Must the Scrum Master facilitate the event? — When companies hire me as a Scrum Master, the first task that comes to mind for most is the facilitation of the Daily Scrum. But is that the case? Is that one of the tasks of the Scrum Master? The Scrum Guide (2020) states: “The Daily Scrum is a 15-minute…

Or is the position only a career springboard? — A typical question in job interviews is, “What do you want to have achieved in 5 years?” The question is easy to answer if you’re starting your career path. For example, you start as a “Junior,” gain experience, take on more responsibility, and after five years, you might be a…

How to deal with fear — Courage is one of the Scrum values among respect, commitment, openness, and focus. But what does it mean to be courageous? Courage requires fear because only if you overcome something you are afraid of you are courageous. When it comes to fear, we can distinguish between different types of anxiety. …

Peer consulting for Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches — Scrum Masters act as consultants, coaches, trainers, mentors, and facilitators. But sometimes, they are also at a loss and need support. Intervision is an ideal instrument for this. It can be established relatively quickly and is suitable in all companies with several Scrum Masters or Agile Coaches. Intervision is a…

Challenges and ideas — Remote work is excellent. You can bring talented people from different regions, disciplines, and cultures together. But, anyone who has worked in a remote team knows that there are positive aspects and challenges. Teams that work together on-site discuss many things along the way. You also get to know how…

The more, the better? — When I started my Scrum journey more than six years ago, my mentor at that time, who has been a trainer of Scrum.org for a long time, had a clear point of view: Scrum Master is a full-time role: So not a Scrum Master for two or more Scrum Teams…

I like to paint, but my paintings are more abstract art. To illustrate something on a flip chart or whiteboard, on the other hand, has always been difficult for me. That changed when I discovered the book “The Flipchart Coach” a few years ago. It is unfortunately only available in…

In agile companies, one goal is to deliver value to customers within short iterations. But what delivers value? It often seems that everything is equally important. So what is value and are there other criteria that you should consider? The Scrum Guide states that the backlog is an ordered list…

When Is Small Too Small? — Scrum Teams come in many sizes. Often they tend to be too large, to include too many team members. For example, I have seen teams with more than 25 team members. On the other hand, I have also accompanied Scrum Teams that consisted of only six members. Small teams seem…

And how to set them — A few days ago, a Scrum Master working on the same project asked me: “What is your main goal as a Scrum Master with your two teams for the next three months?” That is an interesting question and not so easy to answer. However, I want the team members to…

Do extraverted and introverted attitudes really matter? — A few days ago, I saw a post on LinkedIn with a job ad: “Extroverted Agile Coach wanted.” My first thought: “WTF!” I’m an agile coach and an introvert. But then it made me curious. Maybe there are good reasons. Perhaps they already have many introverted Agile Coaches on the…

Create with a bit of customization the perfect board for your next remote planning — In the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), PI Planning is one of the significant events. “Program Increment (PI) Planning is a cadence-based, face-to-face event that serves as the heartbeat of the Agile Release Train (ART), aligning all the teams on the ART to a shared mission and vision.” PI Planning is…

How Commitments Guide the Scrum Team — Who hasn’t experienced it in working life: there are many meetings, eager discussions and promises are made. When you look at the results a few weeks later, you realize that a lot has vanished into thin air. A team can only achieve results if there is a clear commitment, if…

Four Principles and Six Practices — Do you want to get a short overview of Kanban? Here you are. At the heart of Kanban, there are four principles and six practices. Four Principles David J. Anderson used the Kanban method as an approach for incremental, evolutionary process and system changes in companies’ area of knowledge work.

Practices to Get More Out of Your Meetings — If you look at role descriptions for Scrum Masters, you will always find the task “meeting facilitation”. The Scrum Guide states: “The Scrum Master serves the Scrum Team in several ways, including: […] Ensuring that all Scrum events take place and are positive, productive, and kept within the timebox.” …

Why it’s Worth Taking a Closer Look at the #NoEstimates Approach — Estimating effort is a standard practice in many projects and also in product development. Depending on the project, management, the customer, and other stakeholders want to know: When will the product be ready (e.g., to schedule product launch or marketing efforts)? Are we on track (e.g., if delivery dates have…

Recognize the typical Mistakes and Learn from them. — When you look at job postings for Scrum Masters and Agile Coachs, you might think you are dealing with superheroes — so much knowledge and experience are expected, so many tasks they are supposed to take on. And as a Scrum Master, you also have high expectations of yourself and…

Why it Doesn’t Make Sense To Distinguish Between Agile Coach And Scrum Master — Recently I received two requests for freelance assignments in which the clients made a distinction between Scrum Master vs. Agile Coach. One of them said: “We are looking for a Scrum Master, not an Agile Coach!” In the other request, the client described: “In the first phase, we need an…

How To Use Normalized Velocity As A Starting Point — Many Scrum Teams use Velocity as a metric. Yet, the Scrum Guide does not mention Velocity at all. So what is Velocity? In general, Velocity means the speed at which the team processes items in a Sprint, i.e., the speed at which it moves items from “Defined” to “Done”. We…

How to benefit from maximizing the amount of work not done. — Values and principles are the basis for agility. If you look at the twelve principles of the Agile Manifesto, you come across the following principle: “Simplicity — the art of maximizing the amount of work not done — is essential.” This principle often causes astonishment: “Why should we maximize the…