Learn how outdated organizational structures manifest themselves in system-level Scrum stakeholder anti-patterns that easily impede any agile transformation to a product-led organization. We cover the perils of a lack of transparency, limited to non-existing leadership support, and why penny-pinching is the wrong approach.
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The Scrum Master Salary Report 2024 is the fifth edition of the industry survey after 2017, 2019, 2022, and 2023. This free report is based on the answers of 1,114 participants globally. If you are considering a career decision this year, maybe whether you should join the industry as a junior Scrum Master, move to a new organization, or go independent, you will find the report’s information beneficial.
By the way, the average salary of the participants in the survey is $87,800, with a standard deviation of about $46,400. In the complete report, you will find more detailed information; see for yourself by downloading your copy of the Scrum Master Salary Report 2024 below.
Are you considering a new Scrum Master or Agile Coach job? However, you are not sure that it is the right organization? Don’t worry; there are four steps of proactive research to identify suitable employers or clients for getting hired as a Scrum Master and avoid disappointment later.
I have used those four steps for years to identify organizations I would like to work with, and they never failed me. Read on and learn how to employ search engines, LinkedIn’s people search, reach out to peers in the agile community, and analyze the event markets in the quest for your next Scrum Master job.
Are you ready to transform your Scrum practices and elevate your agile journey? Dive into my exclusive, free email course based on the acclaimed “Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide” book. This course is a treasure trove of insights, offering a sneak peek into the crucial anti-patterns that could hinder your team’s success.
This course illuminates the common pitfalls in Scrum roles — from the Scrum Master to the Product Owner and stakeholders — and Scrum events. You’ll gain an understanding of the subtle missteps, team dynamics, and resulting patterns.
ChatGPT can be an excellent tool for those who know how to create prompts. The simplest form of prompting ChatGPT is to feed it the task and ask for results. However, this approach is unlikely to trigger the best response from the model.
Instead, invest more time in prompt engineering, and provide ChatGPT with a better context of the situation, desired outcomes, data, constraints, etc. The following article offers a primer to creating ChatGPT prompts for Scrum practitioners to get you started running. You will learn:
Scrum has proven time and again to be the most popular framework for software development. Given that software is eating the world, a seasoned Scrum Master is even nowadays in high demand. And that demand causes the market-entry of new professionals from other project management branches, probably believing that reading one or two Scrum books will be sufficient. Which makes any Scrum Master interview a challenging task.
Suppose you are looking to fill a Scrum Master position in your organization. In that case, you may find the following Scrum Master interview questions helpful in identifying the right candidate. They are derived from my eighteen years of practical experience with XP and Scrum, serving both as Product Owner and Scrum Master, and my training experience as a Professional Scrum Trainer with Scrum.org. Also, I have interviewed dozens of Scrum Master candidates on behalf of my clients.
So far, this Scrum Master interview guide has been downloaded more than 25,000 times.
If you are looking to fill a position for a Product Owner in your organization, you may find the following 82 interview questions useful to identify the right candidate. They are derived from my sixteen years of practical experience with XP and Scrum, serving both as Product Owner and Scrum Master and interviewing dozens of Product Owner candidates on behalf of my clients.
So far, this Product Owner interview guide has been downloaded more than 10,000 times.
Age-of-Product.com’s parent company — Berlin Product People GmbH — offers Scrum training classes authorized by Scrum.org, Liberating Structures workshops, and hybrid training of Professional Scrum and Liberating Structures. The training classes are offered both in English and German.
Check out the upcoming timetable of training classes, workshops, meetups, and other events below and join your peers.
Suitable agile metrics reflect either a team’s progress in becoming agile or your organization’s progress in becoming a learning organization.
At the team level, qualitative agile metrics often work better than quantitative metrics. At the organizational level, this is reversed: quantitative agile metrics provide better insights than qualitative ones.
Welcome to the 441st edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 42,489 peers. This week, Dave Snowden and Nigel Thurlow present the Hexi approach, a multi-method strategy enhancing agility through complex adaptive systems. Joshua Arnold advocates for a Quarterly Look Ahead process, and Annie Duke and Lenny Rachitsky explore decision-making improvements using techniques like the “3Ds” framework and pre-mortems. Also, we reveal the hidden costs of offshore software consulting and delve into system-level anti-patterns of stakeholders. Additionally, Willem-Jan Ageling revisits the Agile Manifesto’s principles.
Then, Chris Beswick addresses strategic innovation frameworks, while Marty Cagan emphasizes the critical role of experienced product coaches. Ant Murphy advocates for empathy in problem-solving, and Leah Tharin highlights key pitfalls in product road-mapping, stressing strategic, focused approaches for organizational success.
Lastly, Daniele Davi discusses Kaizen and its role in Agile, emphasizing continuous improvement. Maarten Dalmijn compares OKRs’ fragility to coral, stressing the need for optimal conditions, while Letitia Rohaise critiques traditional personas, advocating for inclusive methods like Jobs-To-Be-Done. Moreover, Paweł Huryn offers strategies for effective surveys, focusing on improving response quality. Finally, Joca Torres explores boosting team productivity through role clarity and method optimization, sharing insights from his experiences across multiple companies.
Welcome to the 440th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 42,461 peers. This week, Andy Birds shares a product operating model template to enhance ROI and customer outcomes. Brendan Gregg critiques the impact of disruptive “brilliant jerks” in engineering, while John Cutler advocates for engagement over layoffs. Also, Alex Debecker shares Basecamp’s Shape Up methodology, and Murray Robinson discusses the commodification of methodologies.
Then, Itamar Gilad warns about the potential pitfalls of Generative AI in degrading product culture. Roger Martin critiques traditional strategic planning, emphasizing genuine strategic thinking. Moreover, Ant Murphy introduces innovative Product Backlog formats and management techniques, and Teresa Torres and Stephanie Leue discuss transitioning from a feature factory to continuous discovery.
Lastly, Dave Rooney suggests replacing Story Points with simpler metrics, such as counting completed user stories. Nočnica Mellifera warns against misusing DORA metrics as high-stakes personnel tools. Abi Noda and Tim Cochran also promote qualitative metrics for measuring developer productivity. Cameron Presley advocates for blameless postmortems to learn from failures. Finally, Benedict Evans discusses evolving AI use cases, considering its potential to manage complex tasks.
Rumor says that a great Scrum Master supports one team at a time. If that is true, how do you spend your time with the team members, helping them become self-managing? Moreover, what about stakeholders and the organization? Let’s gather some data on Scrum Master tasks anonymously and answer the question!
📈 Please join the 2024 survey on Scrum Master tasks here.
Welcome to the 439th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 42,436 peers. This week, Tobias Mayer traces Scrum back to ancient human processes, suggesting its natural integration in creative endeavors. Scott Seivwright critiques the narrow focus of Agile coaches on methodology, advocating for adaptive practices in response to economic challenges, and David Burkus highlights the crucial role of managers in fostering autonomy and leadership amid rising trends towards managerless models. Chris Matts uses Eric Berne’s transaction analysis to contrast effective adult-adult interactions against the limiting parent-child dynamics in risk-averse environments. Also, Rami James champions asking for help as an essential developer skill, promoting collaboration and continuous learning over individualism.
Then, Marty Cagan and Marily Nika address the challenges of AI Product Management, and Evgenia Suvorova shares insights from her tenure at Revolut on achieving product-market fit. Chad McAllister and John Rossman emphasize the importance of “Big Bets” in business transformation, with John drawing on his Amazon experience to advocate for clarity, speed, and risk management. Leah Tharin offers a critical view on the implementation of SAFe, noting its complexity and the constraints it imposes on team autonomy, often resulting in inefficiency and dissatisfaction.
Lastly, Richard Kasperowski focuses on the role of pair programming and continuous delivery in agile practices. Moreover, Roman Pichler discusses the integration of OKRs with product roadmaps, while Andy Cleff and Colleen Johnson explore flow metrics like WIP and cycle time to enhance organizational agility through actionable metrics. Additionally, the 2024 AI Index report presents a comprehensive analysis of new AI trends, public perceptions, geopolitical dynamics, and the impact of AI on science and medicine.
If you are looking to fill a position for a Scrum Master (or agile coach) in your organization, you may find the following 12th set of the Scrum Master interview questions useful to identify the right candidate. They are derived from my eighteen years of practical experience with XP as well as Scrum, serving both as Product Owner and Scrum Master as well as interviewing dozens of Scrum Master candidates on behalf of my clients.
So far, this Scrum Master interview guide has been downloaded more than 27,000 times.
