Category: scrum master

  • From Scrum Master to Agile Coach: Embracing Systemic Change

    From Scrum Master to Agile Coach: Embracing Systemic Change

    The evolution from Scrum Master to Agile Coach signifies a shift from team-level focus to a broader organizational perspective, enhancing systemic agility. Embedded Agile Coaches analyze inter-team dynamics, aligning strategy with execution while maintaining the crucial team support role of Scrum Masters. This dual approach optimizes both local and global performance, fostering true organizational agility.

  • On Certifications

    Are certifications worth the time, effort, and money?

  • Scrum Bubbles Recommendation of the Week

    Have you checked out the Agile Uprising Coalition yet? If you haven’t, you should. According to their website, they are a “purpose-built network that focuses on the advancement of the agile mindset and global professional networking between and among practicing agilists.” I check out Agile Uprising regularly to see what my fellow agilists say about…

  • Your Reputation Precedes You

    How do scrum masters search for jobs?  Just like anyone else.  We check openings on places like Indeed, Dice, and LinkedIn.  We submit resumes.  We go to interviews.  We network as much as we can.  In fact, we network A LOT.  Most people in the tech industry get jobs based on recommendations from their peers. …

  • Don’t Take Daily Stand-ups for Granted

    For the uninitiated, gathering every day for 15 minutes to discuss the goings-on of current work might seem a little redundant and useless.  All the same people say many of the same things over and over again.  But to the experienced, there’s a lot more to it than that.

  • Backlog Grooming

    I was going over some backlog grooming ideas with one of our Product Owners recently, so I thought I’d share these ideas with everyone.   When preparing for sprint planning sessions, please take a moment to make sure the top 20 stories in your project backlog are “shovel ready”.  What do I mean by this?  Shovel…

  • How many types of Agile Retrospectives are there, anyway?

    The other day I noticed that we were getting pretty stagnant with our sprint retrospectives.  I have been asking these questions: “What went well? What went less well? What areas improved from last sprint? What areas need improvement?”  Sometimes we get some good discussions going, but most of the time I have to prod my…

  • Recommended Agile Reading

    From time to time, I will review and/or list books that I find helpful.  I don’t have time to go into a full review while I’m on my lunch break, but right now I’m re-reading The Agile Samurai: How Agile Masters Deliver Great Software (Pragmatic Programmers), by Jonathan Rasmusson.  It’s a great back-to-basics book for those…

  • How to Give a GREAT Demo!

    One of the major tenets of Agile is the Product Demo.  As we all know, agile encourages us to demo at the end of our sprints.  This is done for several reasons.  Not only does this keep us accountable to our customers, but it helps us to focus on forward thinking.  At many companies, it…

  • User Stories: Make ‘em SMALLER, please!

    User stories are the building blocks of whatever project we’re working on, are they not?  They give structure.  They give solidarity.  They stand things up.  Epics are the larger, overall stories that lay the foundation.  When building something, it is prudent to have the larger stories on the bottom and the smaller stories on the…