Teams

Should teams receive partial credit on nearly finished stories when calculating their sprint …

Teams get things done far more quickly than one person could. But as team size grows, so …

Too many daily scrums are status meetings instead of a time for team members to share plans, …

As Scrum teams have moved to shorter sprints, have they also lost the extra time to experiment …

To be effective, a Scrum Master has a right to expect at least three things from their company …

This post explains how to use a Definition of Ready successfully and avoid it becoming a first step …

Perhaps the most prevalent and persistent myth in agile is that a cross-functional team is one on …

I’ve been quite adamant lately that story points are about time, specifically effort. But that does …

I'd like to clarify the relationship between two important concepts: a team's Definition of Done …

On agile projects, a spike is a time-boxed research activity that helps teams make better decisions …

How to build and sustain a Scrum team that exceeds the sum of its parts.

What exactly does cross functional mean and why does it matter?

Moving forward by admitting your mistakes.

Knowing why you want to achieve will a goal will help you reach it. 

An agile team should provide visibility into its work. But not all work should be equally transparent.

We say agile teams are self-organizing. Does that mean they have the right to vote someone off?

Traditionally managed projects begin with a kickoff meeting. Here’s why and how agile projects can …

Are you struggling to find a catchy name for your agile team? Use this fun, mostly silly, generator …

Agile team leaders often need to gauge or achieve consensus. Learn four of the best ways of doing that.

We may think the Beatles simply sang about love, walruses and peace. But their songs actually …

Being paid to do a job doesn’t make someone a professional. This post explains the crucial …

Scrum teams have too many meetings is perhaps the most common criticism of Scrum. But is it valid?

Being a Scrum Master can be tough. Here are three of the most common mistakes Scrum Masters make …

Even though not everyone may work on a product backlog item, it’s still worth having the full team …

Even Scrum Masters need a holiday every now and then. Here are four things for a Scrum Master to …

A typical career path for a Scrum Master will start with serving one team. After a while that team …

Over time, Scrum teams take on some of the Scrum Master duties themselves. Does the self-organizing …

A micromanaging boss or stakeholder inhibits agility. The three questions in this article can help …

Incentives and bonuses can be used to reward agile teams but must be aligned with agile principles. …

Most of the Scrum literature describes a situation in which a team is allowed to work without …

A couple of weeks ago, I participated in a painful sprint planning meeting. You might have been in …

There are, of course, a variety of ways to go about planning a sprint. I’ve written previously …

There are many ways you can run a sprint retrospective. Here’s the simplest way and still my favorite.

Being the Scrum Master of a Scrum team can be hard work. But does it get harder over time? Or easier?

Early in my career, I noticed the project managers in my company drove nicer cars than we …

My wife, daughters and I use Wunderlist to manage our shared grocery list. Any time one of us …

I've written before that we should only estimate if having the estimate will change someone's …

I’ve noticed something disturbing over the past two years. And it’s occurred uniformly with teams …

It’s July—find something to celebrate with your team. Unless your “down under,” you’re probably …

In general, a Scrum product owner's job is to specify what to build, not how to build it. Read this …

Geoff Watts is one of the leading Scrum thinkers in the world, and one of the few to hold both the …

In last week’s blog post, I wrote about whether team members should sign up for tasks during sprint …

During sprint planning, a team selects a set of product backlog items they will work on during the …

During a sprint retrospective, team members gather and discuss ways in which they can improve. This …

An important consideration in capacity-driven planning is how full to fill the sprint. To answer …

What’s the difference between a user story and a task? Well that’s an easy question, I thought, the …

Having a “definition of done” has become a near-standard thing for Scrum teams. The definition of …

A product owner hands 10 story cards to the team. The team reads them and hands the fifth and sixth …

Hey, ScrumMaster: Step away from the index cards! You should not be a team’s product owner if you …

Agile teams build high-quality products. Agile team members write high-quality code. Agile teams …

In case you haven’t noticed, a few months ago we launched Front Row Agile, a site dedicated to …

Last week, I talked about the concept of equality on an agile team. I mentioned that one meaning of …

On the first day of my Certified ScrumMaster course, we go over the agenda for the two days. I …

Yes, I really did refer to guitarist Alvin Lee in a Certified Scrum Product Owner class last week. …

You may have heard Scrum is one of the leading agile software development processes. With more than …

All of a Scrum team’s members should be present when playing Planning Poker. You may be tempted to …

It's always good to have a Plan B. And all Scrum teams do--it's called an abnormal termination.

An …

In last month's newsletter I wrote about the idea that everything happens within a sprint. There is …

I recently helped to facilitate a two-day planning session for an important initiative at Adobe …

I worked with a team last week that had three business people who each established the team's …

In this session we will shatter the myth that agile teams can't plan. We'll start by looking at the …

Even if you've taken the often stated agile stance of getting rid of periodic performance reviews …

They say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure—this adage definitely applies to new …

I've always been envious of those with nice handwriting or even distinctive printing. I've always …

I occasionally encounter the use of t-shirt sizes (Small, Medium, Large, or so on) in use as …

It’s one of my favorite times of the year: March Madness. (For non-Americans: That means college …

Just the right amount of urgency can generate greater creativity.

One of the most creative things I've seen teams do is pick a theme song for the sprint.

Is your agile team excluding the Scrum product owner from your sprint retrospectives? Check out …

A Scrum trainer recently asked for a couple of good, real examples of large user stories (epics) …

Estimating is a way of buying knowledge. If having the additional knowledge will lead to different …

Ahh, it's fall. Not only does it bring the return of great, cooler weather but it ...

Scrum has never sat still. It evolves. One team tries something new, and it works so another team …

I was looking forward to reading this book. I haven't paid much attention to the PMI-ACP initiative …

The book is a comprehensive overview of Scrum. It goes from the principles of agile through the …

Many teams struggle with keeping the daily scrum short. Some teams even exceed the standard …

An organization's Wise Architects often provide requirements to a team in the form of …

Does a team have to work with user stories to do Scrum? Of course not.

You believe that agility is right for your team and for your business. You’ve implemented Scrum or …

You know that before the development team writes their first line of code, they need a funded …

You believe an agile software development method might be the right answer for your team or …

Too many teams view planning as something to be avoided, and too many organizations view plans as …

Agile leaders and managers have difficulty coming to grips with their role on self-organizing …

The early agile literature was adamant about two things: stick with small teams and put everyone in …

Building the right product at the right time is just as important as building a quality product. …

One of the challenges of agile development is coming to grips with the role of leaders and managers …

You’ve probably heard some people say, “Agile teams don’t plan.” Nothing could be further from the …

Maybe you’ve heard about agile software development projects but aren’t sure if they allow for the …

Agile approaches to software development promise many advantages: shorter schedules, more …

When will you be done? Though this question doesn’t go away on agile projects, it does get a little …

You’ve likely heard of agile development processes like Scrum and XP. You might have even begun to …

You know that you want to become a more agile development organization, but you aren’t sure how to …

Agile does not at all require individuals to be generalists, but individuals are expected to work …

Resampling is based on the idea that things we’ll observe in the future will be similar to the …

The topic of how well a team estimates two point stories relative to one point stories (and so on) …

How do we estimate how many hours it will take to deliver a given product backlog if we have no …

Scrum Masters need to protect agile teams from more than just overly aggressive product owners. …

When it comes to transitioning to agile a lot of companies wonder whether it is best to start small …

A project management office (PMO) that is engaged in and supportive of transitioning to Scrum can …