questions Archives - Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast

Gitte Klitgaard on how she helped recruit an Agile Coaching team

How do you hire an entire team? How to cope with different personalities? What to do about the coaches and Scrum Masters that turn into process police? These are just some of the questions we discuss in this episode.

About Gitte Klitgaard

Gitte is a very pragmatic world-changer. She wants to make the world a better place today, not tomorrow. She’s also very experienced agile coach and regular speaker. But here’s the punch line: she talks about things that no one else talks about. She lives by the mantra “why try to fit in when you were born to stand out?” and she says that her best coaching tools are listening and making people think.
You link with Gitte Klitgaard on LinkedIn, and connect with Gitte Klitgaard on twitter.

Natalie Warnert on how observation can help you uncover the system

Natalie explains her approach to understanding and visualizing the system conditions that affect the teams she works with:

Start by asking “how are the tools, practices and policies affecting the team’s I work with?”
Then take a pen and draw the links between the different observations, do this with the whole team. Expect to hear many different perspectives, and help the team make sense of those different views.
Use also metrics, but not just one. Look at several metrics and ask people to look beyond a single metric, and beyond the metrics. What do these metrics tell us?
Identify possible underlying conditions that affect the team.

Always keep in mind, that this process will be different for every team you work with, each team is different.

About Natalie Warnert

As a developer turned Agile coach, Natalie Warnert understands and embraces what it takes to build great products. Natalie focuses teams on embracing Agile values to build the right product and build the product right. Natalie is currently coaching the Cart/Checkout teams for Best Buy Dotcom and recently earned her Master of Arts degree in Organizational Leadership and Strategic Management.
You can link with Natalie Warnert on LinkedIn, connect with Natalie Warnert on Twitter, read her blog at nataliewarnert.com, and visit her project page Women in Agile.

Natalie Warnert: the questions the team ask are your Success Metric

There are many ways to measure success, and it’s not easy to choose just one of them. Natalie chooses to focus on the questions that the team asks. Are they asking questions that challenge you? Are they asking questions that make you feel uncomfortable? Natalie also suggests you focus on how your own questions make you feel. The job of the Scrum Master is not easy, and the questions we ask are supposed to be a critical part of our job. HOw many uncomfortable conversations did you have last week?

About Natalie Warnert

Ebenezer Ikonne on the 6 success questions for Scrum Masters

In this episode we cover what success means for Scrum Masters and what questions you can use to assess your own success

● Is the team achieving its purpose?
● Is the team fulfilling its goals?
● Is the team working according to the agile values?
● Is the journey of the team an enjoyable one?
● Did I address the blockers in a timely fashion?
● How did I help solve the conflicts productively?

We also discuss the importance and how to ask for feedback from the team and stakeholders.

About Ebenezer Ikonne

Technology enthusiast. Change artist. Culture hacker. People focused. Helping organizations provide their employees with the most meaningful and fulfilling experience they could have while delivering solutions that change the world. Ebenezer is also a Tech Director at Mannheim.
You can link with Ebenezer Ikonne on LinkedIn, and contact Ebenezer Ikonne on Twitter. You can also read his thoughts on Agile on his blog.

Neil Killick how important it is to ask questions and how easy it is to forget that

We don’t ask questions often enough, and in this episode Neil explains why that is so important. Neil tells us a story of a project that started well, continued well, everything seemed to work well, until…
He discusses how one small detail derailed the whole project, and how to avoid that in the future.

About Neil Killick

Neil has been a software professional for over 18 years, mostly as a developer, before moving to management. He spent the last 5 years being a passionate Agile, Lean and Scrum coach, trainer and practitioner. Neil cares deeply about creating enjoyable, authentic workplaces in which human potential can thrive.
You can connect with Neil Killick on twitter. Neil Killick’s blog.