Welcome to our Scrum Master articles library, check out our articles on Scrum & Agile to support you with your journey.
On-demand Scrum Master Preparation Exams
For many, the Certified ScrumMaster® or Professional Scrum Master™ exam is the most nerve-wracking a…
Is your Agile getting stale? Take the Mani-fresh-to Challenge today!
TLDR; Everything changed in 2020, even the Scrum Guide got an update, but the Agile Manifesto didn’t…
On Agile & Mastery
I’m lucky enough to find my job professionally satisfying. That’s because I think that the line of w…
Introduction to SAFe
SAFe® is an acronym for Scaled Agile Framework® and was introduced in 2011 by co-creators Dean Leffi…
Leading SAFe with Jon Spruce
SAFe® (Scaled Agile Frameworks for enterprise) is one of the most popular frameworks for large organ…
Why OKRs aren’t enough on their own: Goals and Standards
Objectives and Key Results – OKRs – are a well known goal-setting technique; there’…
Essential Skills – Critical Analysis
In a recent conversation with Tyrrell Basson from Manchester University, we explored the topic of ‘e…
I’m in a Theory X Team, Get Me Out Of Here!
For 20 years, ITV’s “I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here” has been a staple of the UK pre-Christmas …
Covid Hack – Technical Debt
We’ve all experienced massive disruption, complexity and ambiguity in the face of Covid-19 hitting t…
Facilitate rapid and effective decision-making
Value Stream Mapping (VSM) is a collaborative, coaching-style workshop that brings together the team…
Customers and Developers in the same room. WTF?
At the turn of the 20th Century, the father of modern Business Management – Frederick Winslow …
First they ignore you
‘How do I get the senior leadership team to buy into Agile?’ is a question I’m often asked. It’s a g…
Stealth Agile
I recently connected with Tyrrell Basson from the University of Manchester in one of my ‘Ask me Anyt…
Coronavirus and The Corner Shop – A Portrait of Agility?
If ever one wanted the ultimate portrait of a VUCA world – volatile, uncertain, complex, and a…
Agile Bootcamp #4 – Using Story Mapping to Teach Agile
User Story Mapping is a great technique to help teams explore their product scope and plan how they …
Agile Bootcamp #3 – Scrum Simulation with the Inception Deck
There are lots of ways to help introduce the concepts of Scrum to teams and to give them a chance to…
Agile Bootcamp #2 – Behind The Scenes at an Agile Bootcamp
The bootcamp is planned, the travel arrangements made and suitcases packed. Now, the hard work start…
Predict Success by Finding Problems
Agile was supposed to make things easier. It was supposed to fix the problems of large projects with…
Scrum Beyond Scrum
On my professionalisation journey to Scrum Alliance Certified Team Coach, I am collecting badges and…
Agile Project Management
To say the words ‘Agile Project Management’ in front of Agile purists falls somewhere in the spectru…
The Scrum Framework
The Scrum Framework is an Agile framework within which various Agile methodologies can be both emplo…
What is Project Management?
Project Management, as both a profession and specialised discipline, is relatively young. From the d…
Don’t look back in anger
Continuous improvement is a core agile principle. The retrospective is an important event in all agi…
Ways for a group to reach a decision
There are always moments in a project when decisions must be made. How those decisions are reached w…
Personality traits of an excellent Scrum Master
“Bring it to the team” should be the daily motto of an excellent Scrum Master. Nobody can truly fulf…
How Agile benefits Kanban and XP Development Frameworks
Above all, Agile is about focusing on the customer in the most streamlined way possible. Fundamental…
The Origins of Scrum and Agile
As leadership guru Steve Denning has written, Agile is “not about doing more work in less time:…
Scrum and the Agile Manifesto
The values and principles of the Agile manifesto are designed to remind you of one thing above all: …
Feedback: it’s not what you get, it’s what you do with it
When teaching Scrum a large part of the information is around feedback: product feedback, process fe…
The Art of the Post-It®
For years I have watched my husband, John, sticking post-its all over the place while working. I nev…
Show Confidence
We hear a lot about confidence in the contexts of business, personal relationships, and just about e…
A brief overview of Scrum
In this brief overview of Scrum, we introduce you to the Scrum Framework, roles within the Scrum met…
Sprint: the Heartbeat of Scrum
A Sprint, as described in the Scrum Guide, is a time-boxed period of one month or less during which …
What do Agile and Electricity have in Common?
In February, it will be 17 years since the writing of the Agile Manifesto. Much was, and still is, p…
The Responsibility Process® in Action
Recently I was lucky enough to spend a couple of days with Christopher Avery renewing my practice of…
Everyone can lead an exceptional life
You may not know who Rick Rubin is but you definitely would have heard of his music. He has been a m…
A Simple Method for Breaking down Product Backlog Items into Tasks
During Sprint Planning many teams resist breaking down Product Backlog items selected into task…
What Role do Team Members Play in the Scrum Team?
Let’s get to know the different roles and responsibilities of each person in an agile developm…
Acceptance Testing
Most Agile frameworks express customer requirements using simple and lightweight methods, such as Us…
The Scrum Master beyond Technical Lead
The Scrum Master seeks to ensure that the team respects and follows the values and practices of Scru…
Sprint burndown charts: Grapes of Progress or Watermelon Surprise?
In a recent discussion with an ‘Argument of Agile Coaches’ (an apt collective noun …
No Framework Will Save You
It is often said, by those in the personal training industry, that you cannot out-train a bad diet. …
What’s in a Name
Over the last few years, Agile has acquired a lot of unwanted baggage. Some of that baggage is as a …
What’s in it for you?
When starting any team, I ask a question that often shocks people in the room: What do you want to g…
Setting the agenda
At a client the meetings tend to wander, a habit the developers try to break but drift back into wit…
A community of thinkers
Saw this in the twittersphere yesterday and it really resonates with what I believe the software dev…
Stop, reflect, resume
Yesterday, during sprint planning one of the team members said he didn’t see the point in sizi…
Beware planning poker
Planning poker is the most common sizing tool used within the Scrum community. Straightforward and f…
Understanding the mission
A very American phrase I know; but it hits right at the heart of many of the problems I’ve see…