Bonus – Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast

BONUS: A DevOps transformation from the point of view of the development teams with János Csorvási and Jeff Campbell

Jeff is the author of Actionable Agile tools (available on Amazon, and direct from the author at bit.ly/aatbook).

Jeff and János share the story of a DevOps transformation at Meltwater, where they both work. We start by discussing the big differences between an Agile and a DevOps transformation.

The big difference between Agile and DevOps transformations

As they describe it, a DevOps transformation is more about the technical aspects of software development. While in an Agile transformation we may look at processes, and team composition, the DevOps transformation that Jeff and János describe was focused on removing the hand-overs, and building the technical infrastructure necessary for that to happen. Their goal was to create, and support cross functional teams that would be able to implement, deploy and operate their software in production.

Change management in a DevOps transformation

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BONUS: Learning what makes a great place to work with Woody Zuill and Yves Hanoulle

The idea for this episode started with a conversation with Yves and Woody when recording one chapter for the Tips from the Trenches Audiobook (check out the audiobook). In this episode, we talk about, and try to define what makes a great place to work, or as Woody calls them: wonderful places to work!

Woody starts by describing two different workplaces, one that was “wonderful”, and one that was not. We explore what the differences were between those two places, and what we can learn from those stories as Scrum Masters.

As Scrum Masters, our role is to help our teams, and our organizations move towards a better place to work, therefore these lessons are critical for us to act on.

In this segment, we refer to MobProgramming, an approach to teamwork that Woody has been talking and writing about for some years; and Cynefin, a model that tries to describe the differences between different levels of complexity, and defines certain strategies for managing different types of work.

“Turn up the good” a heuristic to build great places to work

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BONUS: Highlights of the Scrum Master Summit 2022 with the track hosts Kjell de Ruiter and Ari-Pekka Skarp

In this podcast we explore some of the main highlights from the Scrum Master Summit 2022 with track hosts Kjell de Ruiter and Ari-Pekka Skarp.

We also name the remaining track hosts and the other tracks that you can check out at https://scrummastersummit.org/. Those include:

Dana Pylayeva, will host the coaching track at the summit, where we explore some of the hard lessons we need to be aware of when adopting coaching in our practice
Ayodeji Ishola, hosts a track on the state of Agile in the African continent, and will be showcasing talks that address the cultural specific aspects of Agile in Africa
Mariana Trigo, will have 6 sessions on career advice for Scrum Masters and hiring advice for those hiring Scrum Masters. She’ll have a special focus on how you can get into the Scrum Master role even if you don’t have a tech background.
Yves Hanoulle, the co-author of the Tips from The trenches audiobook, hosts a track on Hybrid work, very topical now that we have our teams remote most of the time
Martin von Weissenberg, will share patterns of scaled agile. Not the frameworks we always hear about, but rather practical, down-to-earth advice for specific needs when we scale agile

Accepting and learning to deal with Social Complexity in Agile adoption

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BONUS: The psychology of communicating data with Dan Vacanti

Dan joins Vasco to talk about how we can communicate data when working with stakeholders and the team. He’s joined the podcast previously to talk about #NoEstimates with Vasco and Marcus Hammarberg. You can listen to that episode here.

We start the conversation by discussing some of the most common anti-patterns we fall into when communicating data to stakeholders and the team. The first anti-pattern Dan mentions is “assuming that people understand the data you present to them”.

We discuss why that is often a problem, and the role of rationality when discussing and deciding on what interventions are warranted based on the data that is presented.

In this segment, we also discuss that the role of data, and presenting data, is to assess what actions might be necessary to correct something, or improve the process we work with.

The emotions behind our reactions to the data being presented

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BONUS: The art, and science of making prediction with #NoEstimates. With Dan Vacanti and Marcus Hammarberg

We explore a real-life project that Marcus was part of, and how the #NoEstimates methods he used helped him make predictions, even if did not estimate the work to be done.

This conversation started from an article that Marcus had posted earlier on social media. In that article Marcus explained how he had used data, as opposed to estimates to make a prediction of when the project would be finished. This approach still creates a lot of controversy on twitter, even if it has been (at the time of recording) 10+ years since the original discussion around estimates started by Woody Zuill and Vasco Duarte on twitter under the tags of #NoEstimates and #Estwaste respectively.

As Marcus quickly found out in this project, the rate of progress could not have been predicted easily at the start (if at all). When he first started the project, the progress was swift, but at one point he faced a problem he could not solve for several days. This phenomenon is not new for any programmers in the audience, and is quite common. Also, one of the reasons why using methods like #NoEstimates (as explained in the #NoEstimates book, and in Marcus’ blog post), can help uncover information that estimation would not.

Dealing with surprises: the information you need to share with stakeholders

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BONUS: Plan to pivot, a book and many lessons for Agile non-IT organizations with Gerry Starsia

Gerry came across Agile while working as a project manager in a construction company. Motivated by his drive to provide a great service to his customers, he started to study how to make his own business more adaptable and Agile.

Working with new technologies, he started to improve certain aspects of his business. However, he quickly realized that the size of the projects and demands of the customers were making what once was an “easy” to manage service, into a complicated service with many moving parts.

The use of computers helped manage that complexity, but also brought even more complexity. This was when Gerry discovered Agile and what it could bring to a non-IT business.

Agile applied to non-IT industries

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BONUS: Social Complexity and the work of the Scrum Master with Jurgen Appelo and Ari-Pekka skarp

Social Complexity is a topic that does not get enough attention in the Agile community. Even if Social Complexity has been studied for a long time and has a significant influence on the study of groups, and society at large, we seem to have dropped it, or even missed it’s importance in the world of Agile.

Agile organizations, and agile teams are a prime subject for the use of tools and methods from Social Complexity research. So what do we need to learn from that field in our roles as Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches

What is Social Complexity? A primer for Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches

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BONUS: What you can learn from the Scrum Master Journey, with Marc Loeffler

This is episode 3 of a series of episodes dedicated to the content, and the steps of the Scrum Master Journey, a program hosted by our guest: Marc Löffler.

In the previous episode, we shared tips on how to help teams self-organize and how to work with, and change the culture in organizations.

In this episode, we talk about the transformation we need to go through as Scrum Masters after obtaining the basic training. How the training we have is necessary, but not sufficient to face the challenges that we need to face in our roles. We start this episode talking about the need to reflect on our own journey, and Marc shares with us a guide to self-reflection which you can download here.

Scrum Master training is necessary, but not sufficient to deal with the challenges Scrum Masters must face

— Scrum Master Journey, Marc Löffler

The most important part of your success as a Scrum Masters

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BONUS: Two common Scrum Master challenges and how to solve them. With Marc Loeffler

The Scrum Master Journey (SMJ) is a program designed to help you succeed as Scrum Master. Marc joins us to explain what that SMJ program includes, and share some first-hand stories of how this program has already helped many Scrum Masters in practice.

If you want to know more, you can visit the Scrum Master Journey at https://scrum-master-toolbox.org/SMJ.

For the full show notes on this episode, please visit the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.

This is episode 2 of a series of episodes dedicated to the content, and the steps of the Scrum Master Journey, a program hosted by our guest: Marc Löffler.

In the previous episode, we shared what were the top 2 challenges that Scrum Masters face in their role. We start this episode by sharing ideas on how to solve those problems, and what Scrum Masters can do to learn more about what is behind those challenges.

Helping Scrum teams self-organize, a practical how-to

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BONUS: The Scrum Master Journey, a program to help you succeed in your role. With Marc Löffler

This is episode 1 of a series of episodes dedicated to the content, and the steps of the Scrum Master Journey, a program hosted by our guest: Marc Löffler.

We start this episode by reflecting on the observation that the Scrum Master role has become a profession, with specific training needs, as well as a specific type of tasks that come with it. These tasks, and responsibilities are different from many other roles in the product development space, and therefore require a specific journey of learning and practicing. A Scrum Master Journey!

Marc has written several books on the Scrum Master role, and he is also the host of a Scrum Master focused program, that cuts through the weeds of the many different things a Scrum Master must learn and helps us go through a journey designed to get us ready for the challenges ahead.

The chaos of new ideas that Scrum Masters must understand and apply

Continue reading BONUS: The Scrum Master Journey, a program to help you succeed in your role. With Marc Löffler