Join us as we review a recent Mike Cohn Blog post about High Performing Teams..  https://www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/blog/what-is-a-high-performing-agile-team ..read more

“Every Sunday morning I take a light jog around a park near my home.  There’s a lake located in one corner of the park. Each time I jog by this lake, I see the same elderly woman sitting at the water’s edge with a small metal cage sitting beside her. This past Sunday my curiosity got the best of me, so I stopped jogging and walked over to her. As I got closer, I realized that the metal cage was in fact a small trap. There were three turtles, unharmed, slowly walking around the base of the trap. She had a fourth turtle in her lap that she was carefully scrubbing with a spongy brush. ‘Hello ..read more

A recent student in my Advanced Product Owner Workshop taught me about the concept of building a Team Motivation MAP M = Mastery: denotes the inclination of people to become a better version of themselves in any given field. Also, the skills that any individual wants to improve what they do next in a continuous manner. The Scrum Master strives to master the application of Scrum in order to foster a psychologically safe environment where the efficacy of value delivery is realized at all levels of the organization. Influencing and inspiring people to embrace Scrum to improve and sustain it. Exp ..read more

Let's face it, we are all SO TIRED of online meetings via Zoom, Teams, etc. The truth is there are some phrases we are all tired of hearing as well. Here is a short list:  “We’ll wait five minutes for everyone to get here.” This disrespects the time of people who arrived on time. And it discourages a timeliness culture. Most of the time, you should start the meeting without the tardy people. But there are occasionally good reasons why someone is late. If you must wait, you could begin with quick tone-setting exercises. For example, ask everyone to write down their goal for the meeting. It ..read more

A recent article by Gabor Csomak discusses how doing fewer story points will over time increase your velocity. The concepts presented are on point, but a clear discussion needs to be had regarding the use of the words Capacity and Velocity as they are not interchangeable.  https://medium.com/nerd-for-tech/why-committing-to-less-story-points-will-increase-your-velocity-d821380c6c5 ..read more

What are the 5 tips to be an exceptional product owner? I am glad you asked:  1) Master Soft Skills - Human Interaction 2) Fundamental PO Skills - Behavioral Driven 3) Team Skills - Team Engagement & Management 4) Product Skills - The PO Skills one would expect to see... 5) Technical Mastery Skills - If you are working in a tech environment..  ..read more

Do you know and appreciate your friends? Join V. Lee Henson, President and Founder of AgileDad as we learn the tale of two friends that encountered a bear and what they did to stick together. Did their friendship stand this awful test?  ..read more

Celebrating Cinco De Mayo Inspiring Quotes To Help Us Do Better ..read more

May the fourth be with you. As we celebrate this day where all things should be Star Wars related, here are 4 lessons that can be applied to both our Agile and daily lives:  Lesson #1 — It’s never too late to do the right thing Lesson #2 — Everyone has a good side and a bad side Lesson #3 — Stillness is the key Lesson #4 — Fear is a deadly motivator ..read more

The question of proper backlog management has come up quite a bit in our recent coaching sessions. Many organizations are attempting ScrumBan but do they truly know what they are getting themselves into? Join V. Lee Henson as we explore the concept of a team backlog and working Kanban flow within a sprint.  ..read more