Scrum

Story Splitting Q&A

Bite-sized story splitting Q&A for when you don’t need the full "Humanizing Work Guide to Splitting User Stories" Read More

Scrum Roles in the Real World

In this episode, Richard and Peter answer the question: “I get the basic definitions of the Scrum roles. In the real world, though, what do these roles look like when they’re done well?” Hear their take on what it means to be a great ScrumMaster, Product Owner, or Scrum developer, beyond the “by the book” Scrum Guide answers. Read More

Dealing with Interruptions on a Scrum Team

In this episode, Richard answers the question: “Our team is trying to use Scrum, but we get a lot of interruptions, a lot of work that pops up mid-sprint. How do we handle that kind of thing well?” He explains how to borrow a couple of concepts from Kanban to accommodate emergent work on a Scrum team in a healthy way. Read More

How to Give a Great Sprint Demo

Exciting. Entertaining. Do these words describe your sprint review meetings? Or are boring and unfocused more accurate? Here are tips and best practices for a reliably good sprint review (demo). Read More

Agile CPG Innovation: Pharmavite case study

inQB8 team increases new-product throughput by 10x Executive Summary: 3 Key Differences and Benefits of Agile CPG Innovation 3 Key differences from traditional CPG: Cross-functional groups work as full-time dedicated teams. Rapid test and learn cycles. Focus on… Read More

On the Value of Product Owner Training

I love teaching Product Owner classes because the PO is in such a high-leverage role. The PO's work affects the work of 7, 9, maybe even 18 other people. And it's not difficult to triple the value delivered by a Scrum team, simply by improving their PO's skills in a few key ways. Let's look at the financial impact of that change... Read More

Ask Humanizing Work: Long-running Stories

Hi Richard, My Scrum team has been working on a particular service for over a year. It's been 20+ Sprints. I'm concerned about the deliverables and the rate at which we deliver. I have just put together some material for my stakeholders. I am pasting those slides here for your review. Do you mind reviewing them and letting me know what you think? That would be very helpful. Read More

Making Info Visible for Better Decisions

A key part of the ScrumMaster's or Product Owner's job is making information visible.* Whether that's a product backlog, taskboard, cumulative flow diagram, or a one-off visual for a specific need, good visuals lead to better decisions. Here are four principles for doing it well... Read More

Why Most People Split Workflows Wrong

Workflows are a very common element of software. But they can be hard to split well when you're trying to work in small, vertical slices because the most obvious split turns out to be wrong. In this video from my 80/20 Product Backlog Refinement course, I explain why the obvious approach is wrong and what to do instead. Read More