Facilitating Professional Scrum Teams: Improve Team Alignment, Effectiveness and Outcomes (The Professional Scrum Series)

✍ Scribed by Patricia Kong, Glaudia Califano, David Spinks

• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
• Year: 2023
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 310
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Unlock the true power of collaboration within Scrum Teams and beyond with this practical guide packed with tips, tools, and real-life scenarios to elevate your facilitation skills.

Scrum requires healthy collaboration, not just between the members of the Scrum Team, but also between the Scrum Team and its stakeholders to gather feedback and input. Collaboration is the heart of thriving Scrum Teams, but most available resources on collaboration focus solely on meeting formats and neglect to show how Scrum Teams truly harmonize their efforts and make informed decisions effectively.

This book bridges the gap by not only providing effective facilitation techniques but also delving into the how and why of facilitation--all geared toward improving effectiveness, achieving impactful outcomes, and helping Scrum Teams work through challenges.

• Obtain tools and insights for Scrum Teams to better facilitate team interactions to leverage group diversity.
• Learn from real-world scenarios that illustrate common Scrum Team challenges and how they can be overcome with effective and timely facilitation.
• Discover comprehensive facilitation approaches accompanied with effective guidance on when to use them, how they can be combined, and how they can help to achieve desired outcomes.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
Foreword
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Introduction
Purpose of This Book
Facilitation as a Complementary Practice to Scrum
Who Should Read This Book
How This Book Is Organized
How to Read This Book
Chapter 1 Facilitating Alignment
The Scrum Team Figuring Out How They Want to Work Together
Forming a Team Working Agreement
Try This! Ideate and Organize
Worst Possible Ideas
Affinity Mapping
The Scrum Team That Aligns with Its Stakeholders to Deliver Value
Know Your Stakeholders and When You Need Them
Try This! Strategies for Interacting with Various Stakeholders
Stakeholder Mapping
Decision Matrices
How Long Has It Been…?
Facilitate Early and Continuous Feedback
The Scrum Team Aligning on a Vision
Aligning the Scrum Team on the Product Vision
Try This! Describe Desired Future Outcomes
Tomorrow’s Headlines
Elevator Pitch
Product Vision Box
Roman Pichler’s Product Canvas
Keys to Facilitating Alignment
Scrum Team Collaboration over Cooperation
Build Empathy Between the Scrum Team and Its Stakeholders
Make It Inclusive
Conclusion
Chapter 2 Facilitating Sprint Planning
The Scrum Team Struggling to Agree to a Single Sprint Goal
Crafting a Sprint Goal When the Scrum Team Has Competing Priorities
Try This! Converging on a Single Cohesive Sprint Goal
Stakeholder Invite
Powerful Questions to Uncover the Next Most Important Outcome
1-2-4-All
Follow Up 1-2-4-All with a Gallery Walk and the Selection of a Sprint Goal
The Sprint Goal Template
The Team Member Who Pushes the Team to Overcommit
Creating a Sprint Forecast Collaboratively
Try This! Making Better-Informed Decisions as a Team
Uncovering Everyone’s Point of View
What Does the Data Say?
Facilitate the Discussion Toward the Next Most Important Thing to Start Next
The Team Members Who Don’t Know Where to Start
Create an Initial Plan for How the Work Will Get Done
Try This! Decompose Product Backlog Items and Create an Initial Plan
Breakdown into Tasks
Visualize Tasks
Keys to Facilitating an Effective Sprint Planning
Prepare Inputs
Take a Goal-Oriented Approach
Encourage Pull, Don’t Push
Leave Space for the Developers to Plan
Do Just Enough Planning
Conclusion
Chapter 3 Facilitating the Daily Scrum
The Daily Scrum Where Everyone Provides a Status Update
Approaching the Daily Scrum as a Team Plan for the Day
Try This! Use Questions and Visuals to Drive Focused Discussion
The Three Questions
Team-Based Questions
Walking the Board
Work in Progress and Work Item Age
The Daily Scrum Where Developers Dive into Problem-Solving Mode
Keeping the Daily Scrum Focused and Concise
Try This! Focus the Conversation
Take It Offline
ELMO
The Scrum Team Acting as a Group of Individuals
Aligning Around the Sprint Goal at the Daily Scrum for Cohesion
Try This! Bring Everyone Back to the Purpose
The Fourth Question in the Daily Scrum
Absentees or Late Comers to the Daily Scrum
Respecting the Daily Scrum
Try This! Leverage the Scrum Values and Team Agreements
Use the Scrum Value of Respect as a North Star
Enable Consistency and Accessibility
Keys to Facilitating an Effective Daily Scrum
Focus on the Sprint Goal
Keep It for the Developers
Manage Time Effectively
Enable Transparency and Visualization
Use a Participative Facilitation Format
Conclusion
Chapter 4 Facilitating Team Dynamics
The Scrum Team Members Stuck on Their Own Ideas
Understanding Group Dynamics
Try This! Navigating Scrum Teams Through Participatory Decision-Making
Sample Techniques to Use in the Divergent Zone
Silent Writing
Crazy 8s
Sample Techniques to Use in the Groan Zone
Active Listening
Paraphrase
Sample Techniques to Use in the Convergent Zone
Pros and Cons
Six Thinking Hats®
The Scrum Team with Growing Conflict Between Two Team Members
Understanding Conflict and People’s Needs
Try This! Facilitate the Building of Empathy and Understanding Needs
Take a Break
Empathy Mapping
Personal Mapping
Team Member User Manual
Empathy Buddy Exercise Using Feelings and Needs Cards
Explore and Support Diversity of Working Styles
The Scrum Team with Weak Decision-Making
Making Clear Decisions
Try This! Decision-Making Rules and Techniques
Decision Rules
Decision-Making Techniques
Roman Voting
Fist of Five
Feedback Frames
Dot Voting
Keys to Facilitating Team Dynamics
Build Team Empathy
Help Groups Navigate Conflicting Perspectives
Powerful Questioning
Conclusion
Chapter 5 Facilitating Product Backlog Refinement
The Scrum Team Experimenting with Daily Product Backlog Refinement
Facilitation of Refining the Product Backlog
Try This! Tips for Product Backlog Refinement
Refine the Product Backlog Collaboratively
Focus Conversation on Why and What; Postpone How
The Stakeholders Who Want It All
Keeping the Product Backlog Lean and Focused on Valuable Outcomes
Try This! Lead Conversations Toward Outcomes Using Evidence and Empiricism
Facilitate the Development of Product with a Lean UX Canvas
Thirty-Five
Buy a Feature
When the User Experience Is Forgotten
Keeping the User Front and Center
Try This! Facilitating User-Centric Product Backlog Refinement
The Experience Now-Next-Later Roadmap
Story Mapping
The Scrum Team That Is Obsessed with Estimating
Focusing on Valuable Conversations That Lead to Shared Understanding
Try This! Doing Just Enough Sizing to Get Product Backlog Items to Ready
Wall Estimating
Right Sizing
Keys to Facilitating Effective Product Backlog Refinement
Facilitate for Collaboration
Perfection Is the Enemy of Good Enough
Make Decisions Transparent in the Product Backlog
Facilitate Space for Ongoing Stakeholder Collaboration
Conclusion
Chapter 6 Facilitating the Sprint Review
The Sprint Review with Little Stakeholder Participation
Gathering Valuable Feedback at the Sprint Review
Try This! Stakeholder Engagement through Contribution
Invite the Right Stakeholders and Engage Them Before the Sprint Review
Facilitate Making Connections and Share Expectations
Put Your Stakeholders in the Driver’s Seat During Sprint Review
Chartwriting
Perfection Game and What? So What? Now What?
The Sprint Review Where Nothing Is Done
Helping Stakeholders Understand the Purpose of the Sprint Review
Try This! Stakeholder Collaboration over Stakeholder Attendance
Transparency of Done and Undone
Make Challenges Transparent
Risks and Their Impact on Longer-Term Forecasts
Keys to Facilitating an Effective Sprint Review
Create a Learning Space
Enable Interaction and Collaboration
Engage the Right Stakeholders at the Right Time
Focus on Goals and Value
Create a Healthy Space for Every Voice
Consider the Wider Market
Conclusion
Chapter 7 Facilitating the Sprint Retrospective
The Scrum Team Playing the Blame Game
Keeping the Sprint Retrospective Constructive
Try This! Regrouping and Adjusting Perspectives
The Prime Directive
Stepping Out of the Content and Reflecting on the Process
The How Might We Question Format
The Team Members Who Believe Nothing Will Change
Getting Value out of the Sprint Retrospective
Try This! Challenge the Scrum Team to Own Improvement
Circles of Concern, Influence, and Control
Delegation Poker
The Scrum Team That Thinks There’s Nothing Left for Them to Improve
Challenging Scrum Teams That Have Reached a Plateau
Try This! Leverage Different Perspectives to Pursue Awesomeness
White Elephant
Definition of Awesome and Improvement Boards
The Scrum Team Dealing with a Major Change
Dealing with Profound Challenges
Try This! Taking Steps toward Resiliency and Improvement
The Check-In
Conversation Café
Discovering the Art of the Possible
Root Cause Analysis
The Scrum Master Focusing the Retrospective on Fun
Serve the Needs of the Team
Try This! Help Participants Connect to the Purpose and Create Their Own Agenda
Connect to the Purpose
Lean Coffee
Keys to Facilitating an Effective Sprint Retrospective
Clarify Involvement as a Facilitator and Participant
Create Positive Energy
Don’t Ignore the Elephant in the Room
Protect the Health of the Team
Facilitate for the Scrum Team to Get Creative
Frame Change as Experiments
Conclusion
Chapter 8 Facilitating Beyond a Single Scrum Team
The Scrum Teams Whose Members Could Be Sharing Knowledge
Communicating and Sharing Knowledge across the Organization
Try This! Facilitate Learning across the Organization
Communities of Practice
Lunch and Learn Sessions
Retrospectives at All Levels
The Scrum Teams Without a Say on Their Team Membership
Organizing and Structuring Multiple Scrum Teams
Try This! Support Scrum Teams to Organize Themselves
Establish Boundary Conditions
Facilitate Self-Managing Team Formation
Visualize and Reflect on Dependencies as an Ongoing Concern
The Chaotic Customer Review
Preparing for a Large Meeting
Try This! Decentralized Large Meetings
The Science Fair/Science Expo
World Café
Gallery Walk
Shift and Share
Making Insights Transparent to All
Graphic Recording
Keys to Facilitating beyond a Single Scrum Team
Planning and Preparation for Big Groups
Strong Communication and Connection to Objectives
Clear Summarization
Provide Reflection, Feedback, and Parking Lot Spaces
Facilitate Organizational Communication
Apply Facilitation Principles but Adapt Facilitation Techniques
Conclusion
Conclusion Moving Forward
Getting Started
Watching for Common Facilitation Mistakes
Trying to Design the Perfect Session
Mismanaging Time and Expectations
Navigating Group Dynamics
Improving as a Facilitator
Appendix A: Facilitation Principles
Participative
Purposeful
Process
Transparency
Healthy
Appendix B: Adapting for Virtual
Communication and Collaboration Tools
Keep It Simple
Introduce the Tools
Consider Having a Cohost
Virtual Meeting Etiquette
Be Inclusive and Respectful of Individuals’ Needs
Minimizing Virtual Meeting Fatigue Caused by Cameras Being On
Reduce Screen Window Size
Participants Turn Off Self View
Incorporate Periods of Audio Only
Keep Sessions Short
Break Down Content and Activities
Take Regular Breaks
Respect People’s Time
Create Space for Connection
Sharing with the Whole Group
Making Decisions Virtually
The Power of Silence
Take It to the Team!
Hybrid Facilitation
Appendix C: Facilitation Checklist
Preparation
Outcome and Objectives
Facilitation Approach
Scheduling and Communicating
Facilitation Box (In Person Meetings)
Facilitation Space and Equipment
Follow-Up
Index
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
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