sprint planning Archives - Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast

Aki Salmi: Working With BDD To Help Agile Teams Understand And Deliver On Business Needs

In this episode, Aki shares two impactful stories of change. Firstly, he recounts a scenario as a scrum master in a team with two-week sprints. Because the team was “ok” with letting a feature slip from one sprint to the other, that feature eventually took four weeks to deliver, after which the team found out that they implementation did not align with the business. Implementing Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) with tools like Specflow facilitated better communication with the business, ensuring subsequent deliveries met business needs. Aki’s second story reflects his realization about strong opinions and conflicts. Aki learned the value of active listening and being open to others’ perspectives. In this episode, we refer to Chris Argyris’ “Knowledge for Action”nd Portuguese.

Want to Improve Your Change Management Results? Discover the Lean Change Management Approach Today!

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 Aki Salmi

Aki is a software crafter and shares the joy of coding and the value of empathy at work. That is, Aki works on ones and zeros (code) and everything else (humans).

You can link with Aki Salmi on LinkedIn.

Lorraine Chambers: Dismantling Silos, A Critical Aspect Of Helping Scrum Teams Succeed

In this episode, Lorraine explores the story of a midsized team within a larger organization. Operating in silos, the team members juggled disconnected tasks, leading to significant carryover between sprints, and an inability to fulfill sprint commitments. The silos led to limited collaboration which, in time, further hindered progress. Lorraine addressed concerns with the Product Owner and manager, but changes were deemed unfeasible at the time. This situation impeded the team’s ability to self-organize. As reflection for Scrum Masters, Lorraine advises reflecting on the organizational team model and strategizing how to foster collective participation in sprint planning, shared goals, and self-organization within the team.

Featured Book of the Week: Radical Candor by Kim Scott

Lorraine discusses a pivotal book in her career: “Radical Candor” by Kim Scott, emphasizing its guidance on effective communication and feedback provision for coaches. The book advocates candidness in delivering both praise and criticism, underscoring the significance of nurturing relationships. Lorraine recounts an illustrative story from the book where a lack of candor led to performance issues. The lesson: timely, candid feedback is crucial.

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 Lorraine Chambers

Lorraine’s vision of excellence is summed up in the words of philosopher, Lao Tzu — “A leader is best when people barely know he exists … ” She’s held several roles in the Fintech industry, including Product Owner and Quality Assurance. She’s a native New Yorker that loves travel, music and museums.

You can link with Lorraine Chambers on LinkedIn and connect with Lorraine Chambers on Instagram.

Jill Stott: Learning to work with dominant people in Scrum teams

Jill was working in a team where all the team members knew each other well, it was almost like a group of friends. However, this team was not perfect. They struggled to complete even a third of all the stories they took into the Sprint. When looking back, she can recognize the pattern of the dominant/opinionated developer who wanted to take a lot into every sprint. This left the Product Owner and Business Analyst for that team frustrated, because the unpredictability had already become a problem. Listen in to learn how that team was able to move away from the “take as much as you want” mentality into the sprint.

Featured Book of the Week: Coaching Agile Teams by Lyssa Adkins

In Coaching Agile Teams by Lyssa Adkins, Jill found an essential guide to her work as a Scrum Master. It was the book that helped her understand the different responsibilities of a Scrum Master, the difference between Agile Coaching and the Scrum Master role. It’s a book she still refers to even now.

About Jill Stott

Jill Stott is here to make friends! She’s worked in IT for too many years to count. She is passionate about assisting ScrumMasters to be successful and happy in their roles. Jill knows that there is no such thing as a perfect chocolate chip cookie and she isn’t afraid to use puppets.

You can link with Jill Stott on LinkedIn.

Shaun Bradshaw: The technique that quickly moves a Scrum team from mini-waterfall, to true Scrum

Shaun was working with a team that was consistently failing to meet their Sprint commitments. At first glance, the team was doing everything right, the Product Owner was present and supportive. After a few failed attempts, Shaun decided to “visualize” how the team worked, by asking them to plan out a Sprint on the board. Through this technique, Shaun finally realized that the team was working as if they used Waterfall, even if they were just planning the Sprint. That insight changed the team, and changed Shaun’s approach to coaching that team! Listen in to learn how!

Featured Book of the Week: Predictably irrational by Dan Ariely

In Predictably irrational by Dan Ariely, Shaun found an explanation for some of the confusing observations he had made as a Scrum Master. It helped him understand that, even if some behaviors appear irrational, they can be predictable once we have the right models in mind.

How can Angela (the Agile Coach) quickly build healthy relationships with the teams she’s supposed to help? What were the steps she followed to help the Breeze App team fight off the competition? Find out how Angela helped Naomi and the team go from “behind” to being ahead of Intuition Bank, by focusing on the people! Download the first 4 chapters of the BOOK for FREE while it is in Beta!

About Shaun Bradshaw

Shaun is a founder and principal of Zenergy Technologies, a modern software delivery solutions firm that specializes in Agile, DevOps, Quality, and Automation. Shaun’s background in QA, testing, and metrics has played an important role in his work as an Agile consultant since he joined the community in 2008.

You can link with Shaun Bradshaw on LinkedIn and connect with Shaun Bradshaw on Twitter. You can also follow Shaun Bradshaw’s blog at the Zenergy Technologies site.

Robbie Ross: How to use the three amigos in Agile and Scrum to help teams handle complexity

Robbie was working with a large organization, and helping a team. But he quickly noticed that there was a wider, systemic impact for the change they were asked to do. When working with the team, he suggested that they consider the stories in a “3 amigos” session before Sprint Planning. When this new practice was adopted, it was clear that a simple change like adopting the “3 amigos session” had had a large impact on the team, and the surrounding environment. Listen in, to learn how the “3 amigos” session can help your team collaborate, and define better stories. Learn more about the 3 amigos meeting from Steve Thomas and the 3 amigos session strategy by George Dinwiddie, who were some of the first to propose the practice in the agile community.

About Robbie Ross

Robbie is an Agile Practice Manager at Jumar Technology with a passion for working with and empowering teams to foster an Agile environment at scale. He’s also a Certified Scrum Master, Kanban practitioner and Agile community member helping teams release their genuine potential to deliver value. Quite a career shift since completing a Sports Science degree at University.

You can link with Robbie Ross on LinkedIn and connect with Robbie Ross on Twitter.