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The Complex Project Toolkit is really a book about paradigms in project management and how to encourage teams (and project managers) to stay curious and to embrace uncertainty. This is not a ‘how-to’ book with templates or checklists, but rather a scaled-out strategy view. What makes a project complex? Other thoughts.
As we ease into the new year, many organizations’ executive teams are ramping up hiring for new talent. All these efforts require precise judgment to hire just-in-time talent, using data to make strategic project decisions at a portfolio, program and project level and launching new high performing teams.
The scrum methodology was developed as a response to rigid project management approaches such as the waterfall method, which didn’t adapt to the needs of agile product and software developmentteams. We’ll explore the scrum methodology in-depth, but before that, let’s start with a simple scrum definition.
In the past years, Johannes Schartau, Christiaan Verwijs, and I wrote many articles on Zombie Scrum. Heck, we even wrote a complete Zombie Scrum Survival Guide ! I’d like to believe that since our book, Zombie Scrum completely disappeared. But Zombie Scrum is still present in different shapes and forms.
Suitable agile metrics reflect either a team’s progress in becoming agile or your organization’s progress in becoming a learning organization. At the team level, qualitative agile metrics often work better than quantitative metrics. A team may have deliberately built some temporary solutions to speed up experimentation.
Long has spoonfeeding solutions and off-the-shelf feature descriptions prevailed in many developmentteams. Although some issues might have been fixed, I rarely see the full potential of a ScrumTeam being achieved. Going all-in on predefined features fails to capitalize on hidden ideas in the brains of team members.
I’ve been part of the Scrum community for about 12 years. In this period, I’ve noticed a clear pattern in the majority of Scrum-related threads on social media like LinkedIn, Medium, Twitter, and so on. As a community, we excel at putting our fingers on the sore spots of what teams and organizations do wrong.
In this article you will learn: Why enabling ScrumTeams with UX Design capabilities is important. Why introducing UX capabilities to Scrumteam is frequently hard. What is the job of an UX Leader in a product development organization. The narrative around Scrum is centered on delivering products.
When I saw the book “Art of doing twice the work in the half time,” Dr. Jeff Sutherland wrote, my reaction was like how someone can claim that? I went through the book and loved it. It is not only because the book is good, but I felt connected with one of the case studies. You can read the original post here. It is essential.
Imagine you’re a Scrum Master and the line manager of your team believes that the best sign for a successful agile transformation is a steady increase in the ScrumTeam’s velocity. Moreover, if the team fails to deliver on that metric something is wrong with the ScrumTeam.
TL; DR: 70 Scrum Master Theses. The following 70 Scrum Master theses describe the role of from a holistic product creation perspective. The theses cover the role of the Scrum Master from product discovery to product delivery in hands-on practical manner. The Role of the Scrum Master. It is not a mere management role.
Sub-title #2: Jeff Sutherland’s book could have been called: “Scrum: Twice the decision-making in half the time leading to half the work and twice the output.”. A discussion is raging at LinkedIn about the Iron Triangle because the co-authors of Scrum say that “Scrum breaks the Iron Triangle”.
Long has spoon-feeding solutions and off-the-shelf feature descriptions prevailed in many developmentteams. Although some issues might have been fixed, I rarely see the full potential of a ScrumTeam being achieved. Going all-in on predefined features fails to capitalize on hidden ideas in the brains of team members.
Part 1 intends to focus on the ScrumTeam, Part 2 will be released shortly after our Webinar on April 29th and will focus on the “Epic” challenges agile leaders are facing. Product Backlog is not an event in Scrum, but has its place in the Scrum Guide and therefore the Scrum Framework.
The Change Formula The Change Formula is a highly practical tool developed over the past decade. He guides readers through applying this understanding to various aspects of life, enabling them to recognise how their minds operate, understand and manage their emotions and thoughts, and develop themselves into the people they aspire to be.
TL; DR: Solving Impediments as a ScrumTeam. The interruptions impeded the flow of work through the team. Moreover, the team missed the Sprint Goal twice recently. Solving impediments as a team has become a necessity. Solving Impediments like the Interruption Problem as a Team. Types of Impediments.
TL; DR: Scrum Master Interview (6): Demand Creates Supply and the Job Market for Agile Practitioners is No Exception. Scrum has proven time and again to be the most popular framework for software development. Given that software is eating the world , a seasoned Scrum Master is nowadays in high demand.
These top 25 influencers for 2025 aren’t just keeping up with the trends—they’re setting them, reshaping how teams collaborate, innovate, and deliver in today’s fast-paced world. Elizabeth is also a prolific author, having published seven books on project and change management.
But in truth jargon has a precise meaning; it’s not fluff but an efficient way to communicate and collaborate with your team. You might be too young to remember this sitcom that was developed from the hit movie American Graffiti , which followed the humorous trials and tribulations of teenagers in the rock-and-roll 1950s. Deliverables.
TL; DR: Creating a Personal Readme for Scrum Masters with ChatGPT Providing a personal readme to your new teammates and stakeholders as a Scrum Master is a great way to build trust and rapport while managing expectations at the same time. Guaranteed on May 16 : Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills Class — May 16, 2023. ?
Jimmy is the author of the book “96 Visualization Examples — a toolkit for the Agile coach”. In this blog post, we focus on one specific question that was raised: “How to measure the success of an Agile Coach or Scrum Master?”. Although I guess the terms Scrum Master or Agile Coach are easily interchangeable in this context.
Early September a new book will be added to the Professional Scrum Series : Agile Leadership Toolkit - by Peter Koning. Traditional management and leadership practices were developed to manage work, to build the process, and to provide the intelligence for work to be done. In numerous cases I’ve seen these teams.
Estimation is a complementary practice ScrumTeams use in Product D evelopment. Different Scrum T eams may use different estimation approaches, depending on their context, preferences, and goals. Let’s explore some of the complementary estimation approaches used by Scrum T eams, and discuss their pros and cons. ?
Instead, they will reorganize themselves around autonomous teams to deal with the complexity and pace of innovation of the 21st century. In such an agile world, recruiting will become a team decision, and the “human resources” department’s role will change into a supportive one. This first article will cover the Scrum Master role. ??
And in no particular order we start with: Mark Phillips Mark Phillips High performing teams are motivated by an exceptional vision. The vision becomes a touchstone for difficult discussions with stakeholders, a path to unity for all project participants and a guide post for decision making with your team throughout the project.
On November 18, 2020, Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland released an updated version of the Scrum Guide. In this blog post, I will share what you need to know about the 2020 Scrum Guide. I will start with the most important things you need to know, and then I’ll get into a little more nuance for the Scrum nerds.
TL; DR: Scrum Master Anti-Patterns from Job Ads. Job ads for Scrum Master positions reveal great insight into an organization’s progress on becoming agile. I analyzed more than 50 job ads for Scrum Master positions to gain these. Analyzing a Job Advertisement for a Scrum Master Position.
TL; DR: Can We Or Should We Change Scrum? Can we or should we change Scrum, or is it a sacrilege to tweak the ‘immutable’ framework to accommodate our teams’ and organizations’ needs? Not so fast; don’t just dismiss augmenting Scrum as leaving the path, contributing to the numerous Scrumbut mutations, giving Scrum a bad name.
A scrum master servant leader can lead his team to greatness with this advice from Geoff Watts’s wonderful bookScrum Mastery. Please see the Editor’s note below regarding the variation in spelling of the term Scrum Master. Scrum’s framework is easy to understand but hard to master.
TL; DR: The Rise of the Scrum GPT Fewer Jobs for Scrum Masters, and now we see the universal Scrum GPT entering the competition: Will Scrum Masters change from essential practitioners to a niche role? The job market is currently challenging for many agile practitioners, particularly Scrum Masters. But don’t worry!
B – Project Management Terms Backlog Backlog is a term from the Agile methodology Scrum, but is also used across industries to track every single thing that is needed to complete a product in development. There may also be some background information about the organization or team tasked to reach this goal.
For years, I’ve fulfilled the role of Scrum Master for many different organizations and ScrumTeams. These teams were mostly focused on software development. These organizations were able to attract the smartest developers and create products customers loved. Examples of a Developer Culture.
TL; DR: How To Spot Successful Scrum Masters In this article, I unravel the secrets of what makes a Scrum Master not just good but amazingly outstanding. From regularly achieving Sprint Goals, delivering value to customers, and building stakeholder rapport easily, discover the traits that set apart successful Scrum Masters.
Embracing self-management can be challenging for teams transitioning to Scrum. Taking direction from a manager or team leader is easier in some ways—just do what you’re told to do. Most often, though, teams moving to self-management find it infinitely more satisfying. They are also more successful. Let’s look at how.
TL; DR: Scrum Anti-Patterns Taxonomy As the editing process of the Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide is nearing its end, it is time to take the next step. The brand new Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide offers 180-plus anti-patterns organized by roles, events, artifacts, and commitments. That is helpful for any Scrum practitioner.
Its purpose was to use all our personal experiences and creativity, to identify quick tips around team autonomy, and its components self-management, and cross-functionality. This article is focused on quick tips to make your Scrumteam more self-managing. Within the ScrumTeam Survey, we call these 15% Solutions “Quick Tips”.
Context You only have to read Scrum Master job descriptions to observe the importance given to facilitation in organizations' applications. Employers expect the Scrum Master to facilitate Scrum events. The Scrum Master must naturally act as a guide in this difficult, even painful exploration.
Health Checks for Agile Teams Agile teams thrive on continuous improvement and adaptability. Self-assessment isn’t just a health check measuring tool but a compass guiding teams toward their potential. It’s not an audit; it’s a mirror reflecting a better version of your Agile team. Source : Crisp DNA: Happiness Index.
In my first article , I explained what Scrum Patterns are and why they could be useful for you in your transformation. The second article explained how to select the Scrum Patterns from the Pattern Languages. . Sprint Backlog -> Sprint Burndown Chart -> Yesterday’s Weather -> Scrum Board. The team’s conclusions: .
Why many Scrumteams struggle with continuous improvement, and how you can do better. Are members of your team wondering what the point is of talking about improvement when nothing ever happens? This is why we created 65+ do-it-yourself workshops to empower teams to tackle specific impediments and problems in their teams.
In the past years, Liberating Structures quickly gained popularity within the Scrum community. You might know that there are 33 official Liberating Structures, and its co-developers are Henri Lipmanowicz & Keith McCandless. Maybe you’re even part of the global community that helps to refine existing & develop new structures!
TL; DR: Scrum’s Nature: It Is a Tool; It Is Not About Love or Hate. Regularly, we find articles from developers detailing why ‘Agile’ in general and Scrum’s nature, in particular, deserve our collective disdain. Seriously, how hard can Scrum be if the manual comprises of 18 pages, right?).
High performing teams are motivated by an exceptional vision. The vision becomes a touchstone for difficult discussions with stakeholders, a path to unity for all project participants and a guide post for decision making with your team throughout the project. Mark Phillips runs a consultancy focused on high performing projects.
This blog is part of a series of peek previews from my upcoming book Coaching Agile Organisations. In this blog, I explain how you can refine your product definition to organize into effective cross-functional teams. We discovered that some organizational elements are required more than others to develop product features.
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