All the Scrum Teams I’ve worked with have used velocity in planning to help forecast work for the upcoming Sprint. Some have also valued it as a performance metric. …

It’s not hard to find Agile enthusiasts within Scrum Teams. But it’s worth checking what exactly they’re enthusiastic about. Sometimes the enthusiasm can be slightly misplaced and based on a flawed understanding of Agile. Deciding to abandon something deemed as “Un-Agile” or limiting focus to a subset of Agile principles…

Answers to some of the many questions about technical spikes. — Are we supposed to story point spikes? When should we use a spike rather than increase the story estimate? What timebox should we give to a spike? I’ve put together a brief list of the dos and don’ts when it comes to using spikes. …

Originally published at https://www.goretro.ai. It can be difficult to extract valuable feedback from a Scrum Team when it comes to the Sprint Retrospective itself. Did they enjoy the activities? Were they engaged? Did they get what they needed from it? …

I’ve often had to convince my fellow team members that it’s OK to make changes to the Sprint Backlog (providing the Sprint Goal isn’t compromised, of course). …

Originally published at https://www.goretro.ai. When it comes to facilitating retrospectives, there’s no shortage of activities to choose from to encourage reflection on the Sprint. Multiple activities can be combined to set the stage, generate insights, decide what to do and wrap up the event. …

Originally published at https://www.goretro.ai. I have witnessed a variety of anti-patterns in my time as a Scrum Master, and the ones I describe here are by far the most common. …

Originally published at https://www.goretro.ai. Learning how to Coach is straightforward; learning when to Coach is the tricky part As a Scrum Master, coaching is an important part of my role. I encourage colleagues to keep an open mind and consider all the potential options and approaches to solve a problem or accomplish a goal. …

It’s well documented that Project Managers often fail to let go of a command and control style of leadership and struggle to succeed in the Scrum Master role. While that’s certainly where some of the Scrum Master anti-patterns originate from, I experienced another major source, the organisation which tries to…