Tag: Scrum Master

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Agile

Definition of Done – More Than a Checklist

This is Mark. He challenges me. He confronts me. He inspires me. I think he is amazing. Mark doesn’t do things because someone like me who claims to know a bit about agile says so. He looks at the world from every perspective. I love this about him because he forces me to think deeper than I’ve ever had to in many areas. He stretches me as a coach and forces me to keep growing.

Definition of Done was an area where Mark really inspired me to dig deep. This was his concern …

“I hear and see people teaching Definition of Done like it is a checklist of all the things a team has to do in order for a user story to be done. I think this undermines ownership of quality code by the team because the checklist becomes a crutch and an excuse to be mediocre. It causes people to say things like, ‘Well it meets the definition of done,’ when they know that the code still isn’t as good as it could be. It develops the attitude of, ‘Oh well, it wasn’t on the list so I don’t have to do it.’”

Agile

The Art of Creating Space for Growth in the Retrospective

At an open space event the other day a group of people were pondering the topic “Getting people to be engaged during meetings.” Inevitably the conversation turned to retrospectives. People described how some teams complained about being forced to have retrospectives and how others went without complaint but didn’t really participate. Some of the frustrations were that introverts never want to participate and have fun conversations with their teammates.

In short, some scrum masters were describing ways that they have been trying to pull their teams into a place of participating but weren’t being successful. Teams were feeling forced to do something they didn’t want to do and scrum masters were frustrated because no one wanted to play this very important game with them.

As I stepped back from the conversation I began to realize that what was missing was the understanding that there is an art to being able to facilitate an effective retrospective that starts long before the meeting. The scrum masters role in the retrospectives isn’t simply to facilitate while people to talk about what went well, what didn’t go well, and what will we do to improve in the next sprint. It is about creating new awareness. It isn’t about pulling people into the conversation. It’s about creating space for them to learn and grow and innovate in order to become higher performing.

Agile

Bridging the Gap Between Remote Locations

In my years as a consultant I have seen it time and time again. Companies with multiple sites all working together. It is hard to bridge the gap across the miles and inevitably it shows up – The Red Headed Step Child Syndrome. Perhaps you’ve seen it before? This phenomenon happens when the people in offices separated by miles can’t quite see one another as human.

This is usually how I see it portrayed:

I meet people in one site in Arkansas and they talk to me about how “Michigan” has a mindset that is way off base. They explain how “Michigan” really doesn’t understand how to get the work done properly so they need a lot of help. “Arkansas” holds a bit of bitterness because “we” are always getting treated like second class citizens. “Michigan” forgets us, doesn’t give us information timely, has a superior attitude, and doesn’t really care about “Arkansas.”

Then, I go to the Michigan office and meet people there who tell me how “Arkansas” doesn’t really get it. They describe “Arkansas” having a bit of an attitude, an incorrect mindset and lacking understanding of how to get the work done properly. They say that “Arkansas” needs lots of help to get better.

Coaching

Sometimes you just need to laugh

This is the glass door I ran into on my first morning in a new office. Five minutes after I arrived. And I had to laugh at myself! “Way to go brainiac. Good thing no one was watching that one.” Then I giggled.

Messing up, making mistakes, looking stupid in front of others – these are things that often cause people to put up walls around themselves as a means of self preservation. No one wants other people to look at them and roll their eyes. No one wants to be “that person.” Unfortunately, the need to self preserve hinders a team’s ability to be transparent, take risks, and share ideas openly.

As a scrum master or coach we need to be aware of the human nature that says, “protect yourself,” and help develop a culture of safety so team members can learn to trust one another and bring out the best in one another. Part of the scrum master’s role is to help the team have the best communications possible. Safe discussions in a team happen when everyone’s ideas are valued and respected. Great ideas come forth when no single idea has to be the winner. Instead of allowing people to fight for their position like there is a trophy at stake, teach them how each person can contribute to the ideas of the others and build the best solution for the problem at hand so everyone can win.

Coaching

We all need a little help sometimes

To many travelers this just looked like a moving walkway in an airport in Philly, PA. To me, it looked like exactly what I needed! Exhausted from being on the road and meeting a bunch of new people over the past few weeks, the thought of having this thing hold the weight of my bags and help me get across this big airport was very comforting.

After my amazing, but slow ride I started thinking…these walkways are like Scrum Masters!

Sometimes agile teams need a little bit of help. They get stuck in the same cycle of thinking when trying to solve problems and can’t seem to move forward. The scrum master is helps them by asking powerful questions that cause them to think in new ways. They gently lift them up and help them move successfully from one place to another.

Coaching

Performance Coaching – Helping People GROW

As an agile coach I get the opportunity to have mentoring and coaching sessions with scrum masters who are in a rut. They usually have tons of potential but don’t know how to take the next step forward.

In order to facilitate these conversations, I use the popular coaching model GROW.

G – Gather Data

R – Reality Check

O – Obstacles and Opportunities

W – Way Forward

Throughout the conversation I shift from a position of mentor to a position of coach in order to help the scrum master gain perspectives, come to conclusions, and create a plan to move forward.

Scrum

Servant Leadership in Action

Earlier this week I attended a retrospective with team I am coaching and watched as a growing scrum master stood up and started the retrospective saying, “Ok guys, I’m going to step completely out of my comfort zone again today. You didn’t like the activity that we started the retrospective with last time so I’m not going to make you do that again. Instead, I came up with something else that I hope you will like a little bit better…”

Agile

This Shouldn’t Be a Status Meeting … Improving the Daily Scrum

How can I keep the daily scrum from becoming a daily status meeting? But if we are all answering three questions then who is supposed to be asking the questions? If we are gathering to give our updates on these three questions every day on what we are doing then that sounds like a status meeting to me – what am I doing wrong?

These are all questions that I have heard new scrum masters ask. The daily scrum seems like it should be the simplest thing we do, right? The team self organizes daily for a time box of no more than 15 minutes and talks about three things: What I did yesterday, what I am going to do today, and what is standing in my way.

So, why is it so hard? In my experience … mindset. Often, scrum masters learn a process to implement but they don’t recognize the mindset that must change in order for the process to have any value. Being self organizing and collaborative, like being agile, is a mindset. It’s not just something you do – it’s something you are. It’s something you become. It’s about individuals and interactions over process and tools. What I’m finding is that when teams are struggling with the daily scrum it’s about them putting the process and tools over the individuals and interactions.