Archives

The ScrumButt Test (1): Iterations must be timeboxed

I will be doing a series of posts that discuss each element in the ScrumButt Test (see earlier post). In this first post, I will focus on the first element in the ScrumButt Test: “Iterations must be time-boxed to less than six weeks.” Remember that the first section of the test is to determine whether […]

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Achieving the Goal of a Retrospective

Some teams seem to approach Retrospectives without a real drive to succeed.  Or so it seems.  They just use it to ‘talk.’  About the ‘good, the bad, the ugly’ as I sometimes tease. Now, talking can be helpful.  Still, we can usually do better than this. What is the goal of a Retrospective?  Well, I […]

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ROI for Scrum Training

Does Scrum Training give a good ROI? Well, of course, that depends. Mainly, whether the Team (the full Team) takes an aggressive attitude toward improvement.  So, as you could guess, we train the attendees that a key job is to get continuously better.  We set the expectation of doubling velocity in the first year. Let’s […]

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Public Impediment List: “We don’t want to see the bad news.”

The Scrum Guide does not mention it, but I strongly advocate a public impediment list. The simple idea is: visual management, and single piece flow off the ‘top’ of the list.  That is: Make the team’s impediments visible and visual.  Prioritize them. And then actively work them each day.  With at least one meaningful impediment […]

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Intermediate CSPO Course

Scrum is, in a way, simple. But I think that, for many reasons, doing Scrum well requires continuous study. For one thing, we need to do the practices in harmony with the values and principles behind lean-agile-scrum.  Also, we are always forgetting the values and principles. But there is more to it than that. You […]

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Special Offers: Today thru Sunday

Today thru Sunday, for that limited time, we have a special promotion on this course. Intermediate CSPO + Workshop in Charlotte, May 21-23. 10% off to members of the local Agile or PMI groups. (Or those who join today.) Details are here or here. Today thru Tuesday, for that limited time, we have a special […]

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Empirical Process Control

Empirical Process Modeling Ken Schwaber and others talk of Empirical Process Control ideas as being key to understanding Scrum.  I think this is good sense. Mr. Schwaber got these ideas from Babtunde Ogunnaike and W. Harmon Ray, who wrote the process bible: Process Dynamics, Modeling and Control.  A big ole book, mainly about chemical processes. We […]

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Scrum 201: Desire

Any sports coach knows the Team must have desire. In my classes I talk to people about how much improvement they expect to make in 1 year, with 1 team.  Often their expectation is in the 20% range. I use Henry Ford’s famous quote: “Whether you think you can, or you can’t, you’re right.”  So, […]

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Scrum 201: Team

We want all Scrum teams to become hyper-productive. Why? Well, so they can enjoy life and be satisfied.  And feel like they accomplished something.  In part, this requires they reach hyper productivity without working any extra hours. Second, I assume hyper-productivity means greater business value delivered.  This of course will not always be the case. […]

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Why should the PO attend the Daily Scrum?

Umm. Good question.  We partly discussed this in an earlier post. First, the Scrum Guide (2011) does not require that the PO attend the Daily Scrum.  If you asked Jeff Sutherland his preference though, he would say it is better if the PO attended regularly. OK, but why? Well, first, the Team needs to know it […]

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