A Developer Can’t Be the Product Owner
The Product Owner on my team is also a developer on the team. Do you have any advice on using Scrum in such a scenario? SHORT ANSWER: Yeah - stop doing it! LONG ANSWER: In a healthy Scrum Team, each person fills only one Scrum role at a time. Having someone...
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Build Working Agreements Fast
Working Agreements are one of the core compacts that all good Agile teams need and use. For those of you unfamiliar with Working Agreements, they are nothing more than agreed upon protocols created by the team govern their interactions and clarify expectations. They are different from Ground Rules which tend...
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Six Common Mistakes of a Product Owner
How do you cope with the weak Product Owner? You don't - find a new Product Owner (PO) or stop using Scrum. Scrum is based on the idea that an empowered, knowledgable business leader is setting direction for the product (or service) under development. When that person does not exist,...
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The Roman Voting Technique for Agile Teams
This is one of my all-time favorite techniques to quickly arrive at consensus for Agile Teams. I use Roman Voting ALL the time because is fast, it is easy and it is fun. I have even had people tell me that the Roman Voting technique was the most memorable and useful...
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Simple Coaching Techniques for the Agile Coach
Coaching is a distinct and powerful skill from the eight other essential skills of an Agile Coach (CSP-SM). Because coaching is an overloaded word in the English language, let me provide some guidance to describe what I mean when I am referring to coaching. For me, a coach is a person...
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The Responsibility Process – Letting Go of Blame
Every year I try to attend training. Last October, I participated in Christopher Avery’s The Responsibility Process Intensive in Munich. I approached the workshop as an opportunity to improve my coaching. Surprisingly, the workshop profoundly improved my personal life as much as my professional life. Christopher shared that many people...
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