from Modern Agile. He encourages Scrum Masters to align with their personal values and live them out, adding depth to their success definition in the agile context.
In this episode, Seye introduces his preferred retrospective formats, starting with "temperature mapping." Using tools like MURAL, this format encourages team members to share their emotions throughout the sprint. Another favorite is the "Sailboat retrospective," employing visuals to stimulate discussion. Seye also advocates for a "futurespective" using storytelling, where teams envision the future. These formats foster open communication, engagement, and forward thinking, enhancing the retrospective experience and driving improvements in the team's agile process.
[IMAGE HERE] Retrospectives, planning sessions, vision workshops, we are continuously helping teams learn about how to collaborate in practice! In this Actionable Agile Tools book, Jeff Campbell shares some of the tools he’s learned over a decade of coaching Agile Teams. The pragmatic coaching book you need, right now! Buy Actionable Agile Tools on Amazon, or directly from the author, and supercharge your facilitation toolbox!
About Seye Kuyinu
Seye has been a Scrum Master for about a decade now. He first connected to Agile, frustrated with the lack of adequate communication that plagues traditional complex projects. He finds People and Interactions over Processes & Tools cannot be overstated, while seeing that everything is a fractal- our individual, team, organization and societal challenges are the very same. The solution in every layer is the same- an understanding of ONENESS!
You can link with Seye Kuyinu on LinkedIn and connect with Seye Kuyinu 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: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.
In this episode, Seye delves into change leadership within an organization facing team cohesion challenges. He highlights the initial step of process assessment and the impact of conflicting factions within a team. The breakdown of processes led to differing interpretations of the team's goals. Seye references Arlo Belshee's work in Agile Engineering Fluency (detailed map here), and suggests establishing work agreements, visualizing the change process, and securing buy-in for effective change. He underscores the importance of collective ownership of change and introduces the idea of a team coaching canvas to facilitate progress. The episode emphasizes collaborative change leadership to address team dynamics and process issues.
[IMAGE HERE] As Scrum Master we work with change continuously! Do you have your own change framework that provides the guidance, and queues you need when working with change? The Lean Change Management framework is a fully defined, lean-startup inspired change framework that can be used as the backbone of any change process! You can buy Lean Change Management the book at Amazon. Also available in French, Spanish, German and Portuguese.
About Seye Kuyinu
Seye has been a Scrum Master for about a decade now. He first connected to Agile, frustrated with the lack of adequate communication that plagues traditional complex projects. He finds People and Interactions over Processes & Tools cannot be overstated, while seeing that everything is a fractal- our individual, team, organization and societal challenges are the very same. The solution in every layer is the same- an understanding of ONENESS!
You can link with Seye Kuyinu on LinkedIn and connect with Seye Kuyinu 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: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.
In this episode, Seye discusses an organization's journey towards creating value streams and aligning teams accordingly. They adopted the approach of taking teams to the work rather than the reverse. This involved setting up teams for new features, but the structure changed after a few months, leading to reassigning team members. Seye refers to the Tuckman's stages of group development to highlight the transitional nature of teams. In this episode, we also discuss how important it is to focus on setting up a robust infrastructure to make it possible to dynamically reconfigure teams, underlining the importance of adaptability in Agile environments.
Seye's recommended book for Scrum Masters is "The Three Marriages: Reimagining Work, Self and Relationship" by David Whyte. The book explores reimagining work and relationships, emphasizing the need for a holistic view rather than strict work-life balance. Another impactful read is “Extraordinarily Badass Agile Coaching: The Journey from Beginner to Mastery and Beyond” by Bob Galen, which transformed Seye's coaching approach. He suggests adapting language to the audience, shifting from software development jargon to business terminology. Seye advocates speaking the language of those being served, aligning communication for more effective collaboration.
[IMAGE HERE] Do you wish you had decades of experience? Learn from the Best Scrum Masters In The World, Today! The Tips from the Trenches - Scrum Master edition audiobook includes hours of audio interviews with SM’s that have decades of experience: from Mike Cohn to Linda Rising, Christopher Avery, and many more. Super-experienced Scrum Masters share their hard-earned lessons with you. Learn those today, make your teams awesome!
About Seye Kuyinu
Seye has been a Scrum Master for about a decade now. He first connected to Agile, frustrated with the lack of adequate communication that plagues traditional complex projects. He finds People and Interactions over Processes & Tools cannot be overstated, while seeing that everything is a fractal- our individual, team, organization and societal challenges are the very same. The solution in every layer is the same- an understanding of ONENESS!
You can link with Seye Kuyinu on LinkedIn and connect with Seye Kuyinu 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: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.
In this episode, Seye discusses a common anti-pattern that scrum masters can fall into, which involves not recognizing the distinction between Scrum practices and real-world situations. The organization Seye was working at had embraced Agile methodologies. However, Seye found some Agile adoption issues like never ending meetings, one-hour daily standups, and conflicts during sprint planning. Seye suggests refraining from commanding the team and emphasizes the importance of not imposing the daily stand-up. He reflects on his own experience of lacking context and merely following the Scrum guide. To address this, we discuss forming coaching agreements with teams to ensure mutual understanding and effective implementation of Agile principles. Seye underscores the need for practical adaptation rather than rigid adherence.
In this episode, we also refer to Holacracy, and the book Getting Things Done by David Allen.
[IMAGE HERE] Recovering from failure, or difficult moments is a critical skill for Scrum Masters. Not only because of us, but also because the teams, and stakeholders we work with will also face these moments! We need inspiring stories to help them, and ourselves! The Bungsu Story, is an inspiring story by Marcus Hammarberg which shows how a Coach can help organizations recover even from the most disastrous situations! Learn how Marcus helped The Bungsu, a hospital in Indonesia, recover from near-bankruptcy, twice! Using Lean and Agile methods to rebuild an organization and a team! An inspiring story you need to know about! Buy the book on Amazon: The Bungsu Story - How Lean and Kanban Saved a Small Hospital in Indonesia. Twice. and Can Help You Reshape Work in Your Company.
About Seye Kuyinu
Seye has been a Scrum Master for about a decade now. He first connected to Agile, frustrated with the lack of adequate communication that plagues traditional complex projects. He finds People and Interactions over Processes & Tools cannot be overstated, while seeing that everything is a fractal- our individual, team, organization and societal challenges are the very same. The solution in every layer is the same- an understanding of ONENESS!
You can link with Seye Kuyinu on LinkedIn and connect with Seye Kuyinu 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: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.
In this segment, Khwezi highlights an exceptional Product Owner (PO) she collaborated with. The PO possessed a deep understanding of the product's market, customers, and business context, enabling her to continuously update the product effectively. She exhibited excellent teamwork despite the distributed nature of the team, showing awareness of diverse cultures. Her proficiency in user story mapping facilitated smoother processes, including onboarding new team members. Overall, the PO's comprehensive grasp of the product's ecosystem and her collaborative skills stood out as instrumental in driving the team's success.
While POs typically hold respected roles with authority over the product backlog, some misuse this status, behaving as if superior to the team. Often from management, such POs pose various challenges, including not being available often enough when the teams need their presence. Scrum Masters play a role in educating POs, advising team lift-offs to define roles, and coaching the POs to be active team participants. Khwezi emphasizes the Scrum Master's mediation role, and we discuss the “Coach Your PO e-course” which aims to help Scrum Masters have an effective PO collaboration.
[IMAGE HERE] Are you having trouble helping the team work 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 Khwezi Mputa
Khwezi is an experienced Agile coach, trainer, and IT professional since 2008. With diverse roles like Scrum Master, Agile Project Manager, and Business Analyst, she's active in the Agile community, promoting diversity. Passionate about teaching, she empowers individuals and organizations to reach their full potential through coaching and mentoring.
You can link with Khwezi Mputa 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: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.
In this episode, Khwezi emphasizes empowering teams over personal recognition. She highlights the importance of informing and involving stakeholders and sponsors, using a coaching backlog as a valuable tool. This backlog aids in feedback provision, achievement tracking, and maintaining focus. It also visually represents the team's journey. Khwezi acknowledges the challenge of conveying intangible scrum master efforts to sponsors and recommends visual tools like MURAL for clarity. Her insights encourage fostering empowerment and sharing impact beyond tangible metrics, reflecting her holistic approach to effective scrum mastering.
In the episode, Khwezi introduces “The Movie Critic” retrospective, a creative approach to retrospectives using movies. By asking the team to liken their experience to a movie genre, such as action or drama, they delve into struggles and reasons behind their choices. The question "do you recommend this movie?" prompts reflection. Utilizing tools like MURAL enhances the process, and Khwezi advises encouraging additional sharing to ensure comprehensive insights are captured. This cinematic retrospective technique offers an engaging way to explore team challenges and insights collaboratively.
[IMAGE HERE] Retrospectives, planning sessions, vision workshops, we are continuously helping teams learn about how to collaborate in practice! In this Actionable Agile Tools book, Jeff Campbell shares some of the tools he’s learned over a decade of coaching Agile Teams. The pragmatic coaching book you need, right now! Buy Actionable Agile Tools on Amazon, or directly from the author, and supercharge your facilitation toolbox!
About Khwezi Mputa
Khwezi is an experienced Agile coach, trainer, and IT professional since 2008. With diverse roles like Scrum Master, Agile Project Manager, and Business Analyst, she's active in the Agile community, promoting diversity. Passionate about teaching, she empowers individuals and organizations to reach their full potential through coaching and mentoring.
You can link with Kwhezi Mputa 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: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.
Khwezi shared insights from an Agile transformation journey involving collaboration between Agile coaches and the Human Resources department HR business partners. They recognized overlap in their responsibilities and merged into a cohesive team. Challenges surfaced through joint meetings, leading to the realization that their work needed to be aligned. They adopted the SPINE model for effective change, emphasizing starting with the "need" for change. Co-facilitation and shared knowledge enhanced their efforts. To bridge communication gaps, HR partners were encouraged to attend Agile bootcamps. Khwezi emphasized the universality of Agile principles, advocating for their application beyond IT teams, and promoting tool-sharing for wider team benefits.
[IMAGE HERE] As Scrum Master we work with change continuously! Do you have your own change framework that provides the guidance, and queues you need when working with change? The Lean Change Management framework is a fully defined, lean-startup inspired change framework that can be used as the backbone of any change process! You can buy Lean Change Management the book at Amazon. Also available in French, Spanish, German and Portuguese.
About Khwezi Mputa
Khwezi is an experienced Agile coach, trainer, and IT professional since 2008. With diverse roles like Scrum Master, Agile Project Manager, and Business Analyst, she's active in the Agile community, promoting diversity. Passionate about teaching, she empowers individuals and organizations to reach their full potential through coaching and mentoring.
You can link with Kwhezi Mputa 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: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.
In this episode, Khwezi discusses a challenging team scenario where great individuals struggled due to high-pressure dynamics and dysfunctional patterns. The Product Owner lacked decision-making authority, leading to delayed information and a proxy PO situation. This pressure caused scope creep and hindered technical debt management. Khwezi highlighted the importance of empowering the team to push back against excessive demands, coaching the PO to engage stakeholders effectively, and ensuring the right person fills the PO role. Addressing these issues was crucial for improving the product and fostering a healthier team dynamic.
If you need to support your Product Owner, we’ve created a course for you. You can access the Coach Your PO e-course here.
In this segment, Khwezi shares her recommended book, "Coaching Agile Teams" by Lyssa Adkins, which played a pivotal role in her self-improvement journey as a scrum master. This book provided valuable insights into guiding teams toward high performance. Khwezi emphasized using the Agile coaching competency framework and suggested self-assessment based on it. This framework led her to discover additional paths for growth. The book also highlighted the importance of exploring diverse topics to enhance skills. She mentioned the "Periodic Table of Scrum Master's Competencies" as a useful resource for understanding various skills enhancement facets.
[IMAGE HERE] Do you wish you had decades of experience? Learn from the Best Scrum Masters In The World, Today! The Tips from the Trenches - Scrum Master edition audiobook includes hours of audio interviews with SM’s that have decades of experience: from Mike Cohn to Linda Rising, Christopher Avery, and many more. Super-experienced Scrum Masters share their hard-earned lessons with you. Learn those today, make your teams awesome!
About Khwezi Mputa
Khwezi is an experienced Agile coach, trainer, and IT professional since 2008. With diverse roles like Scrum Master, Agile Project Manager, and Business Analyst, she's active in the Agile community, promoting diversity. Passionate about teaching, she empowers individuals and organizations to reach their full potential through coaching and mentoring.
Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.
Khwezi shares her challenges as a scrum master within a pressure-filled environment marked by discrimination. Recognizing her role as a team supporter, she confronts unemployment fears and ventures beyond her comfort zone. This shift motivated her to aim for helping teams be self-sufficient, empowering team members to thrive after her departure. Her story highlights the value of adaptation, risk-taking, and nurturing positive team dynamics.
[IMAGE HERE] Recovering from failure, or difficult moments is a critical skill for Scrum Masters. Not only because of us, but also because the teams, and stakeholders we work with will also face these moments! We need inspiring stories to help them, and ourselves! The Bungsu Story, is an inspiring story by Marcus Hammarberg which shows how a Coach can help organizations recover even from the most disastrous situations! Learn how Marcus helped The Bungsu, a hospital in Indonesia, recover from near-bankruptcy, twice! Using Lean and Agile methods to rebuild an organization and a team! An inspiring story you need to know about! Buy the book on Amazon: The Bungsu Story - How Lean and Kanban Saved a Small Hospital in Indonesia. Twice. and Can Help You Reshape Work in Your Company.
About Khwezi Mputa
Khwezi is an experienced Agile coach, trainer, and IT professional since 2008. With diverse roles like Scrum Master, Agile Project Manager, and Business Analyst, she's active in the Agile community, promoting diversity. Passionate about teaching, she empowers individuals and organizations to reach their full potential through coaching and mentoring.
Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.
Ian's journey from journalism to becoming a Scrum Master is a testament to his adaptable mindset and persistence. His transition stemmed from a unique start; he secured his first job due to his fast typing skills and a desire to meet Peter Jennings. Ian's persistence in seeking a meeting with Jennings honed his tenacity. The introduction to the Scrum Master role came through recognizing the news industry's agile, continuous delivery setup. Despite challenges, like sending out 400 resumes for just 3 interviews and a job offer, Ian's honesty on his resume and his ability to relate his existing skills to the software field were pivotal. In interviews, he remained coachable, acknowledged his learning curve, and emphasized genuine interest in others. He underlines the importance of not striving to be the smartest person in the room, instead focusing on collaboration and curiosity.
Becoming a Scrum Master has brought about significant changes and personal growth for Ian. Inspired by Jeff Sutherland's book "The Art Of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time," he realized the value of efficiency. Transitioning from TV News, where deadlines were paramount, he leveraged his experience to provide leadership to his team. Ian's principles and vision became guiding forces, focusing on extracting the best from individuals and incorporating it into the work. He emphasized stepping back to allow the team to shine and maximizing their value without personal dominance. His journey exemplifies transformation through collaborative leadership and value-driven mindset.
Launching new teams is a crucial process that Ian has garnered valuable insights from. Key lessons involve the necessity of team formation events, despite potential resistance from upper management. Addressing this as a communal effort, Ian suggests socializing the idea of team formation through specific activities. Four critical steps include creating a working agreement, establishing a workflow, defining a Definition of Ready (DoR), and a Definition of Done (DoD). These artifacts can aid in resolving conflicts. Ian recommends the book "Liftoff" by Diana Larsen and Ainsley Nies and advises using timeboxes to identify and address conflicts during team formation.
Addressing challenges faced by new teams in attaining maximum value from Scrum events, Ian shares insights and solutions. He recounts an NGO team's bureaucratic hurdles that hindered effective team startup events. Ian emphasizes the importance of focusing on delivering the essence of Scrum events and the Scrum Master's role in ensuring team value. He recalls an example where a team failed to update the board during the daily scrum, suggesting the live update approach to enhance visibility. He advises keeping work consistently on the board and centering the daily scrum on "done" work. Ian also recommends incorporating refinement into the workflow for improved outcomes.
Ian shares a transformative case study highlighting the impact of team formation. He joined a team of talented individuals struggling with teamwork. After obtaining buy-in for a startup event from his boss, the team's performance improved drastically. Shifting from completing 3 items per month to 22, Ian recommends focusing on metrics that emphasize "done" work. Addressing the challenge of team composition, having reliable contributors was vital. Open communication and transparent norms facilitated tough discussions. Challenges during formation included gaining buy-in from all stakeholders and addressing pushback from senior management. Ian emphasizes that while some individuals may be natural stars, teams require nurturing for success.
In this segment we refer to the OTOG mnemonic (One Team, One Goal) as a team effectiveness maximizing strategy. The One Team, One Goal approach is depicted in this blog post by Vasco Duarte.
About Ian McGrady
Ian McGrady started in IT as a co-founder and Junior Project Manager at Blue Lotus Systems Integration and Data Conversion. There he co-authored an internal book about project management. He has worked as a Scrum Master in wagering, banking and healthcare.
You can link with Ian McGrady 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: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.
In this episode, Zach highlights an exceptional Product Owner (PO) who showcased a unique blend of tactical and strategic prowess. This PO's deep care for the team was evident in their collaborative and engaging approach. They fostered open dialogue, valuing team input and seeing engineers as partners in solving problems. The PO's commitment to understanding stakeholder requests in-depth allowed them to effectively shield the team. Their transformative and protective actions were a testament to their collaborative leadership style, making them a beloved and effective bridge between stakeholders and the engineering team.
In this episode, Zach reflects on a challenging experience with a struggling Product Owner (PO). The PO's performance was hindered by environmental factors and burnout, leading to breakdowns in team collaboration and psychological safety. A lack of connection with the team and berating behavior adversely affected team morale and relationships. The adversarial atmosphere hindered healthy conflict resolution and led to self-sabotage. Zach shares valuable tips for improving such situations, emphasizing the importance of gauging safety for conversations, individual validation, and creating a secure space for difficult discussions. He underscores the potential for growth through acknowledging mistakes, highlighting that the PO eventually transformed into a sought-after collaborator through positive change.
[IMAGE HERE] Are you having trouble helping the team work 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 Zach Stone
Zach has worked as a process facilitator for over 17 years, as a specialist in behavioral science. He co-founded a firm that uses techniques to rebuild war zones for organizational dynamics. He has been an agilist for the past 7 years and was recently a speaker at the Global Scrum Conference. He lives in Santa Fe with his Wife and spends his time exploring canyons and trails.
You can link with Zach Stone 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: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.
In this episode, Zach discusses his evolving perspective on success as a Scrum Master. Initially valuing predictability, he now prioritizes the impact of Scrum events over strict adherence. He acknowledges the risk of losing sight of purpose when fixating on predictability and velocity. Shifting from an adherence mindset to a goal-oriented, customer-centric approach, Zach emphasizes the importance of clear product goals in boosting team motivation. Success, for him, is now defined by the meaningful impact achieved through Scrum events, aligning teams with overarching objectives and driving tangible results.
In this episode, Zach shares his preferred retrospective format, the "Rosebud and Thorn." He appreciates its simplicity and authenticity, as it prompts participants to share both positive and challenging aspects. The retrospective serves as a communication gauge for the team, revealing their dynamics and communication quality. Zach emphasizes the format's value in assessing team functioning throughout the sprint. Additionally, he advises adapting facilitation strategies for remote sessions, especially those lacking camera visibility, ensuring effective retrospectives regardless of the setting. The "Rosebud and Thorn" emerges as a powerful tool for insightful and meaningful reflections.
[IMAGE HERE] Retrospectives, planning sessions, vision workshops, we are continuously helping teams learn about how to collaborate in practice! In this Actionable Agile Tools book, Jeff Campbell shares some of the tools he’s learned over a decade of coaching Agile Teams. The pragmatic coaching book you need, right now! Buy Actionable Agile Tools on Amazon, or directly from the author, and supercharge your facilitation toolbox!
About Zach Stone
Zach has worked as a process facilitator for over 17 years, as a specialist in behavioral science. He co-founded a firm that uses techniques to rebuild war zones for organizational dynamics. He has been an agilist for the past 7 years and was recently a speaker at the Global Scrum Conference. He lives in Santa Fe with his Wife and spends his time exploring canyons and trails.
You can link with Zach Stone on LinkedIn.