As we work with multiple teams we are bound to encounter teams that have critical conflicts. Teams that can’t be helped with the tools we’ve learned so far. That’s the time when we need to explore new approaches, learn new tools and techniques. In this episode we talk about how to handle critical conflicts inside the team and what tools we can use in those situations. We mention the following books: Critical Conversations and The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team.

About Melissa Lang

Melissa has worked in many diverse jobs over the last 20 years: ethnomusicologist, cook, IT project manager, agile coach. In all of those jobs, her main focus has been on strengthening team work and facilitating communication. As a dedicated agilist for 10+ years Melissa has worked at a range of companies, from start-up to multi-national corporation. Currently she is coaching teams from Barcelona and Hamburg at Xing AG where she has been employed since December 2011.

You can connect with Melissa Lang on Twitter and link with Melissa Lang on XING or LinkedIn.

In our journeys as Scrum Masters we learn a lot about teams, people skills, coaching, listening. But we end up forgetting that in the end our role is to help the business. Melissa shares with us one such story and what she learned from that experience that helps her still today.

About Melissa Lang

Melissa has worked in many diverse jobs over the last 20 years: ethnomusicologist, cook, IT project manager, agile coach. In all of those jobs, her main focus has been on strengthening team work and facilitating communication. As a dedicated agilist for 10+ years Melissa has worked at a range of companies, from start-up to multi-national corporation. Currently she is coaching teams from Barcelona and Hamburg at Xing AG where she has been employed since December 2011.

You can connect with Melissa Lang on Twitter and link with Melissa Lang on XING or LinkedIn.

We often use this tool everywhere. We even learn this tool as part of our journey to become a good Scrum Master. It is so important that we even use this tool every day. What is this tool? Listen in and find out.

About Dominik Ehrenberg

Dominik is a Scrum Master at Infineon Technologies AG in Germany. Agile practitioner since 2008, he started in the industry as a software developer in web development and later became a Scrum Master.

You can link with Dominik Ehrenberg on LinkedIn and connect with Dominik Ehrenberg on Twitter.

Scrum Masters can achieve a successful outcome for their work if they are ready to ask the right questions from themselves. Whether we have a check-list of ask a Scrum Master colleague to serve as a sparring partner the key is to ask the right questions from ourselves!

About Dominik Ehrenberg

Dominik is a Scrum Master at Infineon Technologies AG in Germany. Agile practitioner since 2008, he started in the industry as a software developer in web development and later became a Scrum Master.

You can link with Dominik Ehrenberg on LinkedIn and connect with Dominik Ehrenberg on Twitter.

Teams can get used to “the way things are around here” and fail to recognize that they are stuck in a rut. Asking the right questions can help teams get out of the rut and learn that they must learn to question even what “feels natural” in order to improve.

About Dominik Ehrenberg

Dominik is a Scrum Master at Infineon Technologies AG in Germany. Agile practitioner since 2008, he started in the industry as a software developer in web development and later became a Scrum Master.

You can link with Dominik Ehrenberg on LinkedIn and connect with Dominik Ehrenberg on Twitter.

Teams that know their problems but fail to do anything about them are applying the Inspect & Ignore anti-pattern and will very likely get stuck in that partner for a long time! To avoid this pattern we must invest a lot into retrospectives and learn how to effectively motivate teams to take ownership of their methods of work.

In this episode we refer to the book Agile Retrospectives by Esther Derby and Diana Larsen.

About Dominik Ehrenberg

Dominik is a Scrum Master at Infineon Technologies AG in Germany. Agile practitioner since 2008, he started in the industry as a software developer in web development and later became a Scrum Master.

You can link with Dominik Ehrenberg on LinkedIn and connect with Dominik Ehrenberg on Twitter.

Sometimes we fail in very simple things like helping people understand what Agile is all about, and one instance where this happens is when teams “switch” from Scrum to Kanban. Well, the problem is that Kanban is not a process. It does not set roles are steps. In fact Kanban is about “starting where you are”, not setting a new process. In this episode we talk about how to avoid this kind of failures.

About Dominik Ehrenberg

Dominik is a Scrum Master at Infineon Technologies AG in Germany. Agile practitioner since 2008, he started in the industry as a software developer in web development and later became a Scrum Master.

You can link with Dominik Ehrenberg on LinkedIn and connect with Dominik Ehrenberg on Twitter.

In order for us as Scrum Masters to understand the systems we work within we must use concrete tools that help us understand the dynamics in play around us. Why don’t teams deliver what is expected. Can we be sure that the source of the impediments comes from inside the team? What expectations from the team regarding external help are not being met? What are the corporate policies that affect our work? Pawel shares 2 tools we can use to explore and understand the system.

About Pawel Kalinowski

Pawel Kalinowski, works with agile software development companies - currently he works with one of the largest software houses in Europe specializing in Python & JavaScript. With a background in capital markets & hedge fund industry, he knows quite a lot about risk management, which he applies in running software development projects.

You can connect with Pawel Kalinowski on twitter and link with Pawel Kalinowski on LinkedIn. You can also follow Pawel Kalinowski’s blog.

As Scrum Masters we developed our soft skills, our coaching skills, our conversation skills. But the teams we work with are still directly affected by the technology choices they make. As Scrum Masters we must be able to understand what teams go through to be able to help them tackle the key technical problems they must solve to be productive. That’s the topic we talk about in this episode: how to learn the hard skills.

About Pawel Kalinowski

Pawel Kalinowski, works with agile software development companies - currently he works with one of the largest software houses in Europe specializing in Python & JavaScript. With a background in capital markets & hedge fund industry, he knows quite a lot about risk management, which he applies in running software development projects.

You can connect with Pawel Kalinowski on twitter and link with Pawel Kalinowski on LinkedIn. You can also follow Pawel Kalinowski’s blog.

Most of the time we work with one or two teams, but sometimes we work in a larger context, where many other people are involved. How to organize a workshop for 50 people? That’s the topic we talk about in today’s episode.

About Pawel Kalinowski

Pawel Kalinowski, works with agile software development companies - currently he works with one of the largest software houses in Europe specializing in Python & JavaScript. With a background in capital markets & hedge fund industry, he knows quite a lot about risk management, which he applies in running software development projects.

You can connect with Pawel Kalinowski on twitter and link with Pawel Kalinowski on LinkedIn. You can also follow Pawel Kalinowski’s blog.