The Scrum Master’s role is primarily a role that serves the team. Without that presence, the teams suffer, and in this episode, we explore what might happen when the Scrum Master - eager to help the organization - focuses on the context, rather than the team.
About David Sabine
David is a Scrum trainer and an advisor to software development organizations. He is in demand among Canada’s largest enterprises including Scotiabank, Sun Life Financial, and Canada’s Federal Government. He formerly worked with DigitalOcean and Myplanet.com, among others. He’s been helping people with the ways they use Scrum since 2007.
You can link with David Sabine on LinkedIn and connect with David Sabine on Twitter.
National cultures affect the level of deference to hierarchy that is acceptable or expected in the organization. As Scrum Masters, we must be aware of that, as it will directly affect the behavior of team members. In this episode, we discuss the effect that the hierarchy-level in the organization can have, and how to slowly help team members find their way in that kind of cultures.
About Silvana Wasitova
Silvana Wasitova, Enterprise Agile Coach, helps teams and companies achieve better results through applying and living Agile values and principles. Scrum practitioner since 2005. Silvana lives and breathes the agile value of “People over Process”, and brings that to the forefront of her coaching work with teams and companies, while focused on the client’s audacious goals and desired results. Silvana has aided multinational enterprise Agile transformations in United States, UK, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Indonesia and Switzerland with clients including Yahoo, Nestle, Skype, Microsoft, financial enterprises as well as startups.
You can link with Silvana Wasitova on LinkedIn and connect with Silvana Wasitova on Twitter.
Silvana finds that many different possible formats can fit the teams we work with. She shares a resource (Retromat.Org) that helps us find ideas for new formats/exercises, and suggests a format that you can use this week: The Starfish Retrospective format.
About Silvana Wasitova
Silvana Wasitova, Enterprise Agile Coach, helps teams and companies achieve better results through applying and living Agile values and principles. Scrum practitioner since 2005. Silvana lives and breathes the agile value of “People over Process”, and brings that to the forefront of her coaching work with teams and companies, while focused on the client’s audacious goals and desired results. Silvana has aided multinational enterprise Agile transformations in United States, UK, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Indonesia and Switzerland with clients including Yahoo, Nestle, Skype, Microsoft, financial enterprises as well as startups.
You can link with Silvana Wasitova on LinkedIn and connect with Silvana Wasitova on Twitter.
As Scrum Masters, one of the key ingredients for our work to succeed is “permission”. Permission to do our work with the teams. Permission to help the team find new ways of working.
In this episode, Silvana shares the story of a team, how they were reluctant to give her permission at first, and how Silvana handled it, to the point where permission was finally granted.
About Silvana Wasitova
Silvana Wasitova, Enterprise Agile Coach, helps teams and companies achieve better results through applying and living Agile values and principles. Scrum practitioner since 2005. Silvana lives and breathes the agile value of “People over Process”, and brings that to the forefront of her coaching work with teams and companies, while focused on the client’s audacious goals and desired results. Silvana has aided multinational enterprise Agile transformations in United States, UK, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Indonesia and Switzerland with clients including Yahoo, Nestle, Skype, Microsoft, financial enterprises as well as startups.
You can link with Silvana Wasitova on LinkedIn and connect with Silvana Wasitova on Twitter.
In Coaching Agile Teams by Lyssa Adkins, Silvana found important lessons on how to engage with the teams, and how to change her mind about the role of a Coach or Scrum Master. Listen in to learn about the key lessons that book had for Silvana.
About Silvana Wasitova
Silvana Wasitova, Enterprise Agile Coach, helps teams and companies achieve better results through applying and living Agile values and principles. Scrum practitioner since 2005. Silvana lives and breathes the agile value of “People over Process”, and brings that to the forefront of her coaching work with teams and companies, while focused on the client’s audacious goals and desired results. Silvana has aided multinational enterprise Agile transformations in United States, UK, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Indonesia and Switzerland with clients including Yahoo, Nestle, Skype, Microsoft, financial enterprises as well as startups.
You can link with Silvana Wasitova on LinkedIn and connect with Silvana Wasitova on Twitter.
As Scrum Masters, we face many of the patterns of the old methodologies. In this episode with Silvana Wasitova, we explore the up-front planning, all-in commitment approach and how that affects agile teams. We also discuss how a Scrum Master can help such teams.
About Silvana Wasitova
Silvana Wasitova, Enterprise Agile Coach, helps teams and companies achieve better results through applying and living Agile values and principles. Scrum practitioner since 2005. Silvana lives and breathes the agile value of “People over Process”, and brings that to the forefront of her coaching work with teams and companies, while focused on the client’s audacious goals and desired results. Silvana has aided multinational enterprise Agile transformations in United States, UK, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Indonesia and Switzerland with clients including Yahoo, Nestle, Skype, Microsoft, financial enterprises as well as startups.
You can link with Silvana Wasitova on LinkedIn and connect with Silvana Wasitova on Twitter.
The role of Scrum Master is not yet a fully developed and recognized role in the Software industry. This has an impact on how people find (or not) their motivation to excel in that role.
In this episode, we talk about cultures that place a lot of value on the status of a Job Title, and how that affects the motivation of people that take up the Scrum Master role.
About Paulo Rebelo
Paulo Rebelo helps companies to improve using agile and lean principles like Scrum, XP, and Kanban. He currently works at Blackhawk Network in the U.S., helping teams succeed by building great products. His background is a developer, Scrum Master, product owner, project manager, and coach. Paulo is a CSP, CSPO and a CSM from the Scrum Alliance and PMP from the PMI.
You can link with Paulo Rebelo on LinkedIn and connect with Paulo Rebelo on Twitter.
In this episode, we explore 2 aspects of our success as Scrum Masters that Paulo developed in his career. These are simple aspects of success that, if we pay attention, can directly improve how we reflect on our work, and help us find better ways to help our teams.
Sometimes we need to help the team find the improvements that are not obvious. In this episode, Paulo shares a retrospective format that focuses on helping the team find the problems that affect their well-being, and how that can help find improvement ideas. This week The Happiness Radar is our featured retrospective format.
About Paulo Rebelo
Paulo Rebelo helps companies to improve using agile and lean principles like Scrum, XP, and Kanban. He currently works at Blackhawk Network in the U.S., helping teams succeed by building great products. His background is a developer, Scrum Master, product owner, project manager, and coach. Paulo is a CSP, CSPO and a CSM from the Scrum Alliance and PMP from the PMI.
You can link with Paulo Rebelo on LinkedIn and connect with Paulo Rebelo on Twitter.
As Paulo started helping this company in their Agile adoption he noticed that, even if the company was “doing” Scrum, they were missing some critical aspects.
Listen in to learn how Paulo helped this company find a better way to adopt Scrum, using the Scrum Values as the anchor to the change.
About Paulo Rebelo
Paulo Rebelo helps companies to improve using agile and lean principles like Scrum, XP, and Kanban. He currently works at Blackhawk Network in the U.S., helping teams succeed by building great products. His background is a developer, Scrum Master, product owner, project manager, and coach. Paulo is a CSP, CSPO and a CSM from the Scrum Alliance and PMP from the PMI.
You can link with Paulo Rebelo on LinkedIn and connect with Paulo Rebelo on Twitter.
As Scrum Masters we don’t just work with the team, we also work directly with the Product Owners that support the team. In this story, Paulo shares the case of the Product Owner that had a Business Analysis background and thought the job was about writing specifications in isolation. Listen in to learn how Paulo handled that and helped the Product Owner transition to User Stories and more team interaction.
In Management 3.0 by Jurgen Appelo, Paulo found a management model that better suited his goal to become a Scrum Master. By reading this book he learned about how he could become a better servant leader. A key aspect of the Scrum Master role.
About Paulo Rebelo
Paulo Rebelo helps companies to improve using agile and lean principles like Scrum, XP, and Kanban. He currently works at Blackhawk Network in the U.S., helping teams succeed by building great products. His background is a developer, Scrum Master, product owner, project manager, and coach. Paulo is a CSP, CSPO and a CSM from the Scrum Alliance and PMP from the PMI.
You can link with Paulo Rebelo on LinkedIn and connect with Paulo Rebelo on Twitter.
When we come into work with a team, the first thing we must be aware of is the type and number of stakeholders that we will be dealing with.
In this episode, Paulo presents a story of a team that he was supposed to help, but the stakeholders started messing up with the team, making his work, as Scrum Master, much harder.
Listen in to learn about how to deal with particularly intrusive team managers. Something that we will all need to face, sooner or later.
About Paulo Rebelo
Paulo Rebelo helps companies to improve using agile and lean principles like Scrum, XP, and Kanban. He currently works at Blackhawk Network in the U.S., helping teams succeed by building great products. His background is a developer, Scrum Master, product owner, project manager, and coach. Paulo is a CSP, CSPO and a CSM from the Scrum Alliance and PMP from the PMI.
You can link with Paulo Rebelo on LinkedIn and connect with Paulo Rebelo on Twitter.
In this episode we explore a very specific culture within North America, and how it affects the adoption of Scrum. Listen in to learn how a Nebraska Scrum Master takes advantage of their specific local culture to help her team.
About Elizabeth Christensen
Elizabeth Christensen shares tales from the not-so-cutting-edge, bringing Scrum to Marketing. She is currently developing scrum practices for a marketing team. With a background in business management & team leadership this self-proclaimed scrappy new Scrum Master finds her way in a never-before-experienced opportunity.
You can link with Elizabeth Christensen on LinkedIn.
When defining the format for the “next” retrospective it is easy to get lost in the many, many options that are out there. In this episode Liz explains why she prefers a format that is familiar, simple and consistent (Worked well / Didn’t work well / Continue / Goals for next Iteration Retrospective Format). We also talk about one of the most important rules: what is discussed in the retro, stays in the retro!
About Elizabeth Christensen
Elizabeth Christensen shares tales from the not-so-cutting-edge, bringing Scrum to Marketing. She is currently developing scrum practices for a marketing team. With a background in business management & team leadership this self-proclaimed scrappy new Scrum Master finds her way in a never-before-experienced opportunity.
You can link with Elizabeth Christensen on LinkedIn.
As Scrum Masters we are often confronted with challenges and problems that the teams suffer on a daily basis. These challenges are only the start of the change process. In this episode, Liz explores the ways in which we can support the teams in effecting changes they perceive as necessary. We talk about the role of retrospectives in the change process and also the importance of arguing for the change with data and evidence to gain stakeholder support.
About Elizabeth Christensen
Elizabeth Christensen shares tales from the not-so-cutting-edge, bringing Scrum to Marketing. She is currently developing scrum practices for a marketing team. With a background in business management & team leadership this self-proclaimed scrappy new Scrum Master finds her way in a never-before-experienced opportunity.
You can link with Elizabeth Christensen on LinkedIn.
In Strategic Planning by John M. Bryson Liz found some important lessons about how to lead a team with a mission. In Strategic Planning by Bryson we can read about how to lead an organisation and a team with intent.
About Elizabeth Christensen
Elizabeth Christensen shares tales from the not-so-cutting-edge, bringing Scrum to Marketing. She is currently developing scrum practices for a marketing team. With a background in business management & team leadership this self-proclaimed scrappy new Scrum Master finds her way in a never-before-experienced opportunity.
You can link with Elizabeth Christensen on LinkedIn.
As projects progress, it is common that the pressure rises. Every day we work with teams that suffer many pressures, from stakeholders, from other teams, and from themselves because of the commitments they want to honour.
In this episode we talk about a hidden tragedy: the team burnout. Listen in to learn how Liz detected and faced that tragedy.
About Elizabeth Christensen
Elizabeth Christensen shares tales from the not-so-cutting-edge, bringing Scrum to Marketing. She is currently developing scrum practices for a marketing team. With a background in business management & team leadership this self-proclaimed scrappy new Scrum Master finds her way in a never-before-experienced opportunity.
You can link with Elizabeth Christensen on LinkedIn.
In this episode, we reflect on the fit between North American culture and Agile culture. We discuss some of the characteristics that define North American culture, and how that contrasts with other cultures. Specifically, we discuss why Lean, something that came from Japan, might be completely different in the way the individual is part of the approach to work.
In this episode, we refer to Ceremony: A Profound New Method for Achieving Successful and Sustainable Change by Kyle Aretae and Thomas Meloche, and The Scrum Princess by Kyle and Demi Aretae, which explains Scrum to children.
About Kyle Aretae
Kyle has been programming since '81. Teaching since '91. Practicing Agile (Extreme Programming - XP) since 2000. Kyle is always interested first in better ways to understand things and systems. Especially interested in Complex (CAS/VUCA) Systems like building software or the economy at large.
You can find Kyle Areate at DiamondAgile.com, or link with Kyle Areate on LinkedIn.
When Kyle reaches for his favorite retrospective formats he wants one that he is familiar with, and that improves the positive energy in the team. In the retrospective, as well as in other Scrum ceremonies he facilitates he asks 3 questions designed to assess how well that particular instance of the ceremony delivered value. Listen in to learn what are Kyle’s 3 questions.
About Kyle Aretae
Kyle has been programming since '81. Teaching since '91. Practicing Agile (Extreme Programming - XP) since 2000. Kyle is always interested first in better ways to understand things and systems. Especially interested in Complex (CAS/VUCA) Systems like building software or the economy at large.
You can find Kyle Areate at DiamondAgile.com, or link with Kyle Areate on LinkedIn.
Kyle’s own journey when learning about change led him to understand the importance of focusing on the organizational aspects, not just the team he was working with. In this episode, we explore several different change models and end up with a set of tips that Kyle has learned over time work for organizational, not just team-level, change.
In this episode we refer to John Kotter’s 8-step process for change, Organization Change: Theory and Practice by W. Warner Burke, and David Cooperrider’s Appreciative Inquiry.
About Kyle Aretae
Kyle has been programming since '81. Teaching since '91. Practicing Agile (Extreme Programming - XP) since 2000. Kyle is always interested first in better ways to understand things and systems. Especially interested in Complex (CAS/VUCA) Systems like building software or the economy at large.
You can find Kyle Areate at DiamondAgile.com, or link with Kyle Areate on LinkedIn.
For Kyle, Agile solves 2 problems. One is the building of software in a better, more sustainable manner. The other is to create a functioning organization, which will become a better place to work. In this episode, Kyle also explains how a simple technique can help the team address behavior that negatively affects the team without ever making that a personal conflict.
Kyle was struck by the book Darwin’s Dangerous Idea by Daniel C. Dennet. It helped him understand the enormous difference between plannable systems and evolutionary systems. That helped him understand the impact that Agile could have on organizations. During his research after reading that book he also came across Interactual Ritual Chains by Randall Collins, which helped him understand the role of (Scrum) ceremonies in the development of the team, and ultimately led him to write one of his own books: Ceremony: A Profound New Method for Achieving Successful and Sustainable Change by Kyle Aretae and Thomas Meloche
About Kyle Aretae
Kyle has been programming since '81. Teaching since '91. Practicing Agile (Extreme Programming - XP) since 2000. Kyle is always interested first in better ways to understand things and systems. Especially interested in Complex (CAS/VUCA) Systems like building software or the economy at large.
You can find Kyle Areate at DiamondAgile.com, or link with Kyle Areate on LinkedIn.
Kyle’s background as a developer has informed his view of how teams can achieve the level of collaboration needed to be successful in an Agile environment. Having read Kent Beck’s Extreme Programming Explained book, he started to work with developers, helping them improve their ways of working. But that wasn’t enough. In this episode, we explore what is beyond the team that can make or break an Agile transition.
About Kyle Aretae
Kyle has been programming since '81. Teaching since '91. Practicing Agile (Extreme Programming - XP) since 2000. Kyle is always interested first in better ways to understand things and systems. Especially interested in Complex (CAS/VUCA) Systems like building software or the economy at large.
You can find Kyle Areate at DiamondAgile.com, or link with Kyle Areate on LinkedIn.
There’s the temptation that people are as easily replaceable as parts in a machine. But is that the case? And if you answer “no”, what does that mean for you as a Scrum Master? In this episode we explore the many reasons why treating people as “resources” causes problems in the long run.
In this episode, we refer to the book Age of Agile by Steve Denning.
About Faye Thompson
Faye calls herself a Scrum Master and agile coach, and she enjoys working with teams to solve cool business problems while not being jerks to one another.
You can link with Faye Thompson on LinkedIn and connect with Faye Thompson on Twitter.
When we discuss the success of a Scrum Master, happiness is a word that often comes up. Is the customer happy? Is the team happy? Are some of the questions we must ask ourselves, and in this episode, Faye reviews how we can ask, collect the answer for and use those to help our work as Scrum Masters.
In the Single Word Retrospective, the team reflects on how one word impacts their way of working. In this episode, Faye shares one concrete example of what that could look like in practice.
About Faye Thompson
Faye calls herself a Scrum Master and agile coach, and she enjoys working with teams to solve cool business problems while not being jerks to one another.
You can link with Faye Thompson on LinkedIn and connect with Faye Thompson on Twitter.
There are many tools out there to support a change process. So many in fact, that we often forget the humble Retrospective. The most important tool in our Scrum Master toolbox: reflect and adjust, inspect and adapt - the core cycle of change.
In this episode, we explore how the Agile Retrospective can become the engine of self-driven team change.
About Faye Thompson
Faye calls herself a Scrum Master and agile coach, and she enjoys working with teams to solve cool business problems while not being jerks to one another.
You can link with Faye Thompson on LinkedIn and connect with Faye Thompson on Twitter.
Many things can fail when we work with teams. But one critical anti-pattern that leads to problems is the lack of a good Product Owner. In this episode, we explore what are the consequences for our teams of having a Product Owner that is unable to filter input from many stakeholders or even to politely say “No!”. Listen in to learn about the many anti-patterns that can come from a poor Product Owner.
Faye has followed the work of Gerry Weinberg and recommends that to all Scrum Masters. She mentions several of Gerry Weinberg’s books in this episode, for example: The Secrets of Consulting, or An Introduction to General Systems Theory. For Faye, Gerry’s work is an example of what Scrum Masters work is about: being humane.
About Faye Thompson
Faye calls herself a Scrum Master and agile coach, and she enjoys working with teams to solve cool business problems while not being jerks to one another.
You can link with Faye Thompson on LinkedIn and connect with Faye Thompson on Twitter.