The role of the Scrum Master is still relatively new at the company I’m currently working at. The company’s Agile roots date back to 2001 when they started with Extreme Programming (XP,)  which does not define a similar role. Early last year we began the formal adoption of Scrum, which recognizes the importance of this role and the support it provides to the teams. Scrum is the most widely adopted Agile framework, and its benefits include that it provides a more holistic view than XP by way of a framework that extends far beyond the development team.  It is important to note that Scrum’s process framework is used in conjunction with XP to round out the organization’s Agile practices, not a something that replaces it.

As part of the rollout of Scrum classes were held globally that qualified more than 200 people to take the exam that, if passed, would give them the Professional Scrum Master (PSM) designation as awarded by Scrum.org. Many did take the exam, and we have ........Continue Reading!.......

The Agile Central Europe conference (ACE!) is coming to Krakow from June 13th through 15th.

ACE! is the largest regional conference of its kind in Central Europe, attracting people from all over the region.

The innovative ACE! format, premiered in 2011, and successfully copied by other events since, allows every attendee to be exposed to a broad range of ideas from foreign and regional thought leaders and then to explore those ........Continue Reading!.......

We’re all aware of the retrospective meeting, which provides the final closure to a sprint as well as a forum for the team to share their insights on the last sprint with the goal of becoming better. Sadly, it’s all too often that this cadence meeting is postponed, cancelled, or attended partially, or its purpose watered down in one of many ways. Even in organizations where Agile is fully supported, I’ve often seen the retrospective viewed with the same excitement as a root canal. And for good reason. It’s often painful, repetitive, and flat out boooorrrriiiinnnngggg.

But I’ve also seen teams that wouldn’t even consider going ........Continue Reading!.......

The three pillars of Scum include Transparency, Inspection, and Adaptation. These three pillars are core to the success of any empirical process, but especially important within the Scrum framework as well as for all Agile practices, whether the practices are focused on technical excellence, simple design, or the successful delivery of working software.

Transparency is a pre-requisite to inspection and adaptation. It implies a brutal honesty which leads to an accuracy of information that allows for inspection to occur based on reality, which in turn allows for the teams to adapt in a way that leads to continual improvement. Too often we seek to flavor reality, providing the information we believe fits the expectations of others or that allows us to save face or tout our successes while downplaying our challenges. This is ........Continue Reading!.......