One of the techniques that Agile teams use for estimating their release or sprint backlog is Planning Poker. The game is very simple, but also a very nice instrument for provoking discussions and enhancing the quality of the planning meeting. For those of you who are not familiar with it, here is an explanation of some key concepts, along with a brief…
In one of the latest updates of the Scrum Guide, the five values of Scrum – commitment, focus, openness, respect, and courage were officially added to the guide. Values are something that I consider very important as they define behaviors in the team, but they are also something that I find very hard to explain to people who are new…
Scrum is a great way to manage a project when the team is fully focused on that single product. Many teams, however, are very often stretched between delivering a new product or a new release of a product, and maintenance activities for older releases and existing customers. Since Scrum prescribes at least a dose of predictability and planning for the…
In recent years, being “agile” is nearly a standard in the IT industry. More and more companies transform their work processes and bring agile methodologies like Scrum, to meet the need for rapid adaptation to the dynamically changing business environment and to more effectively exploit the potential of their employees. An essential part of this transformation is the definition of roles and…
This is a game I created for one of our Scrum training. For a one-day training, it is a bit lengthy and resource-consuming. However, it might be a great way to refresh your team’s Scrum knowledge while also creating a team building effect and having a lot of fun (and eventually, good food :)) together. The simulation is essentially a…
Good knowledge of Scrum rules is necessary but by no means sufficient for being a good ProductOwner (PO). This role is extremely important for the project and for the product overall since a job well-done could turn your company into a leader in the business while otherwise sending you behind all your competitors. This implies a lot of additional requirements…
No matter how good a process or methodology is, results are not impressive unless people understand and apply it properly. This is even more true for Agile and it makes the role of the ScrumMaster very important and sometimes quite challenging too. It is definitely not about organizing meetings (oh, yes, I’ve heard that too!) but much more about mentoring and…
When I started working as a ProductOwner, I was not completely aware of how important this role is in a Scrum project. I thought that a good product is primarily defined by the technical skills of the team. Gradually I realized how much a ProductOwner could influence on the success (respectively, failure) of a project in many different aspects. During…
Perhaps you have heard these terms or somebody told you what this is about, but you want to learn more. This is what you need to know and where you can get information. Lean is a philosophy that relies on power, knowledge and commitment of people (an empowered team) and the desire for continuous improvement (kaizen). Another main focus in…