Sprint Tasks Tips: Staying Focused when Agile Sprint Planning Assigning tasks at sprint planning makes us task-driven or more focused on our tasks than the goal of the sprint. For some time, it looks like we’re making rapid improvements until some tasks get blocked. Then, we just move on only to later on realize that…

Product owners, the team members who’re responsible for investing in the product that we’re delivering, are not mandatory participants of the Daily Scrum. But as people shepherding the investment, they are interested in them because it’s a valuable 15 minutes spent synchronizing with the team: an opportunity to be updated with what’s happening with the…

In an Agile environment, you don’t have to be nice. But you should always be kind. Leaders should be: [Fill in the blank.]  Depending on whether you’re a traditionalist, boomer, Gen X, millennial, or Gen Z, you probably have very different perspectives on what leadership looks like and how leaders should act. In recent years,…

 Is Your Team on Target? How to use Scrum Burndown Charts to Measure Performance Scrum Burndown Charts are designed to provide your team with feedback on how you’re performing, so you can make informed decisions as you move forward.  There are different levels of burndowns including project, release, and sprint burndowns, but they all have…

Kanban vs Scrum: What’s Better for Your Project? Deciding between Kanban vs Scrum can be a tough nut to crack, especially since these terms are often mistaken for one another and go hand-in-hand. However, there are some key factors that set them apart.  What is Scrum all about? Scrum is a framework that builds upon…

The Symbiotic Relationship between Sprint Backlogs and Product Backlogs If you’re new to the Scrum methodology, the difference between Sprint Backlog and Product Backlog can be a head-scratcher. Let’s take a quick look at these tools. Ready, set, go! What is the Product Backlog? Essentially, a Product Backlog (PB) is a dynamic list of potential…

In today’s organizations, modern leaders often focus on fostering a learning and experimental culture. In such environments, employees usually don’t have to worry about making mistakes because their efforts are in the interest of trying and learning new concepts every day. This type of agility, which cultivates teamwork, innovation and growth, has become even more…

Top 8 Benefits of Getting Your Scrum Master Certification Earning your Scrum Master certification gives you an edge over other competitors in agile organizations. What more? Let us fill you in on all its advantages! 8 Ways the Scrum Master Certification Makes a Difference The Scrum Master Certification has been one of the most demanded…

For High-Definition Planning, Plan Sprints Backward Most scrum teams start their sprint planning from day 1 – from the sprint start – and then plan the rest of their sprint moving forward. This usually results in ‘happy path’ plans that often don’t consider potential risks and pitfalls. Instead of planning how stories and other backlog…

Using the “Just in Time” Approach for Task Assignment Sometimes, pre-planning every detail of a sprint and who is going to work on what task when may not be the best approach for your team.  In fact, your team may find that taking a  “Just in Time” approach to work and task assignment may be…

Boost your Career with a CSM Certification A CSM certification is an invaluable addition to your resume. But it’s more than just that! It can significantly help you with your professional life, and also greatly benefit the organization you work for.  9 ways getting a CSM certification can benefit your career   Certified ScrumMasters earn…

Why do Project Managers Make Such Great ScrumMasters? You don’t have to be a project manager to become a ScrumMaster. That said, project managers often have the characteristics and skills needed to make great ScrumMasters. Communication skills – Both project managers and ScrumMasters need to be able to communicate effectively with and navigate between all stakeholders…

Job hunting while the world is on stand-still can feel like running on a hamster wheel. You’re working as hard as you possibly can, and running non-stop, but you’re still getting nowhere.  If you look at the numbers though, you’ll see that employment in the US is turning itself around, with payroll employment rising by…

What does Business Agility truly mean? Failing fast, creating iterative strategies, delivering minimum viable products, and rapidly adapting to change and uncertainty. COVID-19 – and the unprecedented global disruption it has caused – has forced organizations of all sizes in all industries to deal with rapidly changing markets. In fact, 43% of small business owners…

Have you ever considered improving your Sprint retrospective with the help of an external facilitator? If you can’t think why that would help, just keep reading. As the ScrumMaster, you know that a successful retrospective is key to the continued improvement of the team. This is where the team discusses the sprint as a whole…

Kick off your Team with a Retrospective Starting your scrum team off the right way can be the difference between success and failure. Here’s a great idea to set them up for success, by starting by looking back – with a retrospective. Everyone has their own way of kicking off a scrum team. Some Scrum…

Estimation a drag? Get the whole team involved. While it might seem counter-intuitive, getting your entire team involved in the estimation process will end up providing more clarity, and actually improve your plans overall. Let’s just admit it. Estimating stories or other backlog items is not fun. A lot of times it can even become…

Want to meet for a coffee? … Oh right. Whether you think it’s a great idea or not, you’ve probably found yourself working as part of a remote team over the past few weeks, and none of us know exactly when it’s going to end. For those of us who thrive on the agile idea…

Here’s how introducing yellow and red meeting cards can help you focus your teams meetings, and stop them getting taken off track. We’ve all been there when a meeting loses focus. Sometimes participants get too far in the weeds, sometimes they start talking about things that aren’t relevant, or maybe start talking about redundant things…

Agile QuickTip: Using Multiple Choice Estimates If you ever find that estimating tasks during sprint planning is painful and argumentative then multiple choice estimates might really help with your team’s planning. Most scrum teams follow a similar path during sprint planning. Team members will break user stories or backlog items down into individual implementation tasks…

How Do You Capture Your User Stories and Product Ideas? Try Index Cards Here’s an out of the box idea that at first glance might seem counter-intuitive. I believe that user stories and product ideas should be born on index cards, rather than immediately logged electronically. Most Agile or scrum teams will use some kind…

Process management tools are a common way to for a team to manage its work, it’s backlog, and its plans.  But these are repositories of information, they are not likely the best way to create this information.  Here’s an idea that might make work better. Most agile scrum teams will use some kind of digital…

Add Expiration Dates to Your Backlog Items If you have a backlog that’s getting out of control, consider using expiration dates to help control the list and streamline your team’s priorities. Many mature agile teams or scrum teams that have been together for a while might find themselves with a backlog that’s hundreds if not…

A Wishlist of Ready! Many Agile and Scrum teams have adopted the practice of having a “Definition of Ready” as a way to explicitly define when a Story – or Backlog Item – is “Ready” for a team to take into a Sprint.  This often serves as an entrance gate for Stories and ideas to…

Achievement Focused Daily Scrum If you’re feeling like your daily Scrum or Stand-up is getting less valuable, and losing some of its effectiveness, why not turn things around by changing the focus to achievements rather than activities? Most Agile team’s Stand-ups or Scrums focus pretty heavily on activities. Questions asked in the daily Scrum include…

Implicit Task Estimates Instead of Explicit Ones by Giora Morein  You’re about to learn how changing your task estimates from explicit to implicit could make all the difference to the productivity and experience of your Scrum teams. Sprint planning is where most Scrum or Agile teams will take a story or a different backlog item…

Using a Shared Daily Goal to make Your Sprint more Valuable The idea of a ‘Shared Daily Goal’ is really simple, and by using this tactic at the end of every scrum, you might see a huge impact on how valuable your daily scrum meetings are. The daily scrum or daily stand-up is all about…

Using a calendar to drive your sprint planning meeting can make your sprint plan a lot more successful. Every sprint starts with sprint planning. Sprint planning is where team members and their product owner collaborate to define a plan to maximize the value of the upcoming sprint. This will sometimes include outlining the timeline for…

Turn your traditional Scrum or stand-up agenda on its head with a learning focused Scrum. Typically, agile or scrum teams have a daily Scrum or stand up where the focus is on progress or activity. Looking at what you’ve accomplished since the previous Scrum, the questions addressed are typically; ‘What have you achieved?’; ‘What challenges…

The Sprint Planning Mini Retro You could be making Sprint Planning far more effective by including a mini retrospective at the end of it. Sprint planning is the opening ceremony for every team Sprint. This is where your entire team comes together with your product owner and facilitated by your ScrumMaster, to figure out the…

Avoid Starting Sprints on Mondays or Fridays Sometimes a small change can make a big difference. Starting sprints on days other than Mondays and Fridays can make your scrum more valuable, and solve some common scrum problems for your agile team. A lot teams will start their agile sprints on Mondays and end them on…

A Minute of Scrum Fun Set your Scrum apart with a minute of fun! Many scrum or agile teams find their daily Scrum or stand up can become a little boring or stale. When it’s not that interesting, you might find that people even start to dread going. Unengaged team members can lead to late…

Have you considered how ensuring you have some sync time scheduled before your daily scrum might make for an overall better stand up? One of the constant challenges for agile or scrum teams is making sure that the daily stand up is concise, focused and valuable. Far more often it takes longer than we’d like…

Have you considered using scrum follow-ups to keep your scrum meetings on point? One problem that scrum or agile teams have to contend with is the long daily scrum. The most effective daily scrum meetings are between 10 and 15 minutes, keeping the content brief but relevant. Instead of hitting that target, we often see…

The daily scrum is an integral part of any scrum team. Here you can discuss what you’ve been working on the previous day, bring up challenges that are standing in the way of progress, and set the context for the day’s work. But have you heard of the Popcorn scrum method? One of the challenges…