Sprint Anti-Patterns

TL; DR: Sprint Anti-Patterns Holding Your Teams Back

Welcome to Sprint anti-patterns! This article covers the three Scrum accountabilities (formerly roles) and addresses interferences of stakeholders and IT/line management with this crucial Scrum event. Moreover, I added some food for thought. For example, could a month-long Sprint be too short for accomplishing something meaningful? And if so, what are the consequences?

Sprint Anti-Patterns Holding Back Scrum Teams — Age-of-Product.com
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Getting Hired as a Scrum Master or Agile Coach

TL; DR: Getting Hired as a Scrum Master or Agile Coach

Are you considering a new Scrum Master or Agile Coach job? However, you are not sure that it is the right organization? Don’t worry; there are four steps of proactive research to identify suitable employers or clients for getting hired as a Scrum Master and avoid disappointment later.

I have used those four steps for years to identify organizations I would like to work with, and they never failed me. Read on and learn how to employ search engines, LinkedIn’s people search, reach out to peers in the agile community, and analyze the event markets in the quest for your next Scrum Master job.

Getting Hired as a Scrum Master or Agile Coach — Age-of-Product.com
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Agile Laws: From Conway to Goodhart to Parkinson to Occam’s Razor

TL; DR: Agile Laws in Software Development

On many occasions, working with agile teams has amplified existing organizational, technical, and cultural challenges in many organizations. Starting to change always requires the acceptance that there is a problem that needs attention. The following article addresses some of the most prevailing impediments to achieving agility by revisiting several agile laws that are particularly relevant to any team’s effectiveness in solving customer problems.

Agile Laws: From Conway to Goodhart to Parkinson to Occam’s Razor — Age-of-Product.com
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Sunsetting Scrum Masters

TL; DR: Sunsetting Scrum Masters

In this article, I uncover indicators that a Scrum Master’s or Agile Coach’s journey is coming to a close; they are sunsetting Scrum Masters.

These indicators include, for example, management’s deviation from first principles, reduced support for your change initiatives, an emerging preference for short-term fixes over long-term agile strategies, a shift back to top-down control, decreased communication involvement, exclusion from management discussions, neglected input, waning reliance from the team, being left out of new communication channels, and lessened requests for meeting facilitation.

Consequently, recognizing and addressing these signs is critical to maintaining integrity and effectiveness.

Finally, please do not fool yourself; sometimes, it is also time to move on.

Sunsetting Scrum Masters: Signs that a Scrum Master's journey is coming to a close. Learn how to detect them! — Age-of-Product.com
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Successful Scrum Masters

TL; DR: How To Spot Successful Scrum Masters

In this article, I unravel the secrets of what makes a Scrum Master not just good but amazingly outstanding. From regularly achieving Sprint Goals, delivering value to customers, and building stakeholder rapport easily, discover the traits that set apart successful Scrum Masters.

Moreover, we also shed light on the pitfalls to avoid if you want to keep the respect of your teammates and probably your job.

Successful Scrum Masters — Age-of-Product.com
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Why Succeed When You Can Fail? A Guide to Missing Sprint Goals

TL; DR: Missing Sprint Goals

Do you excel in the art of setting unattainable, imposed, or plain non-existing Sprint Goals? In other words, are you good at missing Sprint Goals with regularity? If not, don’t worry; help is on the way!

In this article, we’ll explore how to consistently miss the mark. For example, enjoy the thrill of cherry-picking unrelated backlog items and defining success by sheer output, not outcome. Countless Scrum Teams have thoroughly tested all suggestions. They are ideally suited for teams who love the challenge of aimlessly wandering through Sprints!

Why Succeed When You Can Fail? A Sarcastic Guide to Missing Sprint Goals — Age-of-Product.com
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