Perfecting Scrum Basics
Find clear definitions and the original thinking behind the core Scrum Framework.
Retrospectives
One of the core principles in Scrum is the idea of continuous improvement. Each Sprint the Team engages in an inspect-and-adapt cycle during the Retrospective meeting. Beyond that though, the Scrum Guide doesn’t offer much insight into how to run a successful Retrospective and how to use the meeting to improve production, quality, and velocity. Visit the full course page.
How To Launch a Scrum Team
Join us as we share how we help clients launch teams. We share our step-by-step backlog for launching new teams or reinvigorating old. Three different perspectives from three Scrum Inc. coaches on what to do, what the common impediments are, how to avoid the worst and conquer the inevitable. Visit the full course page.
All Topics on Scrum Basics
Do We Need Frameworks?
In a perfect world, there would be no systems or frameworks, or methodologies. Scrum Inc. CEO JJ Sutherland recently wondered if frameworks are needed. Here’s what he found.
Psychological Safety And Scrum Teams: How To Create A High-Performance Environment
Psychological Safety does not mean the absence of conflict. It means members uphold their allegiance to the team over self-interest. Scrum Inc.’s Catherine Travis and Che-Chuen Ho suggest ways to ensure psychological safety is more than a buzzword for you and your team(s).
Scrum Values: Have the Courage to Lose Sight
It’s one thing to know that change needs to take place, it’s quite another to act on that change. Scrum Inc.’s Robert Woods explains how the Scrum Values help in even the most difficult situations.
Is Your Scrum Training Paying Off?
Like any other upskilling or reskilling efforts, companies need a way to determine whether the Scrum training they bought provided the ‘bang for the buck’ they expected. Scrum Inc.’s Avi Schneier examines four metrics you should consider in making this determination.
Should A Product Owner Attend The Daily Scrum?
Their presence is not required but their insights can be critical for a successful Sprint. Scrum Inc.’s Avi Schneier combines theory and real-world experience to answer this often asked question.
Hybrid Team Launch
HYBRID IS HERE.ARE YOU READY? Set your teams up for success in the new reality of hybrid working.Let our experience eliminate your learning curve. Is your company prepared for hybrid working environments? Struggling to identify the best way to approach this new...
Motivation And Modern Leadership; Surprising Agile Lessons From 1967
Scrum Inc.’s Robert Woods recently received of an article from 1967. If you peer through the time-space language filter, you will see forward-thinking Agile concepts around teams, motivation, and modern leadership.
Should Your Organization Be Colocated, Fully Remote, Or Hybrid?
More than a year after the COVID restrictions made work from home the norm (and zoom a verb), offices are beginning to reopen. There are, however, points every organization should consider as they plan for what comes next. We’ve created this guide to help you inspect and adapt what ‘going back to work’ means.
Shape Your ‘New Normal’ With Individuals And Interactions In Mind
Scrum Inc. CEO JJ Sutherland explains how an admittedly awkwardly phrased term in the Agile Manifesto points out a fundamental truth all organizations should remember when deciding what their ‘new normal’ will be.
People & Culture: Prime Time To Personalize the Employee Experience
So, what might the next evolution of our employee experience look like? Can we seize this opportunity to really conceive of some ideas and create a better place to work? Spoiler Alert: It will require A LOT of experiments.
Lessons For Leadership: How Employee Experience Is Your Bottom Line
Engaged, empowered employees are critical to the success of any organization. As leadership thinks through the new reality of work, honest feedback on employee experience is key to unlocking productivity and potential. We interviewed four people from different industries to learn about their experience during the pandemic.
Scrum Spotlight: Dr. Mark Buckner Transforming Public Schools
Scrum Inc.’s own Dr. Mark Buckner has spent years thinking of a way to transform public schools that would unlock the inherent potential of every student – regardless of their GPA. This month we proudly shine a light on the launch of his i-School concept.
Steel And Sticky Notes Part 3: How Stable Teams Dramatically Boost Productivity
No matter the trade, function, or job, stable teams will always be your most productive teams. Scrum Inc.’s Dee Rhoda recently saw how a stable Design+Construction team boosted productivity by 467%. She explores how and why this occurs.
Change Management Process: Turn Detractors Into Advocates
That people’s initial reaction to change is resistance is well known. That is one reason effective change management is critical if your organizational refactoring is to succeed. Scrum Inc.’s Michael Simmons details ways to turn…
Understanding Increments (And How To Decompose Backlog To Deliver Value Fast)
The concept of an Increment is deceptively straightforward. If you just focus on the obvious you can miss some extremely important facets. Scrum Inc.’s McCaul Baggett examines why creating a usable Increment each Sprint is critical to success, and how to decompose backlogs to ensure you’re delivering value.
Leadership’s Increment: Balancing The Strategic And Tactical
Effective leadership is critical for any organization. But what can a leadership team deliver in a single Sprint? What are their Increments? Scrum Inc.’s Matthew Jacobs explores how leadership can identify their Increments and how they can balance the strategic and tactical nature of their work.
It Just Won’t Work: Dispelling The Myth Of Agile In Shared Services
The reasons are many; their work is too fluid; too dynamic. They don’t support a single project. They are a different animal. Scrum Inc.’s Robert Woods regularly hears these concerns from Shared Services teams. It’s time to dispel these myths.
People & Culture: Better, Bit By Bit – Delivering Useable Increments
Problem: We needed a new compensation system… In this article will we explore how to create something workable in increments, but also how creating and iterating in this way has the added bonus of helping with change management!
Scrum in Sales: Monotype
Monotype, an on-demand digital typesetting and typeface design services company and longtime client, implemented Scrum in their sales teams to maximize their pipeline, improve team culture, and find opportunities to enhance prioritization during the pandemic.
Scrum Success: Embracing The Ability To Adapt
Generally, at organizations, big decisions are made far away from those tasked with carrying them out. Vision and priorities are little more than concepts unless teams are empowered to make them a reality. Scrum Inc.’s Jack Harmening and Kendra West share this Scrum Success story.
People & Culture: How Yesterday’s Weather Whisked Us To Better Focus
Problem: As Human Resource or People Operations folks, or as folks in any type of operational role for that matter, LOTS of unplanned work is a reality and a necessity. But, it takes away our focus. It drives us to multitask, which we know, from lots of research, decreases our productivity. All of that context switching slows us down. We have projects to get done! Change to manage!
Pre-Prioritization: How Vision And Product Goals Guide The Process
Prioritization is an important step in achieving success at every level of an organization. However, it is not the first step you should be taking. Scrum Inc.’s Avi Schneier examines the important, but often overlooked act of pre-prioritization.
Objectives & Key Results (OKRs): Ambitious Goal Setting and Extreme Focus
Few approaches to goal setting and prioritization have the power of Objectives and Key Results. When incorporated into a Scrum implementation, OKRs help turn big, bold visions into actionable goals against which progress can be measured as Denise Jarvie with Scrum Inc. explains.
Steel and Sticky Notes Part 2: Lean, Scrum, and a Priority Culture
Lean Thinking is starting to make an impact on the Design and Construction industry. But Lean alone can only take you so far. Scrum Inc.’s Dee Rhoda examines how combining Scrum and Lean helps companies and teams achieve more, innovate, and deliver.
How The Agile Manifesto Came To Be
In February of 2001, 17 prominent thinkers from the world of software met at a ski resort in Utah. Together, they created the 4 values and twelve principles that became known as the Agile Manifesto. On this 20th anniversary Dr. Jeff Sutherland, a signatory of the Agile Manifesto talks about how it came to be.