Job ads for Scrum Master positions reveal great insight into an organization’s progress on becoming agile. I analyzed more than 50 job ads for Scrum Master positions to gain these. Learn more about what makes job ads such a treasure trove with the following 22 Scrum Master anti-patterns derived from job ads.
Welcome to the 275th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 29,852 peers. This week, we delve into the sheer variety of folly at play in any bureaucratic blunderland; we analyze different kinds of technical debt and how to best measure it, and we embrace a simple process to apply swarming as a team practice to solve critical challenges.
We then learn five practical tips to say no without offending senior or assertive stakeholders, and we enter a quest for magic metrics by ‘counting things that happened that you care about.’ We also check general product manager salary data based on January 2021.
Lastly, we examine a formula and a process that may allow us to figure out why things are less agile than hoped.
While the new Scrum Guide is less prescriptive and more inclusive, it also ties loose ends by including elements better, namely the previously free-floating Sprint Goal and the Definition of Done with the creation of Scrum commitments. This inclusion works remarkably well in the former’s case; regarding the latter, we need a shoehorn, though.
Read more on how you can use the Scrum Guide 2020 Reordered to spot patterns quickly.
Welcome to the 274th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 29,681 peers. This week, we delve into Scrum history, and we enjoy an interview with Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber on the changes of the Scrum Guide 2020 and what motivated them. Also, we dissect the dilemma surrounding the estimation process.
We then enjoy the results of two product management related surveys; we discuss user stories, tasks, and features in disguise to release more value sooner, and we learn from Martin Eriksson’s decision stack.
Lastly, we welcome John Cutler’s comprehensive checklist to support decision-making at a high-quality level, maintaining the decision flow. Speaking of decision-making, you may be interested in the ‘Six Thinking Hats’ tool as well. (That’s right, there is a tool section now.)
If you are looking to fill a position for a Product Owner in your organization, you may find the following 71 interview questions useful to identify the right candidate. They are derived from my fourteen years of practical experience with XP and Scrum, serving both as Product Owner and Scrum Master and interviewing dozens of Product Owner candidates on behalf of my clients.
So far, this Product Owner interview guide has been downloaded more than 7,500 times.
As 2020 comes to an end, you are probably considering how to further your career as a Scrum Master or Product Owner in 2021. Maybe, I can support you in that regard with a set of six articles that proved to be the most popular in 2020. They range from Product Owner and Scrum Master interview questions to a variety of Scrum anti-patterns and how to deal with them to the Scrum Guide Reordered 2020, the easiest way to understand patterns and concepts of the new Scrum Guide 2020. All articles feature free ebooks that delve into the problems and provide hands-on advice on how to solve them. Good luck with Scrum 2021!
