Published in Serious Scrum·PinnedWhy “Scrum does not work here” is the wrong answerOr: The Right Question To Ask — When interviewing for a new Scrum Master position, there’s a pattern in most companies I come into contact with. Usually, it starts out nice, with them wanting to know more about my profile, my experience, what I do, and who I am. But then I counter with some questions of…Scrum2 min read
Published in Serious Scrum·Jan 21Scrum does not need a ton of saltOr: Why you can’t Schnitzel your way into Ramen — There’s an old sketch by German comedian Anke Engelke, in which a friendly, chipper TV cook walks an imaginary audience through a recipe for “Asia Noodles with sauteed chicken”. She begins by hoisting a pork cutlet onto the counter with the words: “We did not have chicken available, so we’re…Scrum9 min read
Published in Serious Scrum·Jun 26, 2021Scrum Requires Gray HairSkill equals Knowledge times Experience — When I started my career as a Scrum Master, I knew absolutely nothing about anything related to project work, and I knew that I knew nothing. It was perfect. It only got dangerous after I thought I knew anything. After my former position at a tourism firm got cut along…Serious Scrum6 min read
Published in Serious Scrum·Apr 11, 2021Don’t call it ScrumScrum is a promise to be broken at your own peril — Sometime earlier this year, I was talking to the tech lead of a California-based gaming organization. Asked what I did for a living, I said “I’m a Scrum Master,” which caused him to sigh and try to change the topic. But now I was curious and told him I sensed…Serious Scrum5 min read
Published in Serious Scrum·Jan 28, 2021Scrum and Agile should be for everyoneIn your search for solutions, involve everyone benefiting from them — So, here’s the situation. You and your Tech Lead are going through the effort of explaining the importance of technical debt and refactoring to your Manager and your CEO. To that effect, you invite a few devs to talk about their impediments, and how they felt about it so that…Scrum2 min read
Published in Serious Scrum·Jul 29, 2020Beware using “Chapters” in Remote Team EnvironmentsEver since that fateful day when Henrik Kniberg published the ideas he and Jeff Sutherland planned for the future structure of Engineering Culture at Spotify (“The Spotify Model”), thousands of companies have tried to emulate their design. It doesn’t work. Not that their ideas weren’t excellent, but they were the…Scrum4 min read
Published in Serious Scrum·Apr 6, 2020OptometryExplaining Empiricism — Have you ever been to the optometrist? In general, here is how it works. The optometrist sits you down on a chair that is clearly not designed for aesthetics but for one single purpose only and lowers a machine in front of your face that resembles a 50’s sci-fi robot…Serious Scrum3 min read
Published in Serious Scrum·Mar 23, 2020Serious Scrum Weekly Update #81March 16th to 22nd — For your Serious Scrum reading delight, we’ve summed up all 13 articles that were published by 9 different writers here at Serious Scrum between March 16th and 22nd. Max Heiliger takes us into the World of Warcraft In the last entry of his Scrum and Games series, Max proposes a compelling tale that will teach anyone who wants to…Software Development3 min read
Published in Serious Scrum·Mar 16, 2020Raiding your productScrum and Games Vol. 3 — This Article is part III of a series where I talk about how we can learn to Scrum better from video games. You don’t have to read the other two though, this article can be understood in a vacuum. It’s okay! I admit, I was a hardcore WoW player myself…Serious Scrum5 min read
Published in Serious Scrum·Mar 14, 2020Of Canaries and Coal MinesWeak Signals and Scrum — Back in the days (until 1986, actually), canaries were used as early warning systems in coal mines. Most hazardous gasses are heavier than air and completely invisible, which made detecting them impossible until the miners were literally neck-deep in “poisonous vapeurs” and the first pal dropped. As a solution, the…Serious Scrum8 min read
