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This post (inspired by Ben Horowitz author of “The hard things about hard things”) is for scrum masters, and people who work with scrum masters, and explores what good and bad looks like. They are responsible for the successful implementation of Scrum within their team and their organisation.
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.
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. What distinguishes these influencers in the landscape of project management thought leadership?
Know when to “lean in” or “lean back.” Sometimes you have to lean in and lean back at the same time, depending on the situation. Don’t ignore them or listen to them exclusively, but put them in the pot with all your other influences for action. When should you be aggressive? How do you rely on your gut?
A scrum master servant leader can lead his team to greatness with this advice from Geoff Watts’s wonderful book Scrum Mastery. It’s important to say this leans on the teachings of Geoff Watts and his brilliant book Scrum Mastery. Scrum teams regularly build better products faster, while being happier too.
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. The commitment and optimism you show to your team. Proper briefs?
Have you ever had problem team members? These individuals hide missed deadlines, possess bad attitudes, and criticize other team members. They seldom volunteer to help other team members or jump in to pick up the slack. Team members watch project managers to see how they respond to problems. I knew I had a problem.
Typical Scrum Master anti-patterns run from ill-suited personal traits to complacency to pursuing individual agendas to frustration with the team itself. Read on and learn in this post on Scrum anti-patterns how you can identify if your Scrum Master needs support from the team. ???? The Scrum Master to the Scrum Guide.
In many large organizations, Scrum teams fall into the ‘feature factory’ trap, focusing more on churning out features than creating real value. It’s too bad that this shift undermines Agile principles and hampers long-term success and innovation.
And agility is not about teams in isolation. Lean and Kanban expert Klaus Leopold says, “Agility is not a team sport; it is a company sport.” Sometimes a “bad cop” is needed, and it’s usually safer to have an independent coach who doesn’t rely on your business to fill that role. team-based-commitment, ?openness,
The best leaders do more than just plan projects and assign tasks - they inspire their team to do great work by taking the time to build trust and show respect. With a few simple changes to your leadership style, you can gain the trust of your team and inspire them towards greatness. Share your vision and goals 2.
This is part one in a series on leading agile teams from the Beyond Agile book. We will examine what leadership entails and how it applies to agile teams. We can create backlogs and release plans all we like, but until there is a motivated team with a shared vision of the end goal, it is like trying to push a rope—ineffective.
In the world of product development, the role of a product owner is pivotal. They're the bridge between the developmentteam and the stakeholders, ensuring that the product being developed aligns with the vision and delivers value. But how do you know when a product owner might be falling short of their responsibilities?
Leading a team through the triple-pronged crisis of a global pandemic, massive economic recession, and widespread social unrest was something I never imagined myself doing. 5 ways to help your team during a crisis. Lean hard into trust and transparency. 5 ways to help your team during a crisis.
Do you start a new Scrum team by explaining the roles, artifacts, and events? And not because frameworks are categorically bad (they aren’t). And I’m sure that most readers have taught this to teams and organizations at least once in their lives, and probably far more often than that. How can we expand their influence?
Scrum’s Sprint Planning aims to align the Developers and the Product Owner on what to build next, delivering the highest possible value to customers. First, the Product Owner points to the team’s Product Goal and introduces the business objective of the upcoming Sprint. How this is done is at the sole discretion of the Developers.
There may be some measure of formalism, but little tracking or attempts at interventions to control or influence the project. Team members can do whatever they want, whenever they want, with no consequences. Team members are left in the dark, wondering what’s happening and who’s in charge.
Whether you are just starting out, developing your project manager resume, or a seasoned professional, mastering the Project Management Buzzwords is non-negotiable. Agile team A cross-functional group of individuals (e.g., Business case An organization will develop a document to justify the investment in a project (i.e.,
This article explains what a risk-adjusted backlog is, why they are useful, how to create one and how teams work with them. Prioritizing based on business value is an example of the lean concept of 'Taking an Economic View of Decision Making.' I do not think the teams have been weak at threat avoidance.
Project management encompasses several moving parts that involve different teams or people. OKRs empower your team with a goal-setting framework to help you identify immediate objectives and define how to achieve them. You can influence output directly since it depends on your work. The OKRs just do that.
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable. The best books for building better habits (for yourself and your team). Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good habits & Break Bad Ones. Executing: Managing teams and stakeholders and ensuring you hit your deadlines.
But on the other hand, many teams are struggling to appreciate change in their daily work. And this is not a bad thing per se. Often you also see teams discussing changes in length without getting to an agreement. Unfortunately, many teams struggle with implementing experiments. Why change is so hard.
Standish Group data reveals a startling 58% of Agile teams struggle with delays, budget issues, and dissatisfied customers. Moreover, recent surveys indicate 88% of these teams use Scrum. ? Because of widespread misconceptions about Agile, leading to poor implementation. But don’t worry! I’m here to help turn the tide ?,
In the second post, we explored how to grow a strong team identity. Now we will explore the team process dimension. How do you work as a team to maximize the benefits of Scrum and agility? Recall that the Scrum Team defines their own process within the boundaries of the Scrum framework. How does your team build it?
Continuing our theme of helping Agile teams understand the Kanban Method, so they can effectively adopt it for their improvement efforts, I am again honored to publish a guest article by another great friend of ours – Dave White. Value-system Influences. Both are heavily influenced by value-systems. Increments.
One of the things I struggled with at the start of my Scrum Master journey was building consensus in the team. My own indecisiveness with regards to how to handle this ultimately did not serve the teams I worked with well as discussions did not seem to go anywhere and decision making was slow. In practice. Dot Voting.
A product requirements document (PRD) is one of the most important documents for teams using traditional project management. However, an increasing number of Agile teams are starting to see the value of adding more planning to their process. Agile is all about staying lean and adapting to user feedback, right? Jump to a section.
According to G2 , now: 77% of high-performing projects use project management software, and 88% of high-performing companies use project management software Apart from project management software, another trend we’ve seen launch in 2018 and thrive in 2019 is a growing emphasis on soft skills for all project management team members.
It helps firms assess their strengths and weaknesses relative to competitors. It could include a team of top scientists, engineers, or designers whose skills are highly sought after. These influence how they interact with each other, make decisions, and pursue common goals.
Agile emphasizes building collaborative, empowered, high-performing teams that deliver solutions iteratively and incrementally. Creating an empowered and collaborative environment shifts decision-making and accountability from management to the delivery team. Co-locating teams breaks down the barriers to collaboration and engagement.
According to Harvard Business Review, these five Rs together, exacerbated by the pandemic, greatly influenced the Great Resignation: Retirement — older workers retired early to spend time with loved ones and on interests outside of work. A failure that negatively impacts team morale, job satisfaction, and employee retention.
The developmentteam was devastated. In my consulting practice, I see developmentteams struggle with their users. A primary reason is poor stakeholder engagement. Poor alignment on project objectives and expectations. Misalignment can occur within the leadership team, and between leaders and their staff.
According to G2 , now: 77% of high-performing projects use project management software, and 88% of high-performing companies use project management software Apart from project management software, another trend we’ve seen launch in 2018 and thrive in 2019 is a growing emphasis on soft skills for all project management team members.
More often than not in kind of either the IT product development space or IT services space. We like to consider ourselves kind of a full stack consultancy in the sense that you know, obviously, you have to deal with the work surface levels and what the teams are doing but you know, how do you orchestrate teams across dependency boundaries?
For large and complex projects, engage them during the pre-initiation stage when the business case is being developed. Critical assumptions and decisions set the project context during these formative stages, influencing planning and execution. The project team knows the expectations rather than having to make assumptions or guess.
People benefit because it is fast…but it leaves them highly susceptible to outside influence. In areas where we are less familiar, we may have to fight off influences to keep the focus on rationality and our goals. Nudging can be very effective when it plays on our typical cognitive weaknesses – or cognitive biases.
The developmentteam was devastated. In my consulting practice, I see developmentteams struggling with their users. A primary reason is poor stakeholder engagement. Poor alignment with project objectives and expectations. Develop mitigation strategies. This experience is not unique.
No matter how agile and lean you try to run your projects there are inevitably going to be a lot of people involved in getting you from project proposal to launch day. Brainstorm with your project team. Project team members: The group working on the project and following the project manager’s leadership. Key stakeholders.
PR teams often used words that have specific meaning among diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) advocates. Skype held this coveted position years ago before being sunset into Microsoft Teams. Those familiar with project management or software development know these terms well. But using the words isn’t enough. Thought Leader.
Patrick Veroneau introduces an acronym called GREAT to understand the resistance we may be facing from our team. BILL YATES: We had such a great time as a team preparing these, you know, helping put these meals together, packaging them. It was so fun for the team to be together. It was a team-building event with a purpose.
Identifying the direction you lean between these two can offer important insights you’ll use when embarking on your journey to Agile Transformation. Because that’s going to influence how they do product management. Think about regulatory compliance, systems of record, developing identity databases.
– I was the Director of Development. I was running a team in the e-bill space. – But I was building a new team, because we were setting up a new organization. . – But I was building a new team, because we were setting up a new organization. Your team was involved in that. – Okay.
Creating an Agile project management office from scratch and managing in such a way that it prospers in the organizational paradigm is a real challenge, especially in the current market where we see successful businesses failing due to poor management. Yes, you heard that right. Hummingbirds! Don’t trust us yet?
Keeping a keen eye on macro developments is crucial for running a better business, and, by proxy, better campaigns. Follow Influencers. Influencers, for better or for worse, shape trends (and the resulting demand). Of course, there’s tons of noise in this signal - influencers frequently promote ideas in bad faith.
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