An interview with David Sohmer, Financial Services Technology and Agile Leader In this video interview, David Sohmer talks about how technology managers can embrace agile ways of working, support their…
The recently published 2019 Scrum Master Trends report has a few interesting takeaways. The report is the result of a global survey of Scrum Masters conducted by Scrum.org and The…
Curious about what it takes to succeed as an Agile Coach? Do you aspire to become an Agile Coach or grow as a Scrum Master? Welcome! We've created this detailed…
A frequently asked question when I am working with teams moving to Scrum is what is the role of business analyst role on a Scrum team. Usually it comes from…
Scrum certifications from the Scrum Alliance expire if you don't renew them. This came as a surprise to me. I decided to let my Scrum Alliance Certifications lapse in January 2019.…
I recently hosted a client workshop on how to improve the retrospective event in the Scrum Framework. Rather than focus on specific techniques (like I did in this related post),…
A pretty common complaint with the Scrum Framework is that there are too many Scrum meetings. Let's explore this complaint to understand if it is valid, why it might occur,…
The very first Agile Coach I ever had taught me the practice of using Norm Kerth’s Prime Directive to start my retrospectives. Though I haven’t always used it, when I do…
In my previous article, I argued that using a distributed team with the Scrum Framework was a bad idea and advised against it. There is sufficient information to show that…
Recent studies show that 3 out of 4 Software Development Teams using the Scrum Framework are distributed, meaning that at least some of the team members are not in the…
Inevitably, when working with organizations and helping them move from Waterfall to the Scrum Framework, there is a lot of confusion about the Scrum Master role. One of the most…
The new Scrum Guide, the definitive reference for the Scrum Framework, is out. As of November 7, Scrum co-creators Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber published an updated version of the Scrum Guide.…
If you are planning an agile pilot or even a full blown agile transformation, a critical consideration is your Agile Training Plan. After all, people need to understand Agile and Scrum…
Are you looking for a one-page summary of Agile principles and the Scrum framework? Look no further. We've developed this one page summary and hand it out during our agile…
I recently had a participant tell me that my Agile and Scrum Training for Teams class was 1,000% better than he expected. Which I took as a great compliment, even though…
I always thought that crew looked like a cool sport and I've admired crew teams. In crew, team members in lightweight boats, race to go as fast as possible. It…
I find that many of my clients today are trying to improve their use of the Scrum Framework. Many of them are missing out on the benefits of Scrum without…
Several years ago I had the opportunity to support a growing consulting firm to move from waterfall development to the Scrum Framework. It's been exciting to watch Highland Solutions learn,…
One of the most common conversations I’ve had with clients over the last few years is how to move from waterfall to Scrum. They want to understand the agile transformation…
In several previous posts I wrote about the retrospective which is a key event and perhaps the most important in the Scrum Framework. We explored how the retrospective doesn’t need…
The Agile Retrospective Over the last few months, I have been writing about how to improve team retrospectives. This has been mostly focused on Agile teams. Recently I've been asked…
This is part two in my series of posts about improving your retrospectives. As I mentioned in my previous post, the retrospective is a key part of the Scrum Framework…
The Purpose of the Scrum Retrospective In my last post, I talked about the Scrum Retrospective meeting and how the speed of the retrospective event was not the most important thing.…
Most people are aware of the retrospective meeting that is part of the Scrum Framework. It is a key improvement activity used by Agile and Scrum teams at the end of each…
The daily Scrum Meeting is the most frequent meeting in the Scrum Framework, making it important to be done well. There are some common patterns of problems with the daily…
Earlier this week I was facilitating a discussion on agile estimating at a Meetup. A question came up about whether or not the Product Owner of a team using the Scrum…
What are the top Agile Coach traits that great coaches should have? Today there are more and more individuals hanging out a shingle and calling themselves Agile Coaches. With good…