Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast

Michael Schmidt: Leading Change with Trust and Agility, To Help Teams Find Their Flavor Of Agile Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. In this episode, Michael shares his experiences in leading change within a large corporation. Backed by strong executive support, the co-located team cultivated a positive attitude towards change. They stopped the day-to-day operations for some time, to be able adopt a fresh approach, focusing on efficiency and self-organization. Lively discussions and diverse approaches were encouraged, showcasing that Agile could benefit the entire organization. Trust and flexibility were key, allowing teams to find their own paths within the selected Agile framework. Value delivery was prioritized, and roles remained fluid, emphasizing adaptability in achieving success. Michael's story highlights the power of change leadership and collaborative, go

Michael Schmidt: When Comfort Stagnates Progress For An Agile Team, The Problem Avoidance Anti-pattern Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. In this episode, Michael recounts his experience in a company where he went against his instincts due to comfort. The software development environment prioritized being busy over progress. Goal setting and sprint planning were undervalued, and negative behaviors like gossiping prevailed. Michael's attempts to offer help were met with resistance, as the team downplayed any possible issues. This anti-pattern of avoiding talking about problems hindered growth. Through perseverance, Michael learned the importance of trusting his intuition and initiating small, positive changes to build trust and overcome the fear, or dislike to discuss obstacles and problems. Featured Book Of The Week: Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great

Michael Schmidt: Ensuring Kanban Sustainability Despite The Scrum Master’s Absence Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. In this episode, Michael shares his experience with implementing Kanban in a software development team. Despite a functional team, the input quality was not good enough, and the team also had too many people taking on the product manager role. Michael collaborated with them, establishing a workflow and introducing a "Ready-kanban" system. Daily product standups were instituted, but progress halted when Michael went on vacation. Upon his return, he discovered no improvements, highlighting a trust deficit in the Kanban process. Michael emphasizes the need for collective ownership and sustainability of the practice, urging reflection on its benefits for lasting success.   [IMAGE HERE] Recovering from failure, or difficult moments is a critical skil

Konstantin Ribel: The Product Owner Turnaround With The Help of Real-Time Feedback By The Scrum Master Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. The Great Product Owner: The PO That Looked At Backlog Items As Investments Konstantin describes for us a standout Product Owner with a strong business focus. This PO viewed work time as an investment, carefully considering the team's use of their time. They treated backlog items as hypotheses, emphasizing the need for validation with real customers. Seeking feedback on these hypotheses and involving the team in refinement and customer reviews were key practices. The team's active participation in feedback cycles played a crucial role in value creation. Konstantin also recommends organizing sprint reviews with customers for optimal product development. The Bad Product Owner: The PO Turnaround With The Help of Real-Time Feedb

Konstantin Ribel: The Three Tiers of Scrum Master Success, Team, Multi-team, and Product Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. Konstantin outlines three tiers of success for Scrum Masters. Level 1 centers on fostering teamwork and trust within a single team. Level 2 emphasizes collaboration between multiple teams, avoiding silos, and ensuring equitable workloads. Level 3 delves into product-focused success, considering customer-driven value, delivery efficiency, and feedback loops. Konstantin advises bringing teams together through multi-team events and facilitating progress sharing among teams to enhance overall success in the Scrum Master role. Featured Retrospective Format For The Week: Tailoring Retrospectives, Konstantin's Recipe For Scrum Master Adaptability To Team Needs Konstantin advocates for adaptability in retrospectives, noting the importance of ditc

Konstantin Ribel: A Blueprint for Organizational Transformation With The LeSS framework, A Case Study Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. Konstantin shares a pivotal change initiative aimed at tackling a complex product in a major automotive company. Focusing solely on change, he collaborated with management and specialists to define the necessary changes. A workshop, led by Konstantin, served as a major catalyst, and triggered collaboration across the organization. Through four months of intensive collaboration, the direction of change was clarified, emphasizing a real organizational shift. The team iteratively simplified a consulting company's proposal, ultimately embracing the LeSS Framework for Scaled Agile. Konstantin highlights the importance of being open to challenges from the organizing, and working to get buy-in, and adopting a political mindset. He advis

Konstantin Ribel: Rebuilding Scrum Team Dynamics To Overcome Remote Work Anti-Patterns Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. Konstantin recounts a team's struggle rooted in prioritizing individual tasks over collective effort. Daily meetings centered on status updates fostered a fragmented and siloed work environment. The team working remote made the issue even worse, making it hard to have face-to-face interaction and pair-working. All of these patterns resulted in underperformance. Konstantin advises regular team gatherings, emphasizing the importance of on-site collaboration. He underscores the human element, urging teams to function cohesively as people. Featured Book Of The Week: The Miracle Morning by Hal Erold In this segment, Konstantin delves into how his morning routine, inspired by "The Miracle Morning," by Hal Erold has profoundly influenced his rol

Konstantin Ribel: One Thing Most Agile Teams Miss When Adopting Agile  Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. This story starts when, during an Agile transformation, Konstantin had to terminate engagements with external consultants he had been working with. Even if this was painful, and hard for Konstantin, the big issue was still to come. Over time, after the consultants left, he realized that the teams were not ready to make decisions on their own. In this episode, Konstantin emphasizes that teams often waste time seeking unanimous agreement. Konstantin talks about the need to embrace the concept of "disagree and commit." Konstantin introduces the concept of resistance voting as a means to expedite decisions without excluding any team members’ perspectives. In this episode, we refer to the scaling framework LeSS.    [IMAGE HERE] Recovering from failure, or dif

BONUS: The Perfection Trap, How To Avoid Stifling Your, and Your Team’s Growth, With Thomas Curran   In this episode, Thomas Curran, the author of the book The Perfection Trap, sheds light on the dangerous attempt to be perfect, and how it can lead to burnout and depression. He distinguishes perfectionism from healthy striving, emphasizing how perfectionists grapple with uncertainty and insecurity, constantly questioning their own adequacy. The fear of failure looms large, often causing them to withdraw from situations where evaluation is likely. The emotional toll of this relentless pursuit is substantial, leaving little room for self-compassion. Research Insights: The Psychological Landscape   As an Associate Professor at the London School of Economics, Curran draws upon research to inform his writing. He highlights compelling studies that uncover the roots of perfectionism and its far-reaching impacts. He offers a glimpse into the scientific foundation underpinning the book's message.   Embracin

Aki Salmi: Trust, Transparency, and Vision, A Guide to Effective Product Ownership Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. In this episode, Aki shares insights on what makes a great product owner. He highlights the importance of close collaboration between the team and the product owner to ensure a clear understanding of the "why" behind each backlog item. Aki recounts a positive experience where the team and PM worked together every Monday to define objectives. He emphasizes the value of ensemble work or mob programming for effective communication. Aki advises building trust, maintaining a coherent product vision, and addressing any fears around transparency within the team.   [IMAGE HERE] Are you having trouble helping the team work well with their Product Owner? We’ve put together a course to help you work on the collaboration team-product owner. You can find

Aki Salmi: Indicators of a Thriving Agile Team When Uncertainty Rules Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. In this episode, Aki emphasizes the importance of growth within a team, regardless of whether the path forward is uncertain. He provides insightful tips, such as tracking the effectiveness of retrospectives and monitoring the nature of discussions. Aki prompts reflection on whether the team is delving into systemic issues or getting stuck in "but" statements. He encourages listeners to observe where the team's focus lies and whether they exhibit curiosity towards their work, asking exploratory "what if" questions. Featured Retrospective Format For The Week: The Empty Table Retrospective In this segment, Aki shares his preferred retrospective format inspired by "Agile Retrospectives" by Larsen and Derby. He gives the tip that it’s a lot easier for Scrum Mas

Aki Salmi: Working With BDD To Help Agile Teams Understand And Deliver On Business Needs Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. 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 Argyr

Aki Salmi: Learning Decision-Making without Explicit Leadership, A Key Skill For Scrum Teams Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. In this episode, Aki reflects on a highly effective team, drawing inspiration from Google's Project Aristotle on high-performing teams. He recounts the story of a team that operated without a designated leader, relying on consensus-based decision-making. However, this approach often hindered progress and experimentation. Aki highlights the importance of bringing up such systemic issues in retrospectives. He advises teams to step back and critically evaluate their working methods and their implications. Aki also touches on concepts like "double loop learning" and emphasizes the significance of considering core tasks, emotional climate, and effective structures in the work environment. Featured Book For The Week: Dare to Lead by Brene

Aki Salmi: Agile Problem-Solving in Action, Helping Developers Take Ownership Of Their Decisions Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. In this episode with Aki Salmi, he emphasizes the importance of involving the most knowledgeable team members in design discussions. Aki recounts a pivotal moment when the Scrum Master introduced a coin toss method to answer design questions asked by the developers. This gave the developers a clear sign that they had the power to decide for themselves! This episode highlights a scenario where the business set ambitious targets, leading to a massive estimation process. Despite initial setbacks, open communication with the business led to surpassing the 500 user story-point goal management had arbitrarily set. This story also emphasizes the need for Agile practices to extend beyond the team and serve the broader organizational objecti

Lorraine Chambers: When Product Owners Are Spread Thin, And How To Overcome The Absent PO Anti-pattern Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. The Great Product Owner: The Growth-Oriented PO This Product Owner (PO) ensured every team member had a voice, fostering an environment for experimentation and ideation. They facilitated developer participation in hackathons and effectively communicated the vision and roadmap. The backlog was consistently well-organized and prioritized. The PO actively shared feedback, motivating the team. They sought opportunities for recognition and took pride in sprint reviews. This PO's commitment extended to continuous learning and self-improvement through training, events, and meetups, reflecting a growth-oriented mindset nurtured through Lorraine's coaching. The Bad Product Owner: When Product Owners Are Spread Thin, And How To Overco

Lorraine Chambers: How To Design Your Coaching Plan, And Progress Towards Successful Scrum Mastery Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. In this episode, we explore what success means for Scrum Masters and Lorraine’s perspective. Lorraine suggests that success starts when both the team and customers are genuinely content and motivated. Key indicators include the team independently addressing anti-patterns, initiating discussions about their work, and requiring less assistance with basic tasks. Lorraine emphasizes the importance of a defined coaching plan (see the Agile Coaching Growth Wheel) and personal accountability. Conducting quarterly team health surveys provides concrete feedback for self-improvement, enabling Lorraine to track progress and address areas for growth effectively. Featured Retrospective Format for the Week: From Lean Coffee To The Simple DAKI

Lorraine Chambers: Using Experiments To Drive Agile Change, Lessons from a Test Automation Initiative Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. This story starts with an agile transformation featuring a shift-left initiative. The team faced challenges in implementing test automation due to unclear policies and time allocation. Recognizing the challenges faced by the teams, Lorraine engaged with managers and leaders, advocating to give teams the support they needed. Through that, it was possible to help the teams with guidance on Test-Driven Development and support in using an internal testing tool. When it comes to helping teams adopt new practices, Lorraine advises identifying policy and decision-makers, gathering relevant data, and proposing time-limited experiments for major changes, culminating in retrospective evaluations.   [IMAGE HERE] As Scrum Master we work

Lorraine Chambers: Dismantling Silos, A Critical Aspect Of Helping Scrum Teams Succeed Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. 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 t

Lorraine Chambers: Designing A Workshop To Help Agile Teams Overcome Conflict, And Learn To Communicate Effectively Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. In this episode, Lorraine reflects on a pivotal early experience as a Scrum Master. Faced with communication breakdowns in her new team, exacerbated by disrespectful responses to a junior member, she initially hoped for resolution without intervention. However, tensions escalated. Seeking guidance from an agile coach, they conducted communication-focused sessions, delving into communication styles and sharing some active listening practices. Progress seemed slow, prompting Lorraine to shift her coaching approach. She designed a workshop on navigating disagreements, using role-playing exercises. Additionally, she emphasized creating a collaborative working agreement and proactive identification of anti-patterns. Ul

BONUS: Mastering the Art of Forecasting, Prioritization Paradigms and Flow Metrics with Troy Lightfoot Agile Planning Insights From The Gambler's Ruin Thought Experiment Troy, in this Agile Uprising podcast episode, delves into his intriguing journey in the realm of forecasting and estimation for software development. Inspired by that episode, we discuss the concept of Gambler's Ruin, a mathematical problem turned into a game. Troy shares the main insights from Gambler’s Ruin and mentions Prateek Singh of ProKanban.org who has used this concept to demonstrate that even a slight skill advantage can lead to success when focusing product development on what Troy calls “Small Bets”  Small bets and impact on prioritization Small bets relate to the implications of spending money on a product idea. It's not just an expense; it's an investment with an anticipated return on investment (ROI). The crucial question arises: how do we strategically place these bets in product development? Here, Troy exposes the