Facilitating Professional Scrum Teams: Improve Team Alignment, Effectiveness, and Productivity, 1st edition

Foreword by Dave West
xxvii

Preface
xxxi

Introduction
1

     Purpose of This Book 2

     Facilitation as a Complementary Practice to Scrum 2

     Who Should Read This Book 3

     How This Book Is Organized 4

     How to Read This Book 5

Chapter 1: Facilitating Alignment
7

     The Scrum Team Figuring Out How They Want to Work Together 8

     The Scrum Team That Aligns with Its Stakeholders to Deliver Value 16

     The Scrum Team Aligning on a Vision 25

     Keys to Facilitating Alignment 34

     Conclusion 36

Chapter 2: Facilitating Sprint Planning
37

     The Scrum Team Struggling to Agree to a Single Sprint Goal 38

     The Team Member Who Pushes the Team to Overcommit 46

     The Team Members Who Don’t Know Where to Start 52

     Keys to Facilitating an Effective Sprint Planning 54

     Conclusion 58

Chapter 3: Facilitating the Daily Scrum
61

     The Daily Scrum Where Everyone Provides a Status Update 62

     The Daily Scrum Where Developers Dive into Problem-Solving Mode 67

     The Scrum Team Acting as a Group of Inpiduals 70

     Absentees or Late Comers to the Daily Scrum 73

     Keys to Facilitating an Effective Daily Scrum 77

     Conclusion 81

Chapter 4: Facilitating Team Dynamics
83

     The Scrum Team Members Stuck on Their Own Ideas 84

     The Scrum Team with Growing Conflict Between Two Team Members 94

     The Scrum Team with Weak Decision-Making 107

     Keys to Facilitating Team Dynamics 116

     Conclusion 118

Chapter 5: Facilitating Product Backlog Refinement
119

     The Scrum Team Experimenting with Daily Product Backlog Refinement 120

     The Stakeholders Who Want It All 125

     When the User Experience Is Forgotten 132

     The Scrum Team That Is Obsessed with Estimating 138

     Keys to Facilitating Effective Product Backlog Refinement 142

     Conclusion 145

Chapter 6: Facilitating the Sprint Review
147

     The Sprint Review with Little Stakeholder Participation 148

     The Sprint Review Where Nothing Is Done 159

     Keys to Facilitating an Effective Sprint Review 164

     Conclusion 168

Chapter 7: Facilitating the Sprint Retrospective
171

     The Scrum Team Playing the Blame Game 172

     The Team Members Who Believe Nothing Will Change 178

     The Scrum Team That Thinks There’s Nothing Left for Them to Improve 185

     The Scrum Team Dealing with a Major Change 192

     The Scrum Master Focusing the Retrospective on Fun 201

     Keys to Facilitating an Effective Sprint Retrospective 205

     Conclusion 209

Chapter 8: Facilitating Beyond a Single Scrum Team
211

     The Scrum Teams Whose Members Could Be Sharing Knowledge 212

     The Scrum Teams Without a Say on Their Team Membership 215

     The Chaotic Customer Review 221

     Keys to Facilitating beyond a Single Scrum Team 228

     Conclusion 232

Conclusion: Moving Forward
233

     Getting Started 234

     Watching for Common Facilitation Mistakes 235

     Navigating Group Dynamics 237

     Improving as a Facilitator 238

Appendix A: Facilitation Principles
239

     Participative 239

     Purposeful 240

     Process 240

     Transparency 241

     Healthy 242

Appendix B: Adapting for Virtual
243

     Communication and Collaboration Tools 244

     Consider Having a Cohost 245

     Virtual Meeting Etiquette 245

     Be Inclusive and Respectful of Inpiduals’ Needs 246

     Minimizing Virtual Meeting Fatigue Caused by Cameras Being On 246

     Keep Sessions Short 248

     Break Down Content and Activities 249

     Take Regular Breaks 249

     Respect People’s Time 249

     Create Space for Connection 250

     Sharing with the Whole Group 250

     Making Decisions Virtually 250

     The Power of Silence 251

     Take It to the Team! 252

     Hybrid Facilitation 252

Appendix C: Facilitation Checklist
253

     Preparation 253

     Follow-Up 258

Index
259