Facilitating Professional Scrum Teams

Patricia Kong helps organizations thrive in a complex world by focusing on enterprise innovation, leadership, and teams. She is a people advocate and fascinated by organizational behaviors and misbehaviors. She is co-author of both The Nexus Framework for Scaling Scrum (Addison-Wesley, 2017) and Facilitating Professional Scrum Teams (Addison-Wesley, 2024).Glaudia Califano is an agile and lean practitioner and mentor, working with and within teams. She loves to be hands-on, coming up with new ideas, and learning from those around her. Glaudia divides her time between the UK and Spain with her partner and her two dachshunds.David Spinks is an experienced software developer, Scrum Master, and accredited trainer of Scrum and The Kanban Method. He believes in creating environments where empowerment, autonomy and flexibility enable teams to do the best work possible. David is based in Buckinghamshire, UK.

• Foreword by Sam Kaner xixForeword by Dave West xxviiPreface xxxi  Introduction 1Purpose of This Book 2Facilitation as a Complementary Practice to Scrum 2Who Should Read This Book 3How This Book Is Organized 4How to Read This Book 5  Chapter 1: Facilitating Alignment 7The Scrum Team Figuring Out How They Want to Work Together 8The Scrum Team That Aligns with Its Stakeholders to Deliver Value 16The Scrum Team Aligning on a Vision 25Keys to Facilitating Alignment 34Conclusion 36  Chapter 2: Facilitating Sprint Planning 37The Scrum Team Struggling to Agree to a Single Sprint Goal 38The Team Member Who Pushes the Team to Overcommit 46The Team Members Who Don’t Know Where to Start 52Keys to Facilitating an Effective Sprint Planning 54Conclusion 58  Chapter 3: Facilitating the Daily Scrum 61The Daily Scrum Where Everyone Provides a Status Update 62The Daily Scrum Where Developers Dive into Problem-Solving Mode 67The Scrum Team Acting as a Group of Individuals 70Absentees or Late Comers to the Daily Scrum 73Keys to Facilitating an Effective Daily Scrum 77Conclusion 81  Chapter 4: Facilitating Team Dynamics 83The Scrum Team Members Stuck on Their Own Ideas 84The Scrum Team with Growing Conflict Between Two Team Members 94The Scrum Team with Weak Decision-Making 107Keys to Facilitating Team Dynamics 116Conclusion 118  Chapter 5: Facilitating Product Backlog Refinement 119The Scrum Team Experimenting with Daily Product Backlog Refinement 120The Stakeholders Who Want It All 125When the User Experience Is Forgotten 132The Scrum Team That Is Obsessed with Estimating 138Keys to Facilitating Effective Product Backlog Refinement 142Conclusion 145  Chapter 6: Facilitating the Sprint Review 147The Sprint Review with Little Stakeholder Participation 148The Sprint Review Where Nothing Is Done 159Keys to Facilitating an Effective Sprint Review 164Conclusion 168  Chapter 7: Facilitating the Sprint Retrospective 171The Scrum Team Playing the Blame Game 172The Team Members Who Believe Nothing Will Change 178The Scrum Team That Thinks There’s Nothing Left for Them to Improve 185The Scrum Team Dealing with a Major Change 192The Scrum Master Focusing the Retrospective on Fun 201Keys to Facilitating an Effective Sprint Retrospective 205Conclusion 209  Chapter 8: Facilitating Beyond a Single Scrum Team 211The Scrum Teams Whose Members Could Be Sharing Knowledge 212The Scrum Teams Without a Say on Their Team Membership 215The Chaotic Customer Review 221Keys to Facilitating beyond a Single Scrum Team 228Conclusion 232  Conclusion: Moving Forward 233Getting Started 234Watching for Common Facilitation Mistakes 235Navigating Group Dynamics 237Improving as a Facilitator 238  Appendix A: Facilitation Principles 239Participative 239Purposeful 240Process 240Transparency 241Healthy 242  Appendix B: Adapting for Virtual 243Communication and Collaboration Tools 244Consider Having a Cohost 245Virtual Meeting Etiquette 245Be Inclusive and Respectful of Individuals’ Needs 246Minimizing Virtual Meeting Fatigue Caused by Cameras Being On 246Keep Sessions Short 248Break Down Content and Activities 249Take Regular Breaks 249Respect People’s Time 249Create Space for Connection 250Sharing with the Whole Group 250Making Decisions Virtually 250The Power of Silence 251Take It to the Team! 252Hybrid Facilitation 252  Appendix C: Facilitation Checklist 253Preparation 253Follow-Up 258  Index 259