The Liberators Podcast

Do Development Teams commit to completing all the items on the Sprint Backlog? Or is it okay for the Sprint Backlog to change as new insights emerge. Find out in this episode.

We love to share our materials. Please help us by supporting our work. You can do so by giving us a thumbs-up on the platform you're listening on. Or follow us on Twitter, Medium or LinkedIn (Barry & Christiaan).

This podcast is an audio recording of this post on Medium:
http://bit.ly/2yRWnEf

Follow us on Medium:
https://medium.com/the-liberators

Or check out our upcoming events at:
https://theliberators.com/events

Donate to support our work
https://bit.ly/supportheliberators

Support the show

We're building Columinity to help teams improve continuously based on scientific insights:
https://columinity.com

Check out our webshop for tons of powerful exercises and workshops to run with your team(s):
https://shop.theliberators.com

The music for episodes 91 and onward was written and produced for us by Basanite. The music for episodes 1-90 was acquired through Yummy Sounds. Post-production by Jasper Huiskamp.

In many organizations and teams, Scrum is certainly not a lightweight process. All the items in JIRA must be in the form of User Stories. Every Sprint features at least one or two sessions where people pull out their planning poker cards to spend an hour estimating items. And there's a Definition of Ready that must be adhered to in order to pull something into a Sprint.

Over time, and with good intentions, many practitioners of Scrum have burdened it with practices, tools and techniques that may be helpful to some teams, but are not for others. And for most teams, these techniques do not help them work empirically. We've been guilty of this as much as the next Scrum Master or Agile Coaches.

In this episode, recorded after day 1 of a Professional Scrum Master II-class, we talk about how this happened. And what you can do to stop burdening Scrum, and return back to its simple and clear purpose: to work empirically in the face of complexity.

We love to share our materials. Please help us by supporting our work. You can do so by giving us a thumbs-up on the platform you're listening on. Or follow us on Twitter, Medium or LinkedIn (Barry & Christiaan).

Find out how to do an Ecocycle here:
http://bit.ly/2wMgbHZ

Follow us on Medium:
https://medium.com/the-liberators

Or check out our upcoming events at:
https://theliberators.com/events

Donate to support our work
https://bit.ly/supportheliberators

Support the show

We're building Columinity to help teams improve continuously based on scientific insights:
https://columinity.com

Check out our webshop for tons of powerful exercises and workshops to run with your team(s):
https://shop.theliberators.com

The music for episodes 91 and onward was written and produced for us by Basanite. The music for episodes 1-90 was acquired through Yummy Sounds. Post-production by Jasper Huiskamp.

Should Scrum Teams revolt against creating "plans"? Are Scrum Teams supposed to not look further than their current Sprint? Is Scrum a "happy go lucky" way of building products,  not planning ahead in any way, shape or form? In this episode we bust the myth that Scrum doesn't like planning and plans.

We love to share our materials. Please help us by supporting our work. You can do so by giving us a thumbs-up on the platform you're listening on. Or follow us on Twitter, Medium or LinkedIn (Barry & Christiaan).

This podcast is an audio recording of this post on Medium:
http://bit.ly/2YVvLSp

Follow us on Medium:
https://medium.com/the-liberators

Or check out our upcoming events at:
https://theliberators.com/events

Donate to support our work
https://bit.ly/supportheliberators

Support the show

We're building Columinity to help teams improve continuously based on scientific insights:
https://columinity.com

Check out our webshop for tons of powerful exercises and workshops to run with your team(s):
https://shop.theliberators.com

The music for episodes 91 and onward was written and produced for us by Basanite. The music for episodes 1-90 was acquired through Yummy Sounds. Post-production by Jasper Huiskamp.

"I'm more of a Scrum Janitor" - Carsten Grønbjerg Lützen

In this edition, Christiaan and Barry talk with Scrum Master Carsten Grønbjerg Lützen about his journey as a Scrum Master. Carsten works at the LEGO Group, and has been a passionate and driven Scrum Master for many years. Together, we dive deep into what makes Scrum work at the LEGO Group, and how it all starts with having a clear purpose to rally behind. Carsten also shares some of the things that helped him on his journey as a Scrum Master.

Check out Carsten's videos here.

We love to share our materials. Please help us by supporting our work. You can do so by giving us a thumbs-up on the platform you're listening to. Or follow us on Twitter, Medium or LinkedIn (Barry & Christiaan).

Follow us on Medium:
https://medium.com/the-liberators

Or check out our upcoming events at:
https://theliberators.com/events

Donate to support our work
https://bit.ly/supportheliberators

Support the show

We're building Columinity to help teams improve continuously based on scientific insights:
https://columinity.com

Check out our webshop for tons of powerful exercises and workshops to run with your team(s):
https://shop.theliberators.com

The music for episodes 91 and onward was written and produced for us by Basanite. The music for episodes 1-90 was acquired through Yummy Sounds. Post-production by Jasper Huiskamp.

Zombie Scrum is something that looks like Scrum, but isn't Scrum at all when you take a closer look. Usually, Zombie Scrum is marked by a complete lack of working software, no involvement of the actual users and no drive to do anything about this.

This is nothing new. But instead of stating the obvious, we wanted to do something to help. So we built a Zombie Scrum Symptoms Checker - together with Johannes Schartau - to help create transparency around how teams are working with Scrum. Not only is this a helpful tool to start a conversation within your team, it also helps us gather more data around how Scrum is used around the world. Our hope is to improve our ability to help organizations and teams work with Scrum more effectively.

In this episode, Barry interviews Christiaan about this tool, how it was developed, what its purpose is and what our goals are with it.

We love to share our materials. Please help us by supporting our work. You can do so by giving us a thumbs-up on the platform you're listening on. Or follow us on Twitter, Medium or LinkedIn (Barry & Christiaan).

Give the Zombie Scrum Symptoms Checker here:
https://survey.zombiescrum.org

Follow us on Medium:
https://medium.com/the-liberators

Or check out our upcoming events at:
https://theliberators.com/events

Donate to support our work
https://bit.ly/supportheliberators

Support the show

We're building Columinity to help teams improve continuously based on scientific insights:
https://columinity.com

Check out our webshop for tons of powerful exercises and workshops to run with your team(s):
https://shop.theliberators.com

The music for episodes 91 and onward was written and produced for us by Basanite. The music for episodes 1-90 was acquired through Yummy Sounds. Post-production by Jasper Huiskamp.

In this episode, it is all about how problems are resolved that are hindering a Development Team in their work. From a broken wifi router to a steady stream of meeting-requests from outside the team. And from clarifying unclear work to resolving a conflict between members. What problems should a Scrum Master resolve? What is the difference between impediments, blockers, problems and issues?

This audioblog is based on this blogpost:
http://bit.ly/2qmarBw

Follow us on Medium:
https://medium.com/the-liberators

Or check out our upcoming events at:
https://theliberators.com/events

Donate to support our work
https://bit.ly/supportheliberators

Support the show

We're building Columinity to help teams improve continuously based on scientific insights:
https://columinity.com

Check out our webshop for tons of powerful exercises and workshops to run with your team(s):
https://shop.theliberators.com

The music for episodes 91 and onward was written and produced for us by Basanite. The music for episodes 1-90 was acquired through Yummy Sounds. Post-production by Jasper Huiskamp.

Are stakeholders present at your Sprint Review? Is this event called a 'Demo' in agenda's? Are stakeholders actively invited to offer feedback? In this episode, we address the myth that the Sprint Review is primarily an opportunity to ‘demo’ the increment to stakeholders. And we give you plenty of tips to make your Sprint Review more effective.

We love to share our materials. Please help us by supporting our work. You can do so by giving us a thumbs-up on the platform you're listening on. Or follow us on Twitter, Medium or LinkedIn (Barry & Christiaan).

This podcast is an audio recording of this post on Medium:
http://bit.ly/2YSHC3D

Follow us on Medium:
https://medium.com/the-liberators

Or check out our upcoming events at:
https://theliberators.com/events

Donate to support our work
https://bit.ly/supportheliberators

Support the show

We're building Columinity to help teams improve continuously based on scientific insights:
https://columinity.com

Check out our webshop for tons of powerful exercises and workshops to run with your team(s):
https://shop.theliberators.com

The music for episodes 91 and onward was written and produced for us by Basanite. The music for episodes 1-90 was acquired through Yummy Sounds. Post-production by Jasper Huiskamp.

Sprint Goals are one of the more elusive parts of the Scrum Framework. Although most teams understand why they matter, there is usually this idea of "that won't work here" or "we'll do that when the rest of Scrum is working".

In this podcast, Barry and Christiaan talk about their experience with Sprint Goals. They also explore how Scrum Master can actually use the lack of Sprint Goals, and the underlying reasons, to start improving the empirical process. Rather than considering them as optional practices, Barry and Christiaan explain how they are a critical and essential part that ties all the elements of Scrum together. They also offer a number of tips.

We love to share our materials. Please help us by supporting our work. You can do so by giving us a thumbs-up on the platform you're listening on. Or follow us on Twitter, Medium or LinkedIn (Barry & Christiaan).

Follow us on Medium:
https://medium.com/the-liberators

Or check out our upcoming events at:
https://theliberators.com/events

Donate to support our work
https://bit.ly/supportheliberators

Support the show

We're building Columinity to help teams improve continuously based on scientific insights:
https://columinity.com

Check out our webshop for tons of powerful exercises and workshops to run with your team(s):
https://shop.theliberators.com

The music for episodes 91 and onward was written and produced for us by Basanite. The music for episodes 1-90 was acquired through Yummy Sounds. Post-production by Jasper Huiskamp.

Have you ever come across User Stories like "As a designer, I want to set up a style guide so that all developers can do basic design themselves"? Or "As a developer I want to have an API so that I can access the back-end"? In this edition, we talk about the myth that Product Backlog have to consist entirely out of User Stories. We also clarify the purpose of User Stories and offer some tips on other techniques that might be better suited for your needs.

We love to share our materials. Please help us by supporting our work. You can do so by giving us a thumbs-up on the platform you're listening on. Or follow us on Twitter, Medium or LinkedIn (Barry & Christiaan).

This audioblog is based on this blogpost:
http://bit.ly/2ZWZLtx

Follow us on Medium:
https://medium.com/the-liberators

Or check out our upcoming events at:
https://theliberators.com/events

Donate to support our work
https://bit.ly/supportheliberators

Support the show

We're building Columinity to help teams improve continuously based on scientific insights:
https://columinity.com

Check out our webshop for tons of powerful exercises and workshops to run with your team(s):
https://shop.theliberators.com

The music for episodes 91 and onward was written and produced for us by Basanite. The music for episodes 1-90 was acquired through Yummy Sounds. Post-production by Jasper Huiskamp.

In this podcast, Barry and Christiaan explore what their journeys as Scrum Masters looked like. What helped? Where did they find support? They also talk about their upcoming workshop on September 17 where over 50 Scrum Masters will identify next steps on their personal journeys.

We love to share our materials. Please help us by supporting our work. You can do so by giving us a thumbs-up on the platform you're listening on. Or follow us on Twitter, Medium or LinkedIn (Barry & Christiaan).

Want to join the Learning Journey on September 17? Sign up here:
http://bit.ly/2YW3bMN

Follow us on Medium:
https://medium.com/the-liberators

Or check out our upcoming events at:
https://theliberators.com/events

Donate to support our work
https://bit.ly/supportheliberators

Support the show

We're building Columinity to help teams improve continuously based on scientific insights:
https://columinity.com

Check out our webshop for tons of powerful exercises and workshops to run with your team(s):
https://shop.theliberators.com

The music for episodes 91 and onward was written and produced for us by Basanite. The music for episodes 1-90 was acquired through Yummy Sounds. Post-production by Jasper Huiskamp.