If you asked a typical cross-section of 100 High School students what job they hoped to be doing in ten or fifteen years from now, you’d get a lot of teachers and engineers, some lawyers and doctors, a variety of other job titles, but almost certainly not a single scrum master. It’s not that surprising…
What is the Product Backlog and How to Optimize it?
A Project To-Do List Every summer, when a close friend of mine has got a couple of weeks off work, he loves to take on a brand new DIY project at home. This year it’s something quite different again; re-plastering the crumbling front wall of his house. Each time, with whatever job he embarks on,…
Project Management Tools that Every Scrum Master Should Use
The project has been decided upon, the teams are in position, and the scrum master selected. The latter knows his or her job responsibilities but what are the project management tools to use in order to achieve the optimum result? Although there is a well-used English proverb that says; “It’s a bad workman who blames…
The Main Responsibilities of a Scrum Master
The Agile Practice Guide says “The scrum master is responsible for ensuring the Scrum process is upheld and works to ensure the Scrum team adheres to the practices and rules as well as coaches the team on improving impediments.” As a single sentence definition of the scrum master’s role this is adequate, but it cannot…
Become a Better Scrum Master: 7 Useful Tips For Your Journey
The Scrum guide describes the Scrum Master as being responsible for promoting and supporting Scrum. This definition leaves the role in a state where improvement should always be striven for. There should be an ongoing desire to better yourself in your role, but despite the Scrum Master title having been around for a number of…
Can’t the Scrum Master also be the Product Owner?
Whilst the official Scrum Guide does not state clearly such a restriction, it outlines thoroughly that the ideal scenario has a dedicated individual for every role. To start developing the debate, let’s first explore the two core roles breakdown: What is a Product Owner The sole point of contact between the stakeholder community and the…
Lean Software Development
What is Lean? Lean is a management philosophy that is designed with the intention of eliminating that which does not add any value to the customer, this is referred to as ‘waste’. Lean management has it roots in the Toyota Manufacturing Industry and was designed as a system for streamlining production. Lean management has been…