A stable team is one in which team membership doesn’t change often and, instead, is consistent over time. Why should we care? Isn’t Scrum like basketball where you can change the players on the court anytime there is an interruption? Let’s find out… High-performing teams —or teams that gets stuff done with insanely high quality— […]
Scrum
Why Having a Tech Lead or Manager as Scrum Master is a Bad Idea
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 […]
Two Key Things for Sprint Retrospective Facilitation
Retrospectives are a critical element in Scrum but they won’t work well if your team hates them. A Sprint Retrospective needs someone to facilitate and keep it on track to encourage effective discussion. It’s more of an art than a science, but these key things will help. 1. Remain Neutral From the Cambridge Dictionary, facilitation […]
Scrum by Example – Same Old Song in Sprint Retrospective
The World’s Smallest Online Bookstore team has just come out of their Sprint Review. For those who’re keeping score, the team committed to a Sprint Goal: Have basic reader review system in place so book buyers can see a variety of opinions about a book. Their plan included completing seven Product Backlog Items and fixing […]
Choosing a Scrum Sprint Length – Shorter Beats Longer
How long should a Scrum Sprint be? A Scrum Sprint is a short period of time when the Scrum Team works, but there is no hard rule as to how long that should be – in this post, we cover the pros and cons of shorter and longer Sprints and how you can discover what […]
What Are the Limits of the Scrum Framework?
Frequently in workshops, I get asked, “Where shouldn’t we use Scrum?” The short answer is there are lots of instances where the Scrum framework doesn’t fit. However, to give a more complete and effective answer to this question, first we need to have an idea of why and when Scrum does work and what the […]
Scrum by Example – How to Deal with Bad User Stories as a ScrumMaster
It is common in the early stages of Scrum implementation for there to be misunderstandings about what User Stories are for and what makes them useful. A ScrumMaster’s task is to be able to help the Team and Product Owner when they are faced with ineffective User Stories as they go into Sprint Planning. Dramatis […]
Scrum by Example – Scrum Anti-Patterns & Unplanned Work Disrupting the Sprint
The Team is in the middle of a Sprint, but the Product Owner has discovered unplanned work and interrupts their flow mid-Sprint to deal with it because it’s now “high-priority.” How should a ScrumMaster deal with this or similar Scrum Anti-Patterns? An anti-pattern is a common response to a recurring problem that is usually ineffective […]