Have you ever had friends or family ask, “I know you’re called a scrum master, but what does that mean? What do you actually do?” Go ahead. Tell them that the role of ScrumMaster is as a servant-leader, coach, and facilitator, navigating the dynamics of the team to ensure Scrum practices are followed and value […]
About Mark Levison
Collaboration, Over Work in Isolation
When I’m working with new Scrum Teams and say that Scrum encourages collaboration among team members, everyone nods and smiles. When I ask them to describe their actual collaboration, I hear about collaboration in Sprint Planning, Review and Retrospective. If I’m lucky, someone mentions solving impediments found in Daily Scrum through collaboration. Wow. Jaw drops. […]
Is Your Scrum Team Good Enough?
If your Scrum Team has been together for years and you’ve been following the Agile principles and Scrum structure, you might be feeling quite confident. Scrum isn’t an inherently easy methodology to adapt, especially since it requires change beyond the personal behaviour level to see the biggest results. So if your team has gotten to […]
Forcing People Back to the Office
In December the Treasury Board of Canada ordered that, starting in mid-January, all employees would be expected to return to the office for two to three days a week. Among the stated goals were: Innovation, Creativity, Fairness, and Consistency. This all ties in well with the Agile Manifesto which includes the principle “The most efficient […]
Agile Bonuses – The Damage They Do
A design pattern is a description of a solution to a recurring problem. It outlines the elements that are necessary to solve the challenge without prompting the reader to address the issue in a specific way. Unfortunately, we also regularly see recurring patterns of ineffective behaviour. These are called Anti-Patterns. The following explores the common […]
Want to Get the Most Bang for Your Buck? Try Impact Mapping
Work is humming along nicely when your Marketing VP stops by your desk and says, “We need to double monthly sales.” That’s it. That their entire instruction. After you recover from this bombshell, you will need to decide what tool you will use and who you will grab to help you start to tackle this […]
