Clarifying Accountability in Scrum: How a Scrum Master Helps the Team Find Their Place
This article highlights the crucial work of Scrum Masters in clarifying team expectations. Effective Scrum Masters promote transparency and communication, aligning team goals with individual contributions. Key strategies include regular retrospectives and discussing team norms. It emphasizes active listening and coaching skills, enabling Scrum Masters to guide team members in expressing their needs. By using these strategies, Scrum Masters boost collaboration, accountability, and performance.
The 4 Keys to Self-Managing Teams
Self-managing teams are the future of high-performing organizations. This post explores the four essential keys to creating self-managing teams: autonomy, collaboration, adaptability, and accountability. By integrating these principles, you can empower your team to take ownership of their work, enhance their problem-solving abilities, and achieve exceptional results. Learn how to implement these keys effectively and transform your team into a self-managing powerhouse.
AI and Agile at the Global Scrum Gathering
Covering the presentation Jim Schiel did at the New Orleans Global Scrum Gathering, late May 2024.
The Latest in Artificial Intelligence: Sentient Sprinting
Do Scrum Team Members have to be Full Time? #AskArtisan
Scrum Team members CAN be part-time, but this week’s #AskArtisan video shares insight on helping them maximize their time, and pitfalls to look out for.
How Many People Should be on One Scrum Team? #AskArtisan
I'm often asked about the ideal number of people on one Scrum Team, but maybe a better question is why and how any number becomes too many?
Evaluating the Performance of a Scrum Master
Creating the Skills You Need for Agility
When beginning the transformation to Agile Development, it's hard to know exactly what skills the organization needs to adapt to the new way of working.
What is the Role of the ScrumMaster?
Although the Scrum Guide defines the ScrumMaster at length, here we're going to dissect that description and take a much closer look at what a ScrumMaster is.
What Do Testers REALLY Do On a Scrum Team?
Analysis, design, coding, and testing are done constantly rather than in phases, meaning testing ISN'T just a phase but an ongoing part of Agile Development.
Self-Managing Teams
When I teach or coach people about Scrum, we talk about self-organization, but the importance of self-organizational principles cannot be understated.
The Specialist Bottleneck: A Real Challenge in Agile Teams
Scarce specialists like technical writers, DBAs, and UX analysts often become overloaded in Agile environments. Assigning them to multiple Scrum teams seems like a fix—but leads to delays, frustration, and poor outcomes. This article offers 5 proven strategies to solve the specialist bottleneck while improving flow, reducing risk, and enhancing learning across teams.
Is Your Scrum Team Stuck? It Might Be a Product Ownership Problem
If your Scrum teams are “doing all the right things”—running Sprints, holding Reviews—but still not improving in quality, value, or productivity, the issue may not be process. It may be a lack of real Product Ownership. This article explores why communication is a Product Owner’s most valuable skill, how traditional mindsets limit Agile success, and what to do if formal training isn’t an option.
Teaching the Scrum Framework
It's critical everyone on a new Scrum Team starts with the same understanding of Scrum. A learning structure called “ShuHaRi” can be related to teaching Scrum.
I Think We Broke Something... Somewhere
Many organizations transitioning to Agile Development suffer from a preconceived idea that coding tasks and testing tasks should be seen as separate activities.