The Agile Daily Standup - AgileDad

In a recent article by David Pereira, he discussed: I’d be a billionaire if I’d get a dime every time a developer complained about Scrum events. Recently, I noticed an increased resistance towards Scrum. Developers challenge whether the framework helps them get their work done or gets in the way. Join V. Lee Henson as we explore the keys to optimizing meetings.  Don't forget to go to the AgileDad Website where you can download The Agile Meetings Playbook!  https://medium.com/@scrummastered/scrum-master-vs-agile-coach-what-8217-s-the-difference-2f1ba5051ba8

Identification and understanding of roles has long plagued many Agile Organizations. There seems to be a great deal of confusion about what a ScrumMaster really does and how it differs from what a coach does. I also have seen organizations severely minimize the ScrumMaster role and try to implement the single internal coach solution, both of which are VERY bad! In this episode we explore the differences and set the record straight. 

One of the most asked questions I have gotten recently is how do I become an Agile coach? I do not know that anyone has broken down all of the steps and shared just how long it really takes to see these things come to pass. Join V. Lee Henson as we discover what it takes and how to get there. 

What sparks great joy for you? Do you seek Joy? When you find joy, do you share it? Learn how to multiply and share joy with others. It will make you the better person. 

Agile Coaching Myth - It Takes a LONG Time To See Results From Agile Coaching - Does it really? I have seen changes almost immediately after hitting the ground! Join us as we review an article published by John McFadyen and discuss what really works and how to get there.  https://medium.com/@johniainmcfadyen/agile-coaching-myth-4-it-takes-a-long-time-to-see-results-from-agile-coaching-93a0a54a4f44

Does It Make Sense for Developers to Wear the Scrum Master’s Hat? Of course I believe you already know what my answer is going to be... Join V. Lee Henson, President and Founder of AgileDad as we discuss an article written by Dave Pereira and what we can do to make certain this never happens.  https://medium.com/serious-scrum/does-it-make-sense-for-developers-to-wear-the-scrum-masters-hat-a42d0c138a2e

What are the 6 most desired business outcomes? Many organizations struggle to get their head around tangible outcomes. Here is a list and explanation of the top 6 winners:  Predictability Improved Quality of Software or Product Cost Savings Early ROI Product Fit Innovation

As the pandemic wanes, many teams are still not back in the office—some not every day and some not at all. Other teams were remote pre-pandemic and always will be. Whether your team is distributed temporarily or it’s your default, your team members need time to get to know one another personally. When teams are in-person, they get to know one another through their daily interactions. You and I get in the elevator together and ask each other innocuous but friendly questions: Do anything this weekend? How old are your kids now? And so on. This type of water-cooler conversation doesn’t happen as naturally with distributed teams. Here’s one way you can encourage some casual chitchat. Every so often, throw the daily scrum timebox out the window and start the day with a little facilitated small talk. I’ve gone so far as to tell teams that their daily scrums are required to start with five minutes of mandatory small talk. No mention of the project is allowed. Team members share anecdotes about their hobbies, what their kids did the night before, the great movie they saw, and things like that. After that mandatory five minutes chatting, we start the normal part of the daily scrum, which is timeboxed to a further fifteen minutes. One of my favorite things to hear about during this part of a daily scrum is how team members in a different country will be celebrating a holiday. When on the phone with members of a London-based team recently, I got to find out what the Queen’s Jubilee was all about. (Seventy years as Queen–can you believe it?) Until hearing more about some holidays from coworkers, I had no idea what the festivities were like or why they were important. I’ve learned about all manner of holidays from working with distributed teams this way. More importantly, though, I learned little details about the lives of my remote teammates. And that helped us all work together better. So while I fully support a fifteen-minute timebox to the daily scrum, for some teams, I will occasionally break that rule by starting with five minutes of mandatory small talk. I suggest you try it. I bet you’ll learn a great deal more about your remote teammates and find yourselves more naturally able to be honest and comfortable with each other in all of your interactions–which will help all of you succeed with agile.   ~ Mike Cohn

If you ONLY had 30 seconds.. What would you say about yourself? How would you represent who you are and what you want? 

These days, we are so overwhelmed with everything ‘Agile’ that it’s easy to forget that not everyone is aware of all the terminology. Especially being an Agile Coach slash Scrum Master it’s easy — through occupational deformation — to get a blind spot for your own bullshit bingo. The other day, I told someone to contact the Product Owner in order to get a User Story on the Backlog, so it could be refined during a refinement session, get pokered, and then picked up in a coming sprint. The vacant look and deadly silence on the other end of the screen made me realize my waterfall of Agile words was leaps and bounds too far for someone who has never interacted with an Agile team. So, what is ‘Agile’ then? Libraries could be filled with books on Agile, but let me suffice with what Agile means to me in a nutshell: The idea behind an Agile way of working is an organization that is able — as a whole — to respond to all rapid changes organizations have to deal with these days — changes in the sales market, the technique, the labor market, the legislation, the societal changes, etc. You need an Agile mindset in the entire organization to get the best results — which entails: empowering people, working iteratively in as short as possible cycles, focusing on delivering as much value as possible in as short a time as possible, and embracing transparency. Whether you use the Agile framework of Scrum, or Kanban, or SAFe, or your own mix like Spotify does, the basics are the above. Because more and more organizations worldwide adopt an Agile way of working you see a widening taking place. Where at first there were mostly IT departments in IT-focused organizations that started ‘Scrumming’, throughout the years a widening has been taking root to, for instance, sales and marketing departments. After the tech companies, other sorts of organizations also started experimenting with Agile, like construction companies, schools, and even healthcare organizations. Next to the widening, there has also been a deepening. Where Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches were at first often developers or testers that did the Agile stuff as a side job, we have seen a growth towards full-time coaching. Many achieve coaching diplomas and delve into related disciplines, like psychology. The coaching of teams and entire organizations usually has less to do with content than with the functioning of individuals in those teams and organizations. The dynamics of a team are mainly determined by the way of working together of the team members. Experienced Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches know that they benefit more from good coaching techniques than from profound knowledge of the ticketing system of the concerning organization. Through the widening and deepening, the Agile way of working keeps getting better and more robust. Already more than 20 years going strong and still not fully developed — Agile is not easy to do right, but the rewards in value for the organization and for the people is more than worth it. https://patrickheller.medium.com/agile-more-than-20-years-a-buzzword-55a3ee44cbe3