In 2003

I was reviewing the youthful Scrum, and found this course description for the very first course. Some comments from students are at the end: ScrumMaster Certification Course Description Why? Agile project management is as radically different from traditional project management as agile processes are different from traditional methodologies. Rather than plan, instruct and direct, the agile … Continue reading →

Building an Agile Organization Part 3

  Remember the angry development VP from Part 1. He had hired a certified Scrum Master and found him inadequate. This VP made the assumption that the CSM certification meant the person was qualified to help his organization. He found out it only meant the person was certified as having attended a Scrum Alliance scrum … Continue reading →

Building an Agile Organization Part 2

How can I find qualified Scrum help? “The Professional Scrum Master® (PSM® I) Certification from Scrum.Org is one of the most valuable agile certifications in the market. The greater the depth and extent of knowledge needed to earn a certificate, the greater its value.  By this measure, the PSM assessments are significantly more valuable than … Continue reading →

Building an Agile Organization Part 1

Part 1:  What is Scrum certification? Can you count on it as meaningful in selecting people? “CIOs need to embrace agile development as quickly as possible. Agile has the capability to transform IT-business relationships as well as have a positive effect on IT value delivery.[1]” “Getting experienced outside help … has a positive impact to … Continue reading →

Greed and Control Can Ruin an Industry and Movement

It has come to my attention that Scrum Alliance is trying to register a trademark on, “SCRUM USER GROUP,” at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.  Word on the street is that that the Trademark Office has indicated that it will publish this trademark shortly for opposition.  If no one opposes, I understand that the … Continue reading →

Do you think there are culture barriers in promoting the idea of Scrum in China?

No more than any other culture. The sticking point for how well a culture can take advantage of Scrum is the belief in predictability. People who are culturally attuned to predictability want to believe that they can predict the future. Their job is then to cause the future to come true by forcing the people … Continue reading →

unSAFe at any speed

The boys from RUP (Rational Unified Process) are back. Building on the profound failure of RUP, they are now pushing the Scaled Agile Framework (e) as a simple, one-size fits all approach to the agile organization. They have made their approach even more complicated by partnering with Rally, a tools vendor. Consultants are available to … Continue reading →

Scrum As A Framework

There has been a lot of conversation about the Scrum Guide that Jeff Sutherland and I made available on Scrum.org. It is there, along with more than a dozen translations, for anyone to download as a PDF. When people share the PDF with each other, we request proper attribution so that it is always clear … Continue reading →

The Origins Of Scrum’s Ideas And Techniques: An Example

This blog post is about the source of many of Scrum’s ideas and techniques. I’m sharing this at the request of one of my friends at a company that uses Scrum. Many of the ideas in Scrum were first apprehended by Jeff Sutherland as he read the writings of Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka in … Continue reading →

“Genesis” Letter Now Available On Scrum.org

In March I wrote a letter to Scrum.org’s program development partners and program delivery partners to tell them how Scrum.org came to be established. I’m happy that Scrum.org has now posted this document as part of its “About Scrum.org” page. You can find out more about Scrum.org here — http://www.scrum.org/about/ And you can read the … Continue reading →