PinnedWhat Do Scrum Masters Do All Day?Introspections for Agile People — Oh, it’s on! Coming in 2022 (MVP) with additional chapters to be added on a regular basis! So, I’m writing a book. If you’ve been following along, you know that I’ve been a contributing editor at Serious Scrum since late 2018. In that time, I’ve shared stories (and rants) with folks in this amazing international community, spoke on the topic of Scrum Masters during Agile 2019 &…Scrum Master2 min readScrum Master2 min read
Published inSerious Scrum·Jan 3, 2020Feed Me, Seymour!A Scrum Master’s guide to eliciting feedback. — If you’ve never watched Little Shop of Horrors, I highly recommend that you do. It’s a 1986 musical comedy (yes, it’s a musical) about a flower shop worker named Seymour, who discovered a bizarre singing plant. Caring for it proved to be an exercise in frustration. Water, nor light helped…Agile5 min readAgile5 min read
Published inSerious Scrum·Dec 23, 2019Serious Scrum Weekly Update #68It’s that time again. The weekly digest of Serious Scrum articles has arrived. Hello, and welcome to new writers, John Albrecht, and Michael Boumansour! This edition covers everything published between December 16th and December 22nd. Without further delay, here we go.Agile3 min readAgile3 min read
Published inSerious Scrum·Dec 17, 2019I got fired for being a Scrum MasterAnd why it was the best thing that ever happened to me. — Scrum8 min readScrum8 min read
Published inSerious Scrum·Oct 22, 2019The Scrum is for Projects, Kanban is for Maintenance MythDon’t be fooled by this bullsh*t mantra. — Scrum6 min readScrum6 min read
Published inSerious Scrum·Aug 29, 2019You’re Dead to Me!Can we please stop perpetuating the “there-are-no-deadlines-in-Scrum” fallacy? — Years ago, when I first dipped my toes into the water as a newly-minted Scrum Master, I overheard a conversation between my then-company’s only Certified Scrum Master (CSM), and a project manager (PM). Back then, my department went through the obligatory 2-day Scrum training session facilitated by an outside consultant…Agile5 min readAgile5 min read
Aug 23, 2019What Do Scrum Masters Do All Day?My Lightning Talk from Agile 2019 — Earlier this year, I submitted two 5-minute talks for consideration in the Lightning Talks track at Agile 2019: “10 Reasons Why Mr. Miyagi is the Ultimate Scrum Master,” and “What Do Scrum Masters Do All Day?” The way it worked was when submissions closed, Agile Alliance members were s’pose to…Scrum5 min readScrum5 min read
Published inSerious Scrum·Jul 23, 2019Real Mature!We have Scrum teams, hold regular retrospectives, and estimate with story points. We’re Agile now, right? — Lemme start off by saying that I dig Scrum. I love its simplicity, how it calls out dysfunction, and forces you to do the hard work to fix it. That being said, I absolutely hate-hate-hate the title of Jeff, and J.J. Sutherland’s book, Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the…Scrum4 min readScrum4 min read
Published inSerious Scrum·Jul 12, 2019There’s Nothing Wrong with Being YourselfDoes your Organization have Amazon, Spotify, or Capital One envy? — It’s been a minute. The last piece I wrote for Serious Scrum was back in February, and since then, quite a few topics have been swirling around in my brain hole. Hopefully I can find the time to get them out of my head, and into a post. With that…Agile4 min readAgile4 min read
Published inSerious Scrum·Feb 28, 2019The Ice Cream Truck ExperienceSquads goals are better than solo accomplishments — Chasing down the ice cream truck with my friends as it rolled through our neighborhood each summer is one of my fondest childhood memories. While playing outside, we’d hear the distant telltale jingle-jangle of its bell, hop onto our bikes, and track down the wheeled, frozen-treat nirvana. …Serious Scrum6 min readSerious Scrum6 min read
