The (mis)adventures of an agile coach
“The Scrum Team and its stakeholders agree to be open about all the work and the challenges with performing the work.” – The Scrum Guide Openness as a Scrum Value is of utmost importance. To ensure that the Scrum Team makes the most progress in the shortest amount of time, each team member must be … Read more
“Everyone focuses on the work of the Sprint and the goals of the Scrum Team.” – The Scrum Guide Scrum Teams can quickly feel overloaded. Or they can lose sight of what each member is doing. To figure out what to tackle first and to minimize waste, the whole team needs to think as one … Read more
“Scrum team members have the courage to do the right thing and work on tough problems.” – The Scrum Guide Why should ‘courage’ be mentioned specifically, do you think? Courage in the context of the Scrum values means having the courage to do what needs to be done and not being afraid that it won’t … Read more
“People personally commit to achieving the goals of the Scrum Team.” – The Scrum Guide Commitment as a value sounds rather bit abstract and is often misunderstood. Get out of bed, brush your teeth, come into work with a positive mindset, follow instructions, make it to the deadline – right? In the context of the … Read more
One of my favorite activities is teaching (potential) Product Owners about their roles and responsibilities in the Scrum Team. One of the most important things I try to help them understand, is “time is rigid, scope is flexible”. And it’s true, in the (Scrum) projects I have been working on at a digital agency for … Read more
While I was writing an article about the stances of a Scrum Master, I was at first a bit confused about the differences between the roles of coach, mentor and teacher. In this small article I want to zoom in on the differences between these different roles. Coaching, mentoring, and teaching are all important roles … Read more
In a previous article I talked about the eight stances of a Scrum Master, as described in the 2016 whitepaper by Barry Overeem. These stances are the roles that a Scrum Master should fulfill. In his whitepaper Overeem also described eight misunderstood stances of a Scrum Master. As a Scrum Master, it is important to … Read more
One of my most fondest memories of my PSM II training was a sheet depicting the various stances (and misunderstandings of the role) of the Scrum Master. This was based on the famous 2016 whitepaper of Barry Overeem, in which he wrote about his personal experiences as a Scrum Master. Last year, when I presented … Read more
Two titles proudly appear at the top of my LinkedIn profile: Project Manager and Scrum Master. It turns out that I am not the only one who fulfills these dual roles and I have noticed a lot of ambiguity about the difference (and the overlap) between the roles. I would like to take you through … Read more
Earlier today a colleague asked me how I facilitate a Sprint Retrospective. It was her first sprint in the role of Scrum Master and in that sense also her first Retro. Back to the theory for a moment. The Scrum Guide describes the Sprint Retrospective as follows: “The Scrum Team inspects how the last Sprint … Read more
This is it. I spent the last few weeks studying for the PSM III exam. Six books about the exam material are on my bedside table, which I am reading diligently. I even printed out the most recent version of the Scrum Guide, coloring in several words and sentences with different markers. I was filled … Read more