Tag: scrum master

27 November 2019 / Agile & Scrum

Outcome Based Product Backlogs in Large-Scale Scrum

Many organisations are struggling to setup outcome based Product Backlog for their teams, they were stuck in output or scope based backlogs before and kept that behavior. Even though scope isn't a bad thing, understanding its link to business outcomes and what assumptions are behind is (to me) better. I do address this working with Product Owners in organizations we support adopting LeSS (Huge) and experimented...

21 December 2016 / Agile & Scrum

21 New Year’s Resolutions for Scrum Masters

The end of the year is nearby, time for some New Year’s resolutions! Last year we provided some help to get started for busy Scrum Product Owners, this year we want to support busy Scrum Masters. Here are 21 new year’s resolutions to get you started Stop being a representative for the teams you work with, let the team represent themselves. Slow down to speed up....

29 April 2013 / Agile & Scrum

Most common mistakes in scrum ceremonies 6/7: the sprint retrospective

Not respecting the prime directive This is not a blame game ceremony. We are not looking for a scapegoat. We are looking for ways to improve our collaboration, not destroy it further by pointing fingers. The only reason why it may matter who did it, is that they might have a deeper understanding of why it went wrong. It’s up to the team to work...

22 April 2013 / Agile & Scrum

Most common mistakes in scrum ceremonies 5/7: the sprint review

Turning it into a status meeting, focusing on time tracking The goal of a sprint review is to show the product owner and the stakeholders what the team developed during the sprint. It is not about listing what each team member did, how much time he/she spend on that and how they got it done. This is not valuable for the stakeholders and pretty frustrating...

15 April 2013 / Agile & Scrum

Most common mistakes in scrum ceremonies 4/7: the daily standup

Losing focus during the ceremony The bigger your team gets, the harder it will be to make sure that everyone listens to the rest of the team, otherwise the whole idea of sharing knowledge and checking whether you can still meet the sprint goal is thrown out the window. In order to avoid everyone talking at the same time and losing focus during this very...

1 April 2013 / Agile & Scrum

Most common mistakes in scrum ceremonies 2/7: estimating stories

Spending too much effort in estimating stories People have the tendency to spend too much effort on estimating the incoming work. Having some basics skills available, like high/low showdown, deal and slide and planning poker will help the team to make well educated estimates they feel comfortable with. These techniques are also designed to maximize the return on investment of your time when it comes...