Umer Saeed Archives - Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast

Umer Saeed: Bottlenecks are caused by system conditions

When working with teams, we often face bottlenecks. Points in the process that slow everything down. Those bottlenecks are where we should focus our attention if we want to help our team deliver more and faster. For that to happen we need to understand where those bottlenecks come from, and that’s why it is so important to understand the system conditions in play. Bottlenecks are caused by system conditions.

About Umer Saeed

Umer is a Scrum Master, joining us from London, UK, currently working for one of the largest TV broadcasters in the UK, ITV. He has 5 years experience working in Agile environments spanning across Sports, Broadcasting, Travel and Publishing.

You can link with Umer Saeed on LinkedIn and connect with Umer Saeed on Twitter.

Umer Saeed on success as a Scrum Master and a Scrum team

When thinking about our success as Scrum Masters, Umer invites us to think about the success of the team as well. But not forgetting that, as Scrum Masters, we have a specific job to do with concrete questions to ask ourselves in order to assess our work and progress.

Featured Retrospective Format of the Week: Fly High Retro

In the Fly High Retrospective we imagine the team is a Kite, and we want it to fly high. So we explore what are the obstacles (telephone lines, or tree branches), as well as the motivators (like wind) and explore – with the team – how to improve.

In this episode we also discuss the Starfish Retrospective and the “Well/ Not So Well / What different in next sprint” formats.

About Umer Saeed

You can link with Umer Saeed on LinkedIn and connect with Umer Saeed on Twitter.

Umer Saeed on change management at the team level

Sometimes we have to work on team-level changes. Changes about how to release for example. In this episode we explore one such change, and everything that we need to be aware of when working with team, stakeholders and a process that needs to improve. We may think that team-level changes are simpler or easier than other types of changes, but are they really?

About Umer Saeed

You can link with Umer Saeed on LinkedIn and connect with Umer Saeed on Twitter.

Umer Saeed on Artificial Scrum and other anti-patterns

Teams sometimes take “timeboxes” in Scrum as something of a “soft rule”. A rule that is ignored when necessary to avoid the hard-truth of failing to deliver in the Sprint. This is just one of the anti-patterns we discuss with Umer in this episode where we explore how we can help teams implement and benefit from Scrum.

Featured Book of the Week: Scrum and XP from the trenches by Henrik Kniberg

Scrum and XP from the trenches by Henrik Kniberg is a down-to-earth account of how Scrum and XP were adopted at a Swedish company. It’s a book that focuses on the practices, and the daily insights that we collect when working hands-on with the adoption of Agile.

About Umer Saeed

You can link with Umer Saeed on LinkedIn and connect with Umer Saeed on Twitter.

Umer Saeed on how we should start by fixing the basics, but…

Umer was working in a project where chaos was the approach the teams were taking. Not a good way to start, especially not for a new Scrum Master. This led Umer to learn a few tough, but critical lessons about how important it is to set expectations and priorities correctly.

About Umer Saeed

You can link with Umer Saeed on LinkedIn and connect with Umer Saeed on Twitter.