Advanced Certified Scrum Product Owner

I am VERY happy to be able to share that I am now offering Advanced Certified Scrum Product Owner classes.  If you are a CSPO and are looking for a way to raise your game or demonstrate an advanced level of proficiency in your craft, Advanced CSPO is a great way to do that. The course is two full days of highly interactive group work that will help you raise your PO game to a new level.

You can find my upcoming A-CSPO classes here.

And you can find ALL my upcoming classes and workshops here.

How to Pick the Right Scrum Training For You with Vic Bonacci

Vic Bonacci joins me for a conversation about what factors you should consider when signing up for a Scrum Certification (or really any kind of certification) class. Price is definitely a factor, but not the only one that matters. You are making a huge investment of time and money. Choose wisely.

You can find the podcast here.

Agile Coaching Skills - Certified Facilitator with Anu Smalley

In this episode, I am joined by Anu Smalley who is here to talk about the new Scrum Alliance certification: Agile Coaching Skills - Certified Facilitator (ACS-CF). During the interview Anu and I discuss who the certification is for, the skills you develop while earning the certification, and what to expect from someone who has this certification. 

Anu also offers a discount on her upcoming classes for anyone who is interested. 

You can find the podcast here.

The Future of Project Management with Howard Sublett

This week I am joined by Howard Sublett. Howard is the former CEO of the Scrum Alliance, a good friend,  and someone who has been working in the Agile space for a very long time. During our interview, we talk about where Agile and project management are headed and exactly how dystopian is the future going to be?

You can check out the podcast here.

PODCAST TEAM UP! A Couple of Coaches and DrunkenPM on Metrics

Christine Converse and Ross Beurmann, the hosts of the podcast A Couple of Coaches and I teamed up for some interviews.

I interviewed them on Agile Metrics. During the podcast, we discuss what metrics help create clarity for the team on how well they are performing and what metrics help highlight areas that could be improved. We weigh the pros and cons of standard Scrum metrics, Kanban metrics, and share the ones we each find most valuable.  

It was a great conversation and if you are looking for a deeper understanding of what metrics to focus on, there is a lot of good stuff in the podcast.

You can find that interview here.

And they interviewed me for their A Couple of Coaches podcast on what it is like to be part of the Scrum Alliance TAC and what it takes to become a Certified Scrum Trainer. You can find that interview here. I rarely get a chance to be the interviewee and it was a lot of fun. I highly recommend their podcast. They offer some great insights and listening to them banter back and forth is a lot of fun.

Do We Actually Need A Scrum Master?

In a class recently, a student asked a question that caught me by surprise. He asked if Scrum Master was a necessary role. If the team was fully engaged in approaching the work with an Agile mindset, inspecting, and adapting from one Sprint to the next both with respect to the deliverable AND the way they work together, AND they were self-organizing, then why would they need a Scrum Master? And, if management was imposing a Scrum Master on a team that was functioning this way, wouldn’t that indicate a lack to trust in the team?

These are good questions, and while we discussed the topic during class, I found myself returning to it over and over. What I love about this question is that even though I have an answer to it in my head, the asking the question challenged that. 

In this episode of the podcast, I’m joined by the person who asked the question, Kyle Macey, who works as a Senior Backend Engineer at Chow Now. And, because I wanted to do my best to keep my bias in check during the conversation, I asked a friend, Bjorn Jensen, if he’d be willing to lead the discussion. Bjorn and I volunteer for the Scrum Alliance TAC together. He’s not only a CST with a background in development, Bjorn has a level of openness and calmness that I only wish I could achieve.

drunkenpmradio · Do We Really Need A Scrum Master?

Contacting Kyle Macey

• Twitter:  https://twitter.com/itskylemacey
• Web: https://kylemacey.com/

Contacting Bjorn Jensen

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/mirouhh
• Web: https://jensen-und-komplizen.de/
• Email: mail@jensen.coach

Catching up with Melissa Boggs

Melissa Boggs spent two years as the Chief ScrumMaster at the Scrum Alliance. In January she took on a new role as the Vice President of Business Agility at Sauce Labs. In this interview, we talk about what she learned in her time as Chief SM and what advice she has for others heading down that path, and why you should "just jump". 

You can find the interview here.

Untapped Agility with Jesse Fewell

In this very special video episode of the podcast, I’m joined by Jesse Fewell, whose new book Untapped Agility is full of insights, tips, and tactics that you can use to help gain support for your adoption of Agile. Jesse and I go way back. We worked together a lot during the initial phases of getting The Project Management Institute and the Scrum Alliance to talk back in 2009-2010. It was great to catch up with him and I highly recommend his new book. 

Click here to watch the interview on ProjectManagement.com

The Business Agility Canvas with Karim Harbott

The transition to Agile is challenging for any organization. It’s even worse when you do not understand the strategic and business reasons behind the change. This is one of the primary reasons so many Agile transformations fail to achieve lasting change.

Karim is a seasoned Agile Trainer, Executive Coach, and a founding partner of Agile Centre. He also currently serves on the Scrum Alliance Board of Directors. He created The Business Agility Canvas to help organizations clarify the business drivers leading their change to Agile.

In this episode of the podcast, Karim explains the six enablers of business agility and how to use the Business Agility Canvas.

You can find the interview here.

Chief Scrum Master & Chief Product Owner - Checking in with Melissa Boggs and Howard Sublett

It's been a little over a year since the Scrum Alliance reorganized around an organizational structure that is headed up by a Chief Scrum Master (Melissa Boggs) and a Chief Product Owner (Howard Sublett). In this episode of the podcast I had a chance to catch up with them and find out about what they've learned, the impact of additional changes to support a more Agile approach to work and what to expect at the upcoming 2020 North American Global Scrum Gathering in New York City this May.


You can find the podcast here:
https://www.projectmanagement.com/blog-post/62632/Chief-Scrum-Master---Chief-Product-Owner---Checking-in-with-Melissa-Boggs-and-Howard-Sublett

Scrum Labs - An Interview with Howard Sublett from the 2019 North American Global Scrum Gathering

I had the chance to sit down with Scrum Alliance Chief Product Owner, Howard Sublett, at the 2019 North American Global Scrum Gathering. During the interview we discuss Dan Pink's keynote at the Gathering, the amazing work being done by volunteers to create a free library of agile coaching resources as part of the Scrum Alliance's Scrum Labs initiative, the Unscripted videos that Howard is making with Scrum Alliance Chief Scrum Master Melissa Boggs and, of course, The Wonder Twins.

The interview can be found here.

Meet Chief Scrum Master Melissa Boggs!

I had the opportunity to interview the Scrum Alliance's new Chief Scrum Master, Melissa Boggs. If you'd like to learn more about Melissa, her background and what it is like to be the first Chief Scrum Master at one of the world's largest Agile organizations, you can find it here.

How to earn Scrum Educational Units (SEUs) w/ TJay Gerber

If you have questions about how to earn Scrum Educational Units (SEUs) in order to maintain your Scrum Alliance certification you can learn all about it in my interview with TJay Gerber, Global Certification Manager and Education Department Product Owner for the Scrum Alliance which is available on ProjectManagement.com and can be found here:

https://www.projectmanagement.com/blog-post/51929/How-to-earn-Scrum-Educational-Units-w--TJay-Gerber

An Interview with Scrum Alliance Chief Product Owner Howard Sublett

The Scrum Alliance recently made a very significant change in how the organization is run. After years of running with a traditional leadership model, the Scrum Alliance, whose mission is “Change the World of Work” has decided to shift to a model with a Chief Product Owner and a Chief Scrum Master. As you’ll hear in this podcast, it is a model that is already inspiring leaders from other organizations to make a similar change. 

This podcast features an interview with the new Scrum Alliance Chief Product Owner Howard Sublett. Howard is a dynamic an inspiring servant leader who was involved with the Scrum Alliance early on before moving into Agile consulting. He joined the Scrum Alliance Board of Directors several months ago and will now be helping to shape and define the role of Chief Product Owner. During the conversation Howard and I talk about the significance of the role, what it involves, how it has inspired others, what the Scrum Alliance is looking for in a Chief Scrum Master and some of the recent changes to the SA Board of Directors that came about as a result of him taking on his new gig. 

Contacting Howard

Email: hsublett@scrumalliance.org

Twitter: https://twitter.com/howardsublett

What's New at the Scrum Alliance - from the 2018 North American Global Scrum Gathering

During the 2018 North American Global Scrum Gathering in Minneapolis, I had a chance to interview the Interim Co-CEOs of the Scrum Alliance: Shannon Carter, Renata Lerch, and Angie Stecovich. In addition to their new roles, they also serve as VP of Education, VP of Global Marketing and Communications, and Sr. Director of Finance, respectively. Shannon, Renata, and Angie explain how their roles have changed at the Scrum Alliance and how being part of an agile leadership team has prepared them for this. They also speak about all the new things happening at the Scrum Alliance.  

During the interview, they share details about a number of new initiatives at the Scrum Alliance (including how the certifications offered by the Scrum Alliance have changed over the last year and continue to evolve) as well as new benefits being offered to Certified Scrum Professionals (like free access to Comparative Agility, an online assessment tool that can be used to help organizations develop their agile capabilities).

By far, the biggest announcement the Scrum Alliance made during the 2018 North American Global Scrum Gathering was the partnership with Jeff Sutherland and Scrum Inc. to form a new organization called Scrum at Scale that is focused on helping large organizations transform to Agile. If you’d like to check out an interview with Jeff on the partnership, you can find it here: http://drunkenpm.blogspot.com/2018/04/jeff-sutherland-at-2018-global-scrum.html 

For more on the Scrum Alliance: https://www.scrumalliance.org

Becoming a Certified Scrum Trainer w/ Anderson Hummel

Last fall Anderson Diniz Hummel became a Certified Scrum Trainer. This means that he has been approved by the Scrum Alliance to teach Certified Scrum Master and Certified Scrum Product Owner classes. The journey to becoming a CST is never easy and never as quick as anyone would like and for Anderson, it was over three years from the time he first started working on it. (And this is after already having taught at the University level for a number of years.)

During the recent holidays Anderson and I had a conversation about what his journey to CST was like. We recorded this in hopes of helping offer some encouragement, advice and support for others who are headed down the path.



To help provide some background about the CST designation, according to the Scrum Alliance’s 2018 State of Scrum Report, there are over 500,000 certified practitioners of Scrum worldwide. Within that community, only 234 people are certified by the Scrum Alliance as being allowed to teach Certified Scrum Master and Certified Scrum Product Owner classes. So, it is a rare certification to have and many people who begin heading down the path do not have a great understanding of what to expect. Hopefully this interview will help with that.

SHOW NOTES

• 00:09 Podcast Begins - What’s up with Anderson
• 01:56 Anderson’s background as a teacher and how that led to him applying for Certified Scrum Trainer
• 03:10 How is teaching Certified Scrum classes different than teaching at the University level
• 04:39 Anderson’s 3 year journey to become a Certified Scrum Trainer
• 10:17 Being a CST is a lot more than just teaching Scrum correctly
• 11:36 How Anderson went from failing art exams in school to excelling at creating art in his classes
• 15:45 How big a role does experience working on Scrum teams play into teaching CSM and CSPO classes
• 19:25 Anderson’s advice for coaches who want to become Certified Scrum Trainers
• 25:20 Understanding how teaching all day impacts you as a human and planning recovery time
• 27:32 A word of caution for new CSTs who try to book too many back to back classes
• 29:32 Parting words of encouragement and advice for CST candidates
• 32:25 Getting in touch with Anderson
• 32:27 Interview Ends

ANDERSON's ARTWORK

CST CERTIFICATION

https://www.scrumalliance.org/certifications/trainers/cst-certification

CONTACTING ANDERSON

LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/andersonhummel/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/anderson_hummel

Tips to Prepare for TAC Panel Interview

The 2017 Scrum Gathering in Dublin is almost upon us and that means that a number of folks, who are working towards becoming Certified Scrum Trainers (CST) will be going through TAC Panels while they are in Ireland.

If you aren't familiar with it, a TAC Panel is one of the final steps to becoming a CST. A candidate will meet with a panel of members of the Scrum Aliance's Trainer Approval Committee and SA Staff. They will have an interview and then teach,  as they would in class.  For many, this panel is very challenging. Many candidates have to go through the panel multiple times before they get the certification.

So, in order to try and help with that, Anu Smalley and I put together a short video offering some tips for those who are getting ready for a TAC.

Lisa Hershman At SG2017 - Scaling, Certification Changes and Top Initiatives at the Scrum Alliance

Scrum Alliance Interim CEO Lisa Hershman shared some time at the 2017 Scrum Gathering in San Diego to talk about the top initiatives being worked on at the Scrum Alliance, including their partnership with Large Scale Scrum, changes to the certification programs and more.

Gene Bounds at the Scrum Gathering San Diego 2017

Making the transition to Agile is never easy for PMP’s. Once you re-wire your brain to think like a PM, letting go of all of that you have learned, and accepting a completely different way of working presents a lot of challenges.  A big part of what I try to do with these podcasts is to share stories of those who have successfully made the switch and what that transformation was like.

At the Scrum Gathering in San Diego a few weeks ago I got the chance to sit down with someone I’ve been hoping to interview about this topic for a long time.  Gene Bounds is the Chair of the Scrum Alliance Board of Directors. He is ALSO the former Chair of PMI. He comes from a background that is deeply steeped in the traditional space working on government projects, to someone who is now deeply invested in helping to grow the Agile community and change the world of work.

Because Gene has dedicated so much of his life to being in the service of others, first in the United States Air Force, then volunteering for PMI for many years, and now working with the Scrum Alliance, we also took some time in the interview to talk about the benefits that come from investing all that time volunteering.

You can find Gene here:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eugene-bounds-82b70754/

Scrum Alliance: https://www.scrumalliance.org/community/profile/ebounds

Scrum in School - A Case Study of Grandview Prep's Transformation

This podcast features an interview with two educators from Grandview Prep in Boca Raton, FL. Aileen Palmer and Susan Rose have been working with the Scrum Alliance, John Miller and Mike Vizdos to help the school implement Scrum for both the students and school administration. The interview explains how Scrum got started at Grandview, the impact it has had on the students, as well as the benefits and challenges they’ve experienced along the way.

Show Notes

01:16  Interview Begins

02:01 How Grandview Prep got interested in Scrum

04:59 Agile can be a lot easier for kids than adults

05:52 How Scrum has changed the way the students at Grandview collaborate

06:32 How the kids self-organize to make sure everyone is participating in the work

06:59 How teaching Scrum to a junior in high school impacts their ability to get work done and prepare for college

07:54 How visualizing the work is helping the students understand how to break work down into manageable pieces

08:35 Teaching students and teachers about how to break down the work and plan things out

10:20 Differences between how 1st graders and older kids are using Scrum at Grandview

11:17 The hardest parts of getting started with Scrum in school

13:17 Sometimes the transparency and seeing how much you have to do is overwhelming for adults

14:03 The struggle between Trello and Post-its

14:59 Student rankings and grading at Grandview - and how it has been impacted by Scrum

17:14 How using Scrum has improved the students and teachers ability to give and receive feedback

17:45 The reaction from parents/stakeholders to the introduction of Scrum at Grandview Prep

20:28 What Scrum means for the quiet kids who like to sit back and let others lead and drive the work

21:30 How will Grandview measure success to determine if/how Scrum is helping

22:33 The support Grandview Prep received from the Scrum Alliance 

23:14 Advice for educators who are interested in learning more or trying to implement it at their school 

24:39 How to get in touch with Susan and Aileen to learn more about Scrum at Grandview Prep

26:10 Wrap up

26:48 Podcast End

For more information

Grandview Prep Info and Contacts

Grandview Prep
http://Grandviewprep.net

Aileen Palmer 
apalmer@Grandviewprep.net 
Susan Rose
srose@Grandviewprep.net

Scrum Alliance Info and Contacts

Scrum Alliance
https://www.scrumalliance.org/
John Miller
agileclassrooms@gmail.com
Mike Vizdos
http://www.michaelvizdos.com/
Heather Leigh
hleigh@scrumalliance.org