In my previous post “the Inner team factor to reach greatness“, I have shared some thoughts about the outcome of a retrospective with one of my teams, who listed the “key elements which have allowed them reach a high level of maturity, ownership, calmness and responsibility“. Like I said back then, I was and I’m still surprised about the attitude and the quality of the majority of the…
A couple of weeks ago, I facilitated a sprint retrospective with a mature Agile Scrum team, composed by three experienced developers and a its Product Owner. Like we used to doing at the end of every single two week sprint, we met for an hour or more to inspect the sprint and adapt in consequence. But what…
Techniques for improving the daily sync What is the daily sync about? The Daily sync is considered as the “event for the development team to synchronize activities and create a plan for the next 24 hours” within the Scrum guide provided by Scrum.org. For Martin Fowler the “Daily stand-up meetings have become a ritual of many agile…
Year after year, I see pictures of work teams and their costumes. People dressing up and have an excuse to be silly and it only recently dawned on me that Halloween is another opportunity for team forming which requires very little effort. As a team facilitator, I asked myself the following questions: How can you…
Techniques for improving Product Backlog refinement in Scrum What is the Product Backlog refinement about? The Product Backlog refinement is considered as the “act of adding detail, estimates, and order to items in the product backlog” within the Scrum guide provided by Scrum.org. When is Product Backlog refinement held? It really depends; given that it’s…
A team member’s production went from superstar to detrimental within a few short weeks. What happened for this drastic change? Were there signs? Was it something outside the team? Even though a lot of the obvious things were done, it came down to simply acknowledging one of the elements from SCARF: A brain-based model for collaborating…
You just got out of a meeting which your primary goal was to resolve a major conflict between two of your team members. A sense of despair has arisen and you believe you just made things worse. Your Conflict Resolution confidence just got crushed. You had all the right intentions, by meeting with them individually…
Techniques for improving the Sprint Planning in Scrum What is the Sprint Planning for? It’s the event for planning what the team has forecasted to complete for the customer by the end of the iteration. It’s also the time for the team to set the sprint goal, and to discus and agree upon the sprint…
Techniques for improving the Sprint review in Scrum In my workbook Forming Agile Teams, I have documented several techniques to help ScrumMasters help Agile teams improve at the sprint review. Here is an introduction to what this ceremony is about, when it occurs, who participates and some techniques to master it. What is the Sprint…
Authenticity, it’s all about being yourself The first weekend of June, I went to my third Agile Coach Camp Canada without knowing what I was going to discover about myself. It was two and a half days full of joy, incredible people and really deep connections which I will always keep close to my heart.…