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

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.

Foreword by Sam Kaner xix

Foreword by Dave West xxvii

Preface xxxi

Introduction 1

     Purpose of This Book 2

     Facilitation as a Complementary Practice to Scrum 2

     Who Should Read This Book 3

     How This Book Is Organized 4

     How to Read This Book 5

Chapter 1: Facilitating Alignment 7

     The Scrum Team Figuring Out How They Want to Work Together 8

     The Scrum Team That Aligns with Its Stakeholders to Deliver Value 16

     The Scrum Team Aligning on a Vision 25

     Keys to Facilitating Alignment 34

     Conclusion 36

Chapter 2: Facilitating Sprint Planning 37

     The Scrum Team Struggling to Agree to a Single Sprint Goal 38

     The Team Member Who Pushes the Team to Overcommit 46

     The Team Members Who Don’t Know Where to Start 52

     Keys to Facilitating an Effective Sprint Planning 54

     Conclusion 58

Chapter 3: Facilitating the Daily Scrum 61

     The Daily Scrum Where Everyone Provides a Status Update 62

     The Daily Scrum Where Developers Dive into Problem-Solving Mode 67

     The Scrum Team Acting as a Group of Individuals 70

     Absentees or Late Comers to the Daily Scrum 73

     Keys to Facilitating an Effective Daily Scrum 77

     Conclusion 81

Chapter 4: Facilitating Team Dynamics 83

     The Scrum Team Members Stuck on Their Own Ideas 84

     The Scrum Team with Growing Conflict Between Two Team Members 94

     The Scrum Team with Weak Decision-Making 107

     Keys to Facilitating Team Dynamics 116

     Conclusion 118

Chapter 5: Facilitating Product Backlog Refinement 119

     The Scrum Team Experimenting with Daily Product Backlog Refinement 120

     The Stakeholders Who Want It All 125

     When the User Experience Is Forgotten 132

     The Scrum Team That Is Obsessed with Estimating 138

     Keys to Facilitating Effective Product Backlog Refinement 142

     Conclusion 145

Chapter 6: Facilitating the Sprint Review 147

     The Sprint Review with Little Stakeholder Participation 148

     The Sprint Review Where Nothing Is Done 159

     Keys to Facilitating an Effective Sprint Review 164

     Conclusion 168

Chapter 7: Facilitating the Sprint Retrospective 171

     The Scrum Team Playing the Blame Game 172

     The Team Members Who Believe Nothing Will Change 178

     The Scrum Team That Thinks There’s Nothing Left for Them to Improve 185

     The Scrum Team Dealing with a Major Change 192

     The Scrum Master Focusing the Retrospective on Fun 201

     Keys to Facilitating an Effective Sprint Retrospective 205

     Conclusion 209

Chapter 8: Facilitating Beyond a Single Scrum Team 211

     The Scrum Teams Whose Members Could Be Sharing Knowledge 212

     The Scrum Teams Without a Say on Their Team Membership 215

     The Chaotic Customer Review 221

     Keys to Facilitating beyond a Single Scrum Team 228

     Conclusion 232

Conclusion: Moving Forward 233

     Getting Started 234

     Watching for Common Facilitation Mistakes 235

     Navigating Group Dynamics 237

     Improving as a Facilitator 238

Appendix A: Facilitation Principles 239

     Participative 239

     Purposeful 240

     Process 240

     Transparency 241

     Healthy 242

Appendix B: Adapting for Virtual 243

     Communication and Collaboration Tools 244

     Consider Having a Cohost 245

     Virtual Meeting Etiquette 245

     Be Inclusive and Respectful of Individuals’ Needs 246

     Minimizing Virtual Meeting Fatigue Caused by Cameras Being On 246

     Keep Sessions Short 248

     Break Down Content and Activities 249

     Take Regular Breaks 249

     Respect People’s Time 249

     Create Space for Connection 250

     Sharing with the Whole Group 250

     Making Decisions Virtually 250

     The Power of Silence 251

     Take It to the Team! 252

     Hybrid Facilitation 252

Appendix C: Facilitation Checklist 253

     Preparation 253

     Follow-Up 258

Index 259

Patricia Kong helps organizations thrive in a complex world by focusing on enterprise innovation, leadership, and teams. She is a people advocate and fascinated by organizational behaviors and misbehaviors. She is co-author of both The Nexus Framework for Scaling Scrum (Addison-Wesley, 2017) and Facilitating Professional Scrum Teams (Addison-Wesley, 2024).

Glaudia Califano is an agile and lean practitioner and mentor, working with and within teams. She loves to be hands-on, coming up with new ideas, and learning from those around her. Glaudia divides her time between the UK and Spain with her partner and her two dachshunds.

David Spinks is an experienced software developer, Scrum Master, and accredited trainer of Scrum and The Kanban Method. He believes in creating environments where empowerment, autonomy and flexibility enable teams to do the best work possible. David is based in Buckinghamshire, UK.