Category around blogs pertaining to scrum masters
“The cost of being a bad Scrum Master is lower than the cost of being a bad engineer.” I remember hearing this from a team member who was double dipping as the team’s Scrum Master. And he was right. There wasn’t enough of him to go around, and the org didn’t have a dedicated team […]
The Cost of Being a Bad Scrum Master Read More »
Are you really going to finish that book you started reading? I know it sounded interesting when you started, and I know you want to learn more. After a week of reading though, you’re only 5% through. How do people speed through books in a day or two? It’s nuts. At this rate, you’ll never
Learning for Growth: Ditching Books on Your Personal Journey Read More »
We’ve all been there. We show up to the sprint review, and a team is showing off technical specs, slides, or perhaps sharing their code. Rarely do they demo the increment they’ve created. And maybe they’re also not inviting anyone outside the team to be part of the conversation. As their coach, we want to
Revamp Your Sprint Review: 3 Essential Questions for Success Read More »
Let’s talk about Shu Ha Ri. For any unfamiliar, it’s a term borrowed from martial arts, and it’s meant to describe the stages of learning to achieve mastery. First, we must learn and apply the rules without deviation (Shu). As we progress, we break the rules or perhaps innovate on the rules to improve ourselves
No Rules Agility: How to Operate in the Ri Read More »
Frequent readers of my blog know that I’m a U.S. Marine Corps veteran. My ten years as a Marine were some of the most formative years of my life, and every today I still rely on what the Corps taught me about a bias toward progress. Marines aren’t known for their nuance, but we know
A Marine’s Guide to Getting S*** Done Read More »
I was catching up with Chris Murman* and out of nowhere he said something that’s stuck with me. He said this more kindly than I’m summing up here, but this is what I took away: Change fatigue with Scrum is what someone says when they don’t want to do something. It caught me off guard,
Change Fatigue Versus Choice Fatigue Read More »
I almost didn’t publish this post since it felt derivative. People much smarter than I have covered this topic in greater depth and elegance than I ever could. Lyssa Adkins comes to mind. Nonetheless, I think André Gide sums up why we’re here: Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But since
Are Agile Coaches Actually Coaching? Read More »
I can’t tell you how many times I heard LinkedIn’s former CEO Jeff Weiner echo these words. Trust is consistency over time. There’s no shortcut for either. It’s great advice whether we’re an aspiring or experienced leader. And I think it’s just as appropriate for coaches. Why? We don’t have this pesky thing called authority,
Trust Is Consistency Over Time Read More »
Last we talked, I was arguing that if estimates are supposed to be accurate, we’d call them actuals. That’s not to say that estimates are meaningless. When used appropriately, they’re valuable and serve an important purpose. Instead, my point was this: Estimates are about mathematics. Expectations are about human connection. That difference matters. Speaking of
Introducing Conditions of Satisfaction to a Team Read More »
Almost everyone agreed that we need to get better at estimation. I heard this recently from a team. It’s not the first time, and I’m sure it won’t be the last. Teams struggle with estimates; others needlessly obsess over it. And while I agree with the sentiment, it’s true but useless. It’s unactionable. In order
If Estimates Were Accurate, We’d Call Them Actuals Read More »
