scrum | TechWell

scrum

Prioritizing Invisible Work

There are work items that will give the team an operational boost and perhaps avoid a crisis, but that never make it to the top of the priority list—like build and deployment improvements, or paying down technical debt. For enabling work that is valuable but too invisible to be a priority, consider breaking it down.

Steve Berczuk's picture
Steve Berczuk
Two agile teammates using a kanban board with sticky notes Is the Problem with Your Agile Tool, or How You’re Using It?

While using index cards and a wall can function just fine as a kanban or Scrum board, issue-tracking tools such as Jira can make it easier to manage a backlog, especially with a distributed team. But these tools are more complex to use and can add their own overhead to the process. You need to keep things simple.

Steve Berczuk's picture
Steve Berczuk
Agile team member drawing out a process on a whiteboard Good Process, Bad Process

“Process” is a word that seems to have a lot of baggage. Depending on whom you ask, process is either essential to delivering value, or something that gets in the way. But this is the wrong way to frame the issue. A process is not inherently good or bad; it's how you use it, and whether it's right for your situation.

Steve Berczuk's picture
Steve Berczuk
Scrum team with different roles and jobs Scrum Roles, Goals, and You

The Scrum Guide specifies that there are three roles: product owner, developer, and ScrumMaster. It’s essential that a Scrum team have each of these roles to help it work well. But depending on how you implement the roles, you may end up hurting rather than helping your Scrum process. Focus on goals, not job titles.

Steve Berczuk's picture
Steve Berczuk
Scrum team member fixing a bicycle 3 Common Scrum Anti-Patterns and How to Fix Them

For a Scrum team to operate successfully, the entire team must honor the Scrum values of commitment, courage, focus, openness, and respect. But it's easy to fall into practices that can erode trust and collaboration. Here are three common anti-patterns that emerge in Scrum, as well as the solutions to overcome them.

Owen Gotimer's picture
Owen Gotimer
Person holding a sparkler with New Year's fireworks in the background Top 10 TechWell Insights Stories of 2019

Career development was on many software practitioners' minds in 2019, as some of our top stories were about having a technical lead on a Scrum team and making the switch from quality assurance to quality engineering. Stories about new ideas such as DevOps and continuous testing also ranked high. Check out the roundup.

Beth Romanik's picture
Beth Romanik
Scrum team high-fiving after their daily standup 4 Tips to Refocus Stale Standups

The daily standup is supposed to get everyone on the same page and make teams more productive and efficient. But it’s easy for this short meeting to become stale and stop providing any real benefit. Here are four ways to get out of the slump of merely delivering status updates and re-energize your daily standups.

Cristy Bird's picture
Cristy Bird
Person stacking rocks to build a foundation Building Good Scrum Habits

Building good habits is an important part of an effective Scrum team. Habits are a form of automation: The more basic processes we can automate, the more we can focus our energy on hard things. The Scrum process, with its focus on rituals, helps us by providing a framework for collaboration and making it second nature.

Steve Berczuk's picture
Steve Berczuk