What is the most common Aha moment people have in a scrum course?

What is the most common Aha moment people have in a scrum course? It depends on the scrum course they are attending. The content presented in the Applying Professional Scrum (APS) course leads to very different epiphanies when compared to the content presented on an Advanced Professional Scrum Master (PSM II) course. Empiricism Regardless of […]

If you could teach just one thing about Scrum, what would it be?

If you could teach just one thing about Scrum, what would it be? I wouldn’t teach anything about Scrum if I only had one thing to teach, I would focus on the underlying principles that underpin scrum. Empiricism and navigating complexity effectively. Empiricism. When I’m delivering the APS course (Applying Professional Scrum) or talking to […]

What is a common mistake made by rookie agile consultants?

What is a common mistake made by rookie agile consultants? I think the most common mistake made by a rookie agile consultant is the belief that simply by following the rules or processes of whatever agile framework they recommend; positive results and outcomes will be achieved. A belief that these practices and processes will solve […]

What would you advise a scrum team to do in their first 4 weeks?

What would you advise a scrum team to do in their first 4 weeks? That’s an interesting question because it depends on the intention of the team. In my opinion, if their intention is to try scrum, then that is what they should focus on in the first 4 weeks. Get scrum right. Get it […]

What does a poor scrum team look, act and feel like?

Sure, there are poor practices that impact scrum teams, but I tend to focus on the outcomes to determine whether a scrum team is failing or progressing. Dysfunctional team behaviour Autocracy An example of a poor outcome would be a scrum team that has a lead developer who insists on imposing their will on others, […]

Scrum-Overview

What is Scrum? Scrum is a lightweight framework that helps people, teams, and organizations generate value through adaptive solutions for complex problems. The Scrum Framework is made up of five values, three Accountabilities, three artefacts, and five events. In this video, I’ll go through an overview of each one, explaining what they are for and […]

Study Guide for the Professional Scrum Product Owner

From the Home of Scrum As described in the Scrum Guide, a Scrum Product Owner is responsible for maximizing the value of the product resulting from the work of the Development Team. How this is done may vary widely across organizations, Scrum Teams, and individuals. The learning path is organized by a set of Professional Scrum Competencies which each […]

Getting started with a Definition of Done (DoD)

In my last post about Professional software teams creating working software David Corbin made a good point. How do you determining what “Free from fault or defect” means? Since that is different for each Product and may change over time you need to focus on Quality and reflecting that quality in a Definition of Done […]

Professional Scrum teams build software that works

I am always surprised at the number of teams that release undone work to production. I understand that one may need a few sprints, or many if you inherited something nasty, to pay back that debt, but if it’s more then you are not a Professional Scrum Team. The sheer amount of software that I […]