Coaching Your Product Owner As A Scrum Master
Often when we talk about the responsibilities of the Scrum Master role one of the first topics that come to mind is coaching. But too many Scrum Masters believe that…
Dividing and Conquering: Finding the Right Size for Your Team
This post originally appeared on the PivotalTracker blog. Your small team has been doing great. You’ve delivered significant value to your stakeholders. You’ve shown noticeable improvement in how you work together…
Taking an Active Approach to Transparency in an Agile Team
One of the driving philosophies of an agile approach is the idea of transparency. Agile teams strive to create transparency both with their stakeholders and within their teams. However, achieving…
Should A Manager Be A Scrum Master?
In a recent post, I discussed whether the Scrum Master and Product Owner roles could be successfully combined. As you probably recall, the answer to that question was a resounding…
Using the Blocking and Tackling Backlog Refinement Pattern to Ensure a Great Sprint Planning
This post originally appeared on the PivotalTracker blog. We’ve all had that sprint planning meeting. Your team spent the entire session arguing over which stories to include in the next sprint…
Using An Estimation Grid To Improve User Story Estimation
Estimation is tough. We all know it and we all struggle with it. Most of the challenge of estimation is due both to the abstract the nature of software as…
The Destination Is The Goal, Not The Journey
Many organizations try to measure a team’s progress by their velocity, or at least, to conflate their velocity with their goal. But, velocity is not their team’s goal. A team’s…
Starting Your Team On The Right Foot With Team Chartering
This post originally appeared on the PivotalTracker blog. One of the best things that you can do to help your team deliver great products is to make sure your entire team…
Writing Great User Stories For Developing APIs
I recently received a great question from a viewer of my Creating Effective User Stories course. The viewer asked how she should approach writing user stories for team who would…
How To INVEST In Your User Stories
This post originally appeared on the PivotalTracker blog. If you’re a product manager, user stories are a critical part of how you interact with your team. Nothing trumps a face-to-face conversation,…