Scrum Under Siege

Not all agile developers are created equal. Some have more experience and have people skills. We call these developers Tech Leads. Doug and Jack interview an agile Tech Lead. His name is Doug and he agreed to do an interview as long as he got to talk about Wisconsin sports. We end the podcast with talking about badger and Packer football. All Scrum Under Siege podcasts can be found at www.scrumundersiege.com

Small stories that can be completed in a sprint is a scrum foundation. Writing small stories is an art and not everyone writing stories is an artist. Doug and Jack discuss some of the signs that a story is getting too big. This is important to realize as large stories kill agile. Don't be a killer. Write small stories. All of our podcasts can be found at www.scrumundersiege.com

Formatting for stories helps teams deliver the work by sharing the needs and values of what is being asked. Story formats are easier said than done. Experienced Agile BSAs (the few out there) and POs that get the time to write good stories would agree. This isn't something you just pick up and succeed. Doug and Jack caution about falling into format turmoil. The podcast ends with helpful ideas on how to bring up podcasting in discussions. All Scrum Under Siege podcasts can be found at...

In an agile world, good testers (QA) can take a mediocre team and elevate it to an exceptional team. If the team's tester doesn't understand how to be a tester on an agile team, bad stuff can happen. Doug and Jack discuss the things a tester needs to do on an agile team. Here's a spoiler, they cannot sit in their cubes and click and tick. All Scrum Under Siege podcasts can be found at www.scrumundersiege.com

Almost everybody hires an agile coach at sometime in their agile journey. There are a glutton of agile coaches out there. Doug and Jack talk about the importance of figuring out what you want the agile coach to do. Once you figure that out, you can determine what to look for. All Scrum Under Siege podcasts can be found at www.scrumundersiege.com

When hiring a developer, it's pretty easy to get dozens of applicants. Thats when you interview them and see if they have the tech experience that you need. If you are also placing this developer on an agile team, then listen to this quick podcast where Doug and Jack give out a few other things to look for besides tech experience. All of our podcasts can be found at www.scrumundersieg.com

Scrum Under Siege endorses dad jokes to keep things light and fun. Listen to this 2 minute podcast as I share my the top dad jokes with our awesome listeners. Professional Scrum Under Siege podcasts also found at www.scrumundersiege.com

Are you having problem with finding an Agile BSA or BA? We are here to provide guidance on what to look for when interviewing potential candidates. Find all of our podcasts here on our web page --> www.scrumundersiege.com

Ever needed a little advice when looking for a Product Owner, then we are here to help. This episode is about what you need to look for and some suggestions to improve your interviews to find the perfect candidate for your team.

Hiring a Scrum Master can be difficult due to the work experience Scrum Masters have. Do they understand what servant leadership is? Did their former companies even allow them to be servant leaders? Doug and Jack pontificate on how to look for a Scrum Master. Doug also points out that Scrum Masters seeking a job can use this advice as well.

Erin is a Business Agility Coach. Doug and Jack were curious what a Business Agility Coach was so an interview was conducted. Erin tells us what she does, what value she adds and who her customers are. Since the interview was done on Jack's porch, you also get to hear Jack rattle ice in his drink, airplanes, and possibly some kid riding his bike. Besides finding all of our podcasts on your podcast app, our podcasts can be found at www.scrumundersiege.com

Sometimes an agile team doesn't have time to complete any work because they have to many projects on their plate. The obvious solution to this is to prioritize the work. This podcast gets into that a bit but talks about why agile teams find themselves in this mess. All of our podcasts also live at www.scrumundersiege.com. Go there for a little different take on the podcasts. Feel free to use the send us some feedback by using the Contact form.

Can you do agile as a secondary job (side hustle)? Probably not if you want to do all the cool things that makes agile cool but don't let that stop you from trying. This podcast talks about setting up realistic expectations and some tips and tricks if you want to give it a try.

Somewhere out there is a team that wants to do agile but the resources are not available to do it the conventional way. One of the corners that gets cut is having a Scrum Master. We are biased and don't recommend doing this but we do realize the reality of the real world and say you can do agile without a full time Scrum Master. Listen to a few tips on how to do this. www.scrumundersiege.com

One of the big advantages of story mapping, estimating, understanding velocity and what it takes to release is the ability to generate a relatively accurate estimated release date. Listen to how the pieces of the puzzle fit together.

Story Mapping is a team meeting that helps educate the team on what is needed while also allowing people to ask questions and fill in any missed gaps. It is a good thing but can get sidetracked when people start asking to map out edge cases. We talk about a few different edge cases scenarios that can happen and what to do when they appear in your story mapping session.

Scrum Under Siege scores Story Mapping on a scale of 1 to 10 as an 11. We love it. Story Mapping is a discovery session and any time you get people in a room together tasked with discovery, sometimes the conversations get out of hand. Listen to this short podcast about how to avoid some unneeded conversations.

Personas are super useful for creating story maps. They help you flush out what some hidden value when your team is building the map. Doug and Jack talk about how to avoid some of the pitfalls you can slip into when creating personas.

Product Owners should have a roadmap to help get funding and let the organization know what they plan on doing. Good roadmaps need to be somewhat realistic. So how do you make a realistic roadmap? You need to figure out some t-shirt sizing for the future work. Doug and Jack share some thoughts on how to do this.

When team work is dream work, estimating is easy. When there is a decent difference of opinion, the waters get a little muddy. We give a few tips on what to do when team estimating runs into a few snags.