Risk Management Archives - Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast

Irene Castagnotto: The Risk-Aware Scrum Master: Preventing Problems Before They Happen

Irene defines success for Scrum Masters as helping teams anticipate and manage risks before they become unexpected problems. She focuses on ensuring teams don’t face surprise risks during sprints and don’t start work with missing requirements. Her approach includes using user story mapping with Product Owners to visualize potential risks and maintaining team happiness as a key success indicator. For Irene, creating a positive team environment is a crucial deliverable that Scrum Masters must actively work on. She emphasizes the importance of listening to team feedback and regularly assessing whether the team feels supported and engaged.

In this segment, we refer to W. Edwards Deming, and his famous quote “a bad system will beat a good person, every time!”

Featured Retrospective Format for the Week: The Good/Bad/Risk Retrospective

This retrospective format works particularly well with younger teams and uses humor to help teams discuss emotionally challenging topics. The format focuses on three key areas: what went well (Good), what didn’t work (Bad), and what potential risks the team sees ahead (Risk). Irene recommends this approach because it helps teams surface risks that aren’t visible to anyone else, creating opportunities to address potential problems proactively. By incorporating the language of risk into everyday conversations, teams become more aware of potential challenges and can plan accordingly. The humor element helps reduce the emotional intensity that often accompanies difficult discussions about team performance and challenges.

In this segment, we refer to the book “How to Make Good Things Happen: Know Your Brain, Enhance Your Life” by Marian Rojas Estape.

Self-reflection Question: How comfortable is your team with discussing risks openly, and what techniques could you use to make these conversations more approachable?

Transform Your Agile Teams with Hard-Earned Lessons from Super-Experienced Scrum Masters

Do you wish you had decades of experience? Learn from the Best Scrum Masters In The World, Today! The Tips from the Trenches – Scrum Master edition audiobook includes hours of audio interviews with SM’s that have decades of experience: from Mike Cohn to Linda Rising, Christopher Avery, and many more. Super-experienced Scrum Masters share their hard-earned lessons with you. Learn those today, make your teams awesome!

About Irene Castagnotto

Irene, a Gen Z Italian Scrum Master, began her Agile journey at a young age. With a positive and passionate approach, she aims to help her generation navigate the world of work with confidence and serenity, while supporting teams in unlocking their full potential.

You can link with Irene Castagnotto on LinkedIn.

BONUS: The Art of Slicing Work with Anton Skornyakov

This episode features Anton Skornyakov, an expert in Agile methodologies and the author of “The Art of Slicing Work: How to Navigate Unpredictable Projects.” Let’s unpack the concept of slicing work and explore how it can revolutionize productivity and project management.

Inspiration Behind The Book

“Focusing on ‘what’s the result we want from this discussion’ shifts our mindset towards more practical, outcome-oriented conversations.”

Anton shares what drove him to write his book. In his coaching practice, he noticed that many organizational discussions were mired in theory rather than focusing on actionable outcomes. By centering the conversation on “the next step” and the desired results for the upcoming two weeks, teams can move from abstract planning to concrete, actionable steps.

Understanding Slicing Work

Continue reading BONUS: The Art of Slicing Work with Anton Skornyakov

Isshai Kamara: Redefining Government Projects, A Tale of Agile Empowerment

In this episode, Isshai shares the challenging transition from a waterfall to an Agile project for a U.S. government initiative. Initially, waterfall methods led to slow testing and limited team involvement in requirement gathering. Shifting to Agile drastically quickened development, reducing the time to demonstrate working software from months to weeks and enabling earlier risk identification. The project was delivered sooner than anticipated. Key to this success was a focus on team-building, close collaboration with organizational support structures, comprehensive training, and a user story writing workshop to enhance team and PO’s skills in collecting requirements.

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As Scrum Master we work with change continuously! Do you have your own change framework that provides the guidance, and queues you need when working with change? The Lean Change Management framework is a fully defined, lean-startup inspired change framework that can be used as the backbone of any change process! You can buy Lean Change Management the book at Amazon. Also available in French, Spanish, German and Portuguese.

About Isshai Kamara

Isshai Kamara is a seasoned IT professional with over 12 years of experience, specializing in Agile delivery roles and Scrum implementation. Initially a Technologist, he later transitioned into Project and Engineering Management. With 8 years in Agile delivery, Isshai has become an advocate for IT careers, aiding professionals in transitions and conducting bootcamps for tech roles. His extensive experience in Agile methodologies and commitment to IT career development make him a distinguished figure in the tech community.

You can link with Isshai Kamara on LinkedIn and connect with Isshai Kamara on Instagram.

Takunda Noha: Reinventing the Scrum Master Role, Transferring Skills and Approaches as a Success Strategy

In this episode, Takunda explores various perspectives on success as a scrum master. He emphasizes that when he leaves the team, they should not regress but continue to thrive. To achieve this, he believes in constantly reinventing himself within the team and transferring his skills and approaches to team members. Takunda shares a tip on strategically pulling back by occasionally allowing someone else to take over certain responsibilities, such as facilitating sessions. We also discuss using “do you mind…” questions as a way to empower team members and encourage their active participation. This approach fosters collaboration and growth within the team while ensuring continuity in the scrum master’s role.

Featured Retrospective Format for the Week: Reverse Brainstorming, Avoid Failure by Preparing For It In Advance!

In this segment, Takunda discusses his favorite retrospective format called “Reverse Brainstorming.” He highlights that as humans, we tend to focus more on negative aspects than the positive ones. In this retrospective format, the team reflects on how they could do things poorly or become the worst performing team. By deliberately considering the negative scenarios and imagining how things could go wrong, the team can uncover potential pitfalls and identify areas for improvement. This format encourages the team to think creatively and critically about their processes and helps them explore different perspectives to enhance their performance.

How can I, as a Scrum Master, supercharge my facilitation?

Retrospectives, planning sessions, vision workshops, we are continuously helping teams learn about how to collaborate in practice! In this Actionable Agile Tools book, Jeff Campbell shares some of the tools he’s learned over a decade of coaching Agile Teams. The pragmatic coaching book you need, right now! Buy Actionable Agile Tools on Amazon, or directly from the author, and supercharge your facilitation toolbox!

About Takunda Noha

Takunda is a seasoned change agent. He specializes in turning dysfunctional teams into high performing teams.

You can link with Takunda Noha on LinkedIn.

Tinatin Tabidze: Scaling Agile Teams, a Proactive Change Management approach

Tinatin highlights the importance of being proactive in change. She stresses the need to be aware of what can be changed in one’s role and in the team, and to talk to the manager and peers to assess the changes needed.

Working with her colleagues in a change team, they decided to create a framework/guide for scaling agile in that company and with the teams involved. The process involves finding the need, identifying the source of the need, minimizing dependencies when scaling, accepting and preparing for initial failures, being one’s own critic, staying focused on the change, defining a clear picture of where they want to be, and presenting data to the team to help them reflect and define the changes they want to commit to. Tinatin’s tip is to listen to the team, present data, but avoid jumping to conclusions and let the team come up with their own interpretation. A challenge that we should take on as Scrum Masters!

About Tinatin Tabidze

Tinatin Tabidze is a Scrum Master currently working in Stuttgart, Germany. Originally she started out as a project manager. She has experience with multiple scrum and kanban teams, working with scaled agile frameworks.

You can link with Tinatin Tabidze on LinkedIn.