Scrum master and scapegoating
I recently read about Rene Girard’s theory of mimetic conflicts and it led me to a new reading of the role of the Scrum master (and consultant in general) in the organization. The same theory gave me ideas about how this role can be made more valuable and less...
Applying SOHP framework for organizational change
One of the common question raised by beginner Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches is how to structure the interactions with team or organization they are working with. One of the feasible answers to this question I borrowed from medical frameworks. SOAP framework in a part of problem-oriented medical...
Satisfaction from working in Agile and Big five personality traits
Last (2018) year I published a questionnaire in several Agile-related Facebook-groups (Scrum Russia, Enterprise Agile Russia, Large-Scale Scrum (LeSS): на русском, Agile вне IT / Business Agility Russia и Kanban.club (Scrum-friendly)) I wanted to see how personality traits (Big five) relate to personal satisfaction from working in Agile team. My hypothesis was that satisfaction...
Marcus Aurelius on how to implement Scrum
Being an Agile coach I help organizations to improve their way of thinking and working based on Agile mindset, values and principles. Part of that is providing training on Agile and Scrum. I teach participants what Agile values and principles are, what Scrum is and what is is not,...
On zero refinement in Scrum
My friend Steve Porter recently twitted on Product Backlog refinement: “Refinement isn’t an event in Scrum. It’s a concept. It’s not mandatory and there are no hard and fast rules for when and how much. Zero refinement is acceptable, as is spending a majority of your Sprint on it. Figure...
Remember the ignorance
I recently had a very interesting conversation with Steve Porter from Scrum.org. We discussed a Scrum team where developers are not pulling their work themselves. Instead, it’s a senior developer who, during the Daily Scrum, selects which Product Backlog items will be worked on that day and who will...
Why Product Owner needs courage
I had a conversation with Steve Porter from scrum.org on dysfunctional interactions between Product Owner and Development Team in Scrum. This discussion reminded me of an idea that I learned from Jordan B. Peterson that real trust is an act of courage. In this post I am trying to unfold...
Using Cognitive Conceptualization Diagram in Organizational Transformations
What I want to emphasize before digging deeper is the fact that in order to use tools and techniques form psychology, one must first understand oneself and sort oneself out. As Jordan B. Peterson says, set you house in perfect order before criticizing the word. This will probably require...
When Shadow covers Agile
In my previous post I described how personal Shadow of a manager can inhibit Agile transformation in organization (though I didn’t use the word “Shadow”). Here I would like to discuss Shadow in organizational context and explore how it influences outcomes of Agile transformation. In one of my next...
When a Manager is not Agile (but thinks he is)
Imagine you are an external Agile consultant invited to improve Scrum in a team. A product owner is a head of this department. Let’s call him Alex. Alex says a lot about self-organization and business agility and then during Sprint planning you observe this guy suppressing team’s initiatives, micromanaging,...