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KnowledgeHut becomes a Scaled Agile, Inc. Gold Partner

SAFe®, the world’s leading framework for enterprise agility, supports organisations in their adoption of lean-agile values and principles at enterprise scale.We are delighted to share that KnowledgeHut is now a Scaled Agile Framework® (SAFe®) Gold Partner with Scaled Agile, Inc. (SAI).We're proud of our over 12,000 SAFe certified professionals and our network of SPCs, SPCTs, and SAFe fellows across the globe dedicated to creating lasting impact through enterprise-wide Agile transformations.In today’s fiercely competitive business environment coupled with the new norm of social distancing and remote work, it’s ever more important for enterprises to embrace digital transformation to become more agile, collaborative, and customer-centric. We’re seeing increased adoption of agile and lean techniques across different industries as companies recognize the need to re-invent and drive innovation. We understand and support these enterprises as they embark on their transformation journey by providing strategic advisory services—often leveraging SAFe®. Our objectives and key results-driven (OKR-driven) transformation services enable organizations to tailor their transformation journeys to meet their goals.Our Gold partnership with Scaled Agile, Inc. is a validation of our significant experience and commitment in helping enterprises achieve agility and increased business value at scale. It’s a manifestation of our dedication to ensuring that our clients and learners get consistent training with a world-class learning experience in scaling agile from early stages to advanced enterprise configurations.Our SPCs deliver SAFe® coaching, consulting, and training, leveraging their industry experience and focusing on customer business environment and culture. Our network of SPCTs (SAFe Program Consultant Trainers) comprises some of the deepest thinkers when it comes to scaling agile. They’ve seen it all–across all industries–and they bring that experience to the classroom with real-life examples of problems and solutions.We're committed to scaling our efforts to help organizations focus on driving Lean-Agile adoption incrementally and iteratively and support all aspects of digital transformation. We believe that becoming truly Agile requires much more than just tooling—it takes coaching, mentoring, pragmatism, Lean-Agile, and a change in organizational culture. With this important milestone, we’re excited to capitalize on our existing momentum helping the world embrace better business practices by applying SAFe®.Interested in learning more about our Agile transformation services and capabilities?Visit: https://www.knowledgehut.com/safe-transformation
KnowledgeHut becomes a Scaled Agile, Inc. Gold Partner
KnowledgeHut
KnowledgeHut

KnowledgeHut

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KnowledgeHut is an outcome-focused global ed-tech company. We help organizations and professionals unlock excellence through skills development. We offer training solutions under the people and process, data science, full-stack development, cybersecurity, future technologies and digital transformation verticals.

Posts by KnowledgeHut

KnowledgeHut becomes a Scaled Agile, Inc. Gold Partner

SAFe®, the world’s leading framework for enterprise agility, supports organisations in their adoption of lean-agile values and principles at enterprise scale.We are delighted to share that KnowledgeHut is now a Scaled Agile Framework® (SAFe®) Gold Partner with Scaled Agile, Inc. (SAI).We're proud of our over 12,000 SAFe certified professionals and our network of SPCs, SPCTs, and SAFe fellows across the globe dedicated to creating lasting impact through enterprise-wide Agile transformations.In today’s fiercely competitive business environment coupled with the new norm of social distancing and remote work, it’s ever more important for enterprises to embrace digital transformation to become more agile, collaborative, and customer-centric. We’re seeing increased adoption of agile and lean techniques across different industries as companies recognize the need to re-invent and drive innovation. We understand and support these enterprises as they embark on their transformation journey by providing strategic advisory services—often leveraging SAFe®. Our objectives and key results-driven (OKR-driven) transformation services enable organizations to tailor their transformation journeys to meet their goals.Our Gold partnership with Scaled Agile, Inc. is a validation of our significant experience and commitment in helping enterprises achieve agility and increased business value at scale. It’s a manifestation of our dedication to ensuring that our clients and learners get consistent training with a world-class learning experience in scaling agile from early stages to advanced enterprise configurations.Our SPCs deliver SAFe® coaching, consulting, and training, leveraging their industry experience and focusing on customer business environment and culture. Our network of SPCTs (SAFe Program Consultant Trainers) comprises some of the deepest thinkers when it comes to scaling agile. They’ve seen it all–across all industries–and they bring that experience to the classroom with real-life examples of problems and solutions.We're committed to scaling our efforts to help organizations focus on driving Lean-Agile adoption incrementally and iteratively and support all aspects of digital transformation. We believe that becoming truly Agile requires much more than just tooling—it takes coaching, mentoring, pragmatism, Lean-Agile, and a change in organizational culture. With this important milestone, we’re excited to capitalize on our existing momentum helping the world embrace better business practices by applying SAFe®.Interested in learning more about our Agile transformation services and capabilities?Visit: https://www.knowledgehut.com/safe-transformation
KnowledgeHut becomes a Scaled Agile, Inc. Gold Partner
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8536
KnowledgeHut becomes a Scaled Agile, Inc. Gold Par...

SAFe®, the world’s leading framework for enterp... Read More

How to Lead Teams to the Next Agile Awakening

Building and leading an Agile transformation calls for leaders with a whole new set of capabilities. Not only must they have a substantially different mind-set, but they should also be able to drive a paradigm shift across teams—one that fosters and enables innovation and collaboration, and maximizes value creation at scale.  Paving the way to a successful transformation, the Disciplined Agile® (DA™) toolkit from the Project Management Institute harnesses the most appropriate Agile, Lean, and traditional practices, guiding organizations on the best-fit processes for their team’s context. DA does not prescribe a specific approach, but guides Agilists in choosing and tailoring the best strategies for their ways of working.KnowledgeHut has entered into an exclusive partnership with Project Management Institute (PMI)®, to help you lead your teams to the next Agile awakening, leveraging Disciplined Agile®.  During the launch of the exclusive partnership on September 2, 2021, we had Mark Lines and Scott Ambler, the Founders of Disciplined Agile in conversation with Dr. Srini Srinivasan, Managing Director, PMI South Asia, bringing us their insights on how to make the most out of your Agile investments leveraging Disciplined Agile.Joe Cahill, Chief Customer Officer, PMI Global, shared with the audience about PMI’s initiatives to offer professionals strong, credible new capabilities and certifications that will differentiate them and open doors.Amol Pradhan, Chief Transformation Officer, Enterprise Agility at IBM, and Falguni Rolekar, Enterprise Transformation Leader, IBM, added their perspectives—honed over five decades of collective experience with Agile transformations—on challenges with scaling Agile and how the Disciplined Agile approach helps to overcome them.Tremendous value was unlocked in the power-packed interactions, and we were just as excited as you to learn about the DA toolkit from the creators themselves. We’ve compiled some of the key discussion points to give you a glimpse into the event.Choosing your Way of Working and staying relevant in the Agile worldSRINI: How do I and the other professionals in this audience stay relevant with the advances that are happening in the Agile world today and how do we use that to advance our careers? MARK: The Agile landscape is full of certifications, with each of these certifications usually based on one particular method or framework or set of techniques. For Agile practitioners, it's like putting together the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.  All these different certifications have gaps. This is where Disciplined Agile is different, we're not another method. We're not another framework, and that's why we've been referring to it as a tool kit. At last count, DA has over 1600 practices, that you can use to choose your way of working. The key takeaway is that if you go to a two-day certification course, you're going to learn a set of techniques, but certainly not 1600 techniques. Whatever method or framework you're currently using, DA helps you to get better, without necessarily displacing it. We're not married to one approach. We help you get better than what you're doing, so there's a journey there. MODERATOR: Why should Agile team members build other skills, when they have in-depth knowledge in one specific area? FALGUNI: If the team is going for an Agile transformation, we are going to work in a small team and we are going to do an iterative delivery. That means that whatever we are going to deliver has to be production ready at the end of the iteration. To build this kind of a production-ready deliverable takes a lot of skills. At the same time, we must ensure that the team has a great collaboration in order to generate this kind of a deliverable. This requires multiple skills, and a change from I-shaped to T-shaped skillsets, to help the team in delivering the right results.Leveraging DA to navigate challenges in Agile transformationsSRINI: Scott, in your mind, what are some of the biggest challenges organizations face as they try to migrate to an Agile way of work? SCOTT: Organizations face a lot of complexities. Every organization is unique, and one size does not fit all. There's no easy path to becoming more Agile, other than hard work, and you know, investing in your people, and being prepared to choose their own way of working and learning how to improve. And I think that that can be frustrating for a lot of organizations. It takes time, and it takes investment. There are no easy answers. SRINI: So, there are no easy answers, and one size does not fit all. What are some of the unique aspects of Disciplined Agile which organizations can use to overcome these challenges?  SCOTT: Looking at the whole picture, we must be enterprise aware and observe what’s really going on. And that's the basis of what we've done in DA.  Instead of telling you what to do, we tell you what to think about, and then we give you options. We say if you have this issue, here are several ways you can solve that. Here are the tradeoffs of those options, so you choose the right way of working for you—because I don't know what situation you're in, and even if I did, it wouldn't matter. Your situation is changing anyways, so the new normal is to be constantly changing.  And as a result, you need to learn how to choose your own way of working. You need to learn how to get better at getting better, and that is what DA is all about. Your end goal is to become a learning organization that is able to constantly get better, while reacting to the changes in the marketplace, and overcoming the challenges that you face. And those are the skills that we teach in DA. MODERATOR: Generally, when organizations go for Agile transformation, leaders feel that they lose control and the value is reduced. What are your thoughts about this? AMOL: Agile is less about practices, but more about the culture change. And if the top leadership is not giving support and constant commitment, this is where the transformation will fail or succeed. They could lack clarity on why they are doing it, or have the fear of losing their job because the team is now self-empowered.  The fear factor needs to be addressed, and leaders should be sure of the benefit that they will bring to the teams. As a leader, instead of fearing that they will lose control, they should help to build trust within the team.Is Disciplined Agile better than traditional Agile? SCOTT: So where traditional methods and Agile frameworks focus on a specific thing, and often address it very well, there are gaping holes in all of these methods and frameworks. We chose a different path with DA.   We decided to address what you actually face, like the questions that sometimes are not all that attractive to some of the frameworks. Like how do you govern Agile teams? Where does architecture fit in? Where does testing fit in? The finance team might not want to work on time, materials, the approach to funding that you want. How do you still interact and be successful in those situations? We take on the harder problems that you actually face and we give you options to address them. MARK: It's not better, it's more robust, and it makes traditional Agile better. We teach you some of the things that you don't typically learn about in basic Agile certification. There is nothing inconsistent between DA and the Agile manifesto. There are gaps in the principles of the Agile manifesto. And in DA, we address these gaps and frame it in the form of the DA mindset - principles, promises, guidelines. For instance, we talked about the value of diversity and improving the system rather than trying to change individuals, that was never talked about 20 years ago when the Agile manifesto was written. So, we think we like to think that we have a more disciplined, robust, agnostic, pragmatic approach to Agile and lean.How is PMI ACP different from PMI DASSM? MARK: The ACP is one of the best certifications out there. It's a very, very good certification, and does require pretty comprehensive understanding of Agile before you can get certified. The certification is extremely rigorous. Now, having said that, the ACP basically requires a test and 8 months of experience. What you don’t learn in ACP is the toolkit, the 1600 practices. DA plugs into the journey and takes your knowledge to the next level. Stay tuned in the months to come on new ways that KnowledgeHut and PMI will empower project professionals and changemakers to turn all their biggest and boldest ideas into reality. Are you ready to apply the Disciplined Agile Toolkit to augment Your Way of Working? Get started with the DASM certification, or take a deep dive into DA with the DASSM certification. 
How to Lead Teams to the Next Agile Awakening
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How to Lead Teams to the Next Agile Awakening

Building and leading an Agile transformation calls... Read More

Why Scrum Is Lightweight; Simple To Understand; Difficult To Master?

85 percent of respondents say Scrum continues to improve quality of work life—State of Scrum 2017-2018 We have all heard companies who have adopted Scrum wax eloquent about its advantages and the benefits it brings in to business. Scrum has been adopted because it is supposed to be simple and promotes collaboration and communication. Yet, more organizations attempting the Agile/Scrum transformation often fail and end up abandoning their transformation or get stuck in a limbo. So, is the golden statement that ‘Scrum is lightweight, simple to understand, difficult to master’ true? In this blog we attempt to decipher this statement and understand how Scrum Masters can help make Scrum projects or implementations successful.Where to start?So, what makes Scrum so popular? That it is better suited to the changing market conditions of the present times is well known, but how is it able to do it?  Scrum is an adaptable, iterative framework that helps Scrum teams break down large projects into small chunks called epics and sprints. Goals are defined and timeboxed. Teams are small, self-organized and with a high degree of cross-function. A goal or functionality has to be delivered at the end of each sprint. This helps for quick feedback and gives teams the ability to adapt to changing requirements—a must in times when products have to adapt quickly to please changing user preferences.  The advantages of Scrum include:  More satisfied customers Better managed processes and happier teams Better visibility into projects Better quality products  Projects completed withing time and budget constraints Better adaptability  Motivated teams Lightweight Management ProcessScrum is a lightweight framework because it provides adaptable solutions to complex problems and helps teams and organizations generate value.Why Scrum is considered to be lightweight, easy to understand but difficult to master?Lightweight: Scrum, based on Agile values, has few elements and maximizes responsiveness to customer needs. This makes it lightweight and apt for software development in the modern world.  Easy to Understand: With just three roles, three artifacts, four ceremonies and 12 Agile values, Scrum is pretty easy to understand. Scrum is a collection of practices and concepts that teams use to build processes around. The Scrum Guide which is the Scrum bible is also easy to read and understand. The three scrum roles are: Team, Scrum Master, Product Owner The ceremonies are:  Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Retrospective and Sprint Review The three artifacts are: Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog, Burndown chart  Difficult to Master: So, if Scrum is so easy to learn about and understand then why is that it’s difficult to actually implement and master? Let us look at this from the perspective of a Scrum Master. A Scrum Master is a critical part of the Scrum team and is in effect a microcosm of Scrum upholding the Agile values and focusing on creating a self-organizing, highly motivated and collaborative team. Scrum is a not a one-size-fits- all framework. Perhaps that is what makes it difficult to master. It has to be tailored to suit the needs of each project, team and organization. There are several factors that need to be considered before adopting Scrum. The Scrum Master’s role, similarly, needs to be learnt and there are several skills a professional must have or needs to cultivate in order to be a successful Scrum Master. The Scrum Master’s Role in a Successful Scrum Adoption:There are many Scrum teams that have started out in the right way, but soon fall by the wayside as they do not follow Scrum in principle. This is where the Scrum Master plays a very critical role in the success of the team. Despite Scrum being ‘simple to understand and difficult to master’ the Scrum Master is considered to be the expert on all things Scrum.As a coach, guide and mentor, the Scrum Master should facilitate the successful adoption of Scrum, and help others to gain mastery over Scrum principles and values.A Scrum Master must mandatorily follow certain core values and inspire the team to follow them as well. These core values that include openness, commitment, focus, courage and respect bring the team together and promote better work ethics and practices.Besides inculcating Scrum principles and values and guiding a successful adoption, a Scrum Master should also have these attributes:  An Unbiased and Open Mind:  An unbiased and open mind is key to being a good Scrum Master. As part of their portfolio, Scrum Masters have to work with different teams and team members having different personalities. Having an open mind will help the Scrum Master to not look at every team with the same lens and treat each team differently. Solutions that work for one team may not work for other teams or situations. Having an open mind will help you realise this and tweak your decisions based on teams and situations.   Transparency:  Transparency and open communication are the pillars of Scrum. As a Scrum Master your intentions should be open and transparent to everyone including your team and the product owner. The team must at all times know your reasons for doing certain things or taking certain decisions. Being upfront with the team members will help in trust building and lead to better work ethics.   Metrics to Map Progress:There are several tools available to track a team’s progress and the Scrum Master must ensure that these metrics showing the team’s progress be made available to the entire team. This will help the team better plan sprints, work collaboratively and improve working practices in order to ensure better output and value.   Motivation for Team Members: Keeping your team members happy and motivated is a Scrum Master’s main job. This includes removing obstacles that may impede the team from performing and helping them work according to Scrum values and techniques. The development team develops the product, and a happy team means a well-built product and satisfied customers. Assistance to the Product Owner:  As a Scrum Master, aiding the Product Owner is a major part of your responsibility. The Product Owner is a major stakeholder in the Scrum team and the Scrum Master aids the product owner in backlog management and by facilitating Scrum events, product planning and by helping the team to identify backlog items. Aiding the Product Owner in issues that they may face with regards to the project, stakeholders or the team will create a positive environment and will make things between the team and the product owner smoother.   Focus on the Challenges: Every Scrum project comes with its set of issues. But an effective Scrum Master will be aware of every challenge or impediment that comes in the way of the development team and takes these problems head on. Focusing on these challenges early on and resolving them is paramount to the success and progress of the team and the project. Appreciation for Achievements:  The focus of daily sprints and retrospectives is often to celebrate achievements and give the development team proper appreciation. A Scrum Master encourages and motivates and this they also do by respective current achievements. While giving advise on how things should be done is necessary, appreciating the team on its achievements is equally important.   Respect for Others: Your team members all have different personalities and each brings their own uniqueness and expertise to the team. No one team member is less or more important than the other. An effective and efficient Scrum Master will recognise this early on and treat every team member with the same amount of respect.  Understanding of Situations in the Right Context:  Not all things are as what they appear. The sooner a scrum master understands this, the better. Situations in context to teams, individuals and even the organization are not always black and white and the Scrum Master must consider the baggage of organizational culture, current systems, internal politics, etc before coming to a conclusion about a team or a team members. Instead, one must attempt to form close relationships with the team and understand the workings of the team and the organizations before passing judgement. Ability to Have Tough Conversations :  You as a Scrum Master are often seen as a problem solver, friend and mentor. But don’t let this image of yours come in the way of making tough decisions or having tough conversations. As a Scrum Master you must have the courage to do the right thing and if this means having difficult but necessary conversations with either the team members, the product owner or the stakeholders, then you must do it.    Courage to Protect the Team:  More often than not, there are unreasonable demands made on the development team. The Scrum Master should have the courage to protect the team and say an emphatic ‘no’ to the Product Owner or the stakeholders.  Accountability: You are accountable for your team’s success as you are for its failures. If as a Scrum Master you want your team to be accountable then the best way to get them to do that is to be accountable yourself. You can do this by being more invested in the day-to-day activities of the team and considering yourself to be a part of the team as well.  Support for Team Members: As a Scrum Master you are not just invested in the project but also in the growth of individual team members. You should motivate, encourage and support your team members to grow and reach heights in their careers.   Deep Commitment: If the team feels that the Scrum Master is committed to the project, committed to the team and committed to the team members, then they are more likely to be open and transparent with the Scrum Master. This trust with the team has to be built so that team members can be open about the challenges they face. The Scrum Master is the voice of the team and must support them at all stages.   Focus on Improvement:  Scrum is all about continuous improvement and the success of the Scrum Master is also tied to the continuous improvement of the Scrum team. If your team is getting better with time then you are doing well as a Scrum Master. From daily sprints to retrospectives, the Scrum Master provides avenues for the team to improve itself, identify problems and suggest solutions to work better.  Conclusion Scrum is the most used Agile framework, yet there are several lessons that organizations need to learn about Scrum before they embark on a transformation journey. This lightweight and easy to use framework can turn around the fortunes of companies if implemented in the right way. It’s important for an organization’s culture to be ready to accept and implement Scrum for project and organizational success.  
Why Scrum Is Lightweight; Simple To Understand; Difficult To Master?
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Why Scrum Is Lightweight; Simple To Understand; Di...

85 percent of respondents say Scrum continues to... Read More

Scrum Master – The Scrum Team’s Servant-Leader!

The term servant leader is synonymous with a Scrum Master. But what does it mean? The Scrum Master is a servant leader in Agile projects, but servant leadership goes far beyond Agile, and Scrum Masters serve more than just the team.In this blog we attempt to look at the Scrum Master’s role as a servant leader, what the role entails and the responsibilities of the Scrum Master beyond the team, in context to the organization. What is servant-leadership?The term servant leadership was first coined by Robert Greenleaf in his article “The Servant as Leader”, in which he defined a servant leader as: The Servant-Leader is servant first. It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That leader significantly differs from one who is leader first, may be due to the need to acquire power, material belonging, control and authority within the organization. Servant leadership is something very different from traditional leadership, which places the leader at the top of the hierarchy and the employees in the lower rung. Servant leadership, in a sense, is the opposite of traditional leadership, as it places the leader at the bottom of the hierarchy while employees are on the higher rungs. The leaders, in this case, are serving the people above them. Servant leadership refers to leaders who believe in serving people and the community that they are a part of, rather than accumulating power for themselves. This style of leadership emphasizes on helping subordinates better themselves, empowering employees and helping others perform to the best of their abilities.Servant leadership does not prescribe telling employees what to do, instead it helps the workforce find their sense of ownership and unlock their potential to reach their goals. Servant leadership is all about empowering others, which when consistently done can raise morale, enhance productivity and reduce employee attrition.Servant Leadership and ScrumScrum, in a way, is the very essence of servant leadership. Unlike traditional project management methodologies, it does not follow a top-down, hierarchical approach. Instead, decisions are lateral and happen with the involvement of the whole team. Scrum is the perfect approach in which to practice the concept of servant leadership. The 5 Scrum values of Openness, Respect, Commitment, Courage, and Focus, adhere to the philosophy of Servant Leadership. The Scrum Master plays a key role in the development of the product, the team and the organization. The Scrum Guide defines the servant leadership a Scrum Master’s role has to perform in context to the roles mentioned above. The Scrum Values that a Scrum Master practices have a ripple effect throughout the organization. The Scrum Master is seen as an evangelist for practicing and promoting Scrum in the enterprise.The Agile Manifesto and servant-leadershipThe Agile Manifesto states that one must value: Individuals and interactions over Process and tools Working software over Comprehensive documentation Customer collaboration over Contract negotiation Responding to change over Following a plan These again align with the values of servant leadership, which is all about putting people or employees first. The Agile Manifesto describes focusing on building projects around motivated individuals and giving them an environment of support, trust and collaboration—all characteristics of servant leadership.Who Are These Servant Leaders?The Scrum Guide defines the service provided by the Scrum Master as servant leadership. The Scrum Master selflessly provides servant leadership to the development team, product owner and the whole organization. By serving these entities, the Scrum Master can create a high performing team, a valuable product and an efficient organization that is able to meet business objectives and keep customers happy.  Though the term Scrum Master may be deceptive, the Scrum Master is not a master of the team but in fact serves the team in order to ensure smooth functioning and productivity.Servant Leadership and Scrum Master Roles of Servant LeadershipServant leadership:The day-to-day activity of a Scrum Master involves servant leadership. Servant leadership in a scrum team involves performance planning, coaching, helping the team self- organize, resolving conflicts through conflict management, removing obstacles that hinder progress and serving the team. The Scrum Master, while practicing servant leadership, helps the team grow and mature and become independent enough to make their own decisions. Servant leadership in Scrum is all about making the team self-reliant, so they can cope with the pressures of the role. As a servant leader the Scrum Master creates a high performing team, helps them become collaborative and high performing in order to achieve goals and meet the requirements of the customer.  Service to the Scrum Team: As a servant leader, the primary responsibility of the Scrum Master is to help the development team perform. They help the team perform to the best of their abilities by giving them an environment that is conducive to work in, encouraging them, guiding them and removing obstacles that may hinder progress. As a coach, the Scrum Master will guide the team on scrum processes and help them adhere to Agile values during the development of the product. The Scrum Master is responsible for the scrum team’s effectiveness, and they work tirelessly to ensure that the team is motivated, encouraged, creative and innovative. The Scrum Master through servant leadership helps the team improve Scrum practices which helps them become more productive and generate value. The Scrum Team’s role in motivating and helping the team comes through in the daily stand-up meetings that are arranged as part of the sprint. The Scrum Master encourages team members to share their grievances and progress made through the sprint. Team members can talk about obstacles that may be hindering their work and due cognizance will be taken up by the Scrum master to ensure that these obstacles are removed.  According to the Scrum Guide, the Scrum Master helps the Development Team by: Coaching the team in becoming self-organized and cross-functional Helping the Scrum Team focus on creating high-value increments by removing impediments Helping the team deliver within the timeframe of the sprint Service to the Product Owner: The Scrum Master is a servant leader not just for the development team but also the Product Owner. While the Product Owner is primarily responsible for the product backlog, they cannot do this alone. The Scrum Master aids the development team and the Product Owner with effective product backlog management.The Scrum Master is involved at every stage of the product backlog grooming, helping the product owner with Scrum events, product planning and to identify backlog items along with the development team. The Scrum Master helps the Product Owner define the product vision to the team.   According to the Scrum Guide, the Scrum Master helps the Product Owner by: Helping in Product Goal definition and Product Backlog management Helping the Scrum Team understand manage the Product Backlog items Setting up empirical product planning in complex environments and, Managing and facilitating stakeholder collaboration.Service to the Organization: The Scrum Master is a coach and motivator not just for the development team but goes beyond the team to spread the awareness of Scrum in the entire organization. Scrum Masters coach and help teams and departments understand Scrum and develop an Agile mind-set. Besides servant leadership to the team a Scrum Master is also involved in promoting the ideas and values of Scrum. An organization can get an agile mind-set only if the entire organization adopts Scrum and not just a few teams. This is where the Scrum Master comes in, helping other teams not involved with Scum to gain the Agile mind-set, through training and coaching. The Scrum Master is an Agile evangelist and promotes Scrum enterprise-wide.According to Scrum.org the Scrum Master serves the organization by: Leading, training, and coaching the organization in adopting Scrum Planning and advising Scrum implementations within the organization Coaching employees and stakeholders in the way Scrum works Helping stakeholders work with Scrum TeamsSome Servant-Leader Behaviours for every Scrum MasterBeing empathetic: This is the foremost personality trait required for anyone wanting to become a Scrum Master. Your empathy will shine through in your interactions with the team members and your dealings with the stakeholders. You should be able to see problems from the point of view of each party and work towards solving these problems. Caring: As a caring and empathetic Scrum Master, your team will feel free to approach you and share their concerns. Providing a listening ear will make you more approachable. You will be able to more clearly understand the impediments that are stopping project progress and work towards providing a solution.  Managing Conflicts: Not all team members will get along with each other and this can cause disruptions and problems within the team, lowering their productivity. As a Scrum Master you need to be great at conflict management, help others solve their problems, work with each other and create a high performing and harmonious team. Building relationships: You need to build a rapport with your team, the product owner and the stakeholders. This will help you communicate freely and help others approach you with their problems and issues. You need to build that relationship of trust and take everyone along on the journey of success.  Being ethical: Ethics play an important role in software development, especially since software now controls every aspect of our lives. The product created should be free of malice and fraud. The Scrum Master should guide the team in delivering the product at a value and standard that is expected and agreed upon with the stakeholder. There should not be any shortcuts or concessions made on the quality of the product delivered as this will affect not just the Scrum Master and the team’s reputation but will cause a dent in the reputation of the organization.   Conclusion  Servant leadership and the Scrum Master’s role is the backbone of Scrum. The Scrum Master as a servant leader re-emphasizes the values of Scrum and helps to enhance teamwork, collaboration, motivation and value. Under the able servant leadership of the Scrum Master, individual members and the team will grow, become more confident and help in delivering value.  
Scrum Master – The Scrum Team’s Servant-Leader!
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Scrum Master – The Scrum Team’s Servan...

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What Is a Roadmap in Project Management?

Building a product is a huge undertaking that requires commitment from not just those involved in building the project, but also those investing in the project and the management driving the project. Helping all those involved in the project understand the project goals and benefits of the project, ensures buy-in and commitment from the stakeholders and investors, and helps the development team better plan and space out their work. The project roadmap that presents a bird’s eye view of the project is an essential part of strategic planning and a must for projects of any size or type.What Is a Project Roadmap?  The project roadmap is a visual representation of the goals, mission, vision, resource allocations and key deliverables of the project. It is a high-level view and aims to provide stakeholders and those involved in development with a macro level understanding of important objectives and milestones.  A project roadmap is an easy and simple to follow guide for the entire project. It allows the key stakeholders and project personnel the ability to visualise the project from start to finish and make important decisions without getting into the minute details of the project, which may be more time consuming.  A project roadmap should help convey: Allocation of resources Project progress at any given time Key project releases Whether the project is on track and within budgetWhy Do You Need a Project Roadmap?The project roadmap is an everyday reminder of the objectives or final goal of the project. During the project, changes can be made to several things. Priorities may change, new requirements may arise, release dates may be pushed based on market demand etc. This may need some re-thinking in terms of team and resource allocation and planning of releases. Through this all, the team and others involved with the project should not lose sight of the overall vision and goal of the project. The project roadmap serves as a ready reckoner and a reminder of the high-level goals that must be accomplished, helping the team make more intelligent decisions. The project roadmap is also an essential tool when project information must be conveyed to investors, stakeholders or clients. Any of these parties may show an interest in understanding the position and progress of the project but may not show the inclination to get down to the micro level details of the project or sit through the task-by-task details of the project. The project roadmap serves as a good visual representation that can be shown to interested parties to help them understand the strategic milestones the project has reached.What to Include in Your Project Roadmap?Source: business-docs.co.ukWhat information should you add to your project roadmap and more importantly what should you keep out? What elements would you add in the roadmap to make it relevant to the audience? While each project and organization require its own specific roadmap, there are certain key elements that must be included in all roadmaps. Objectives: The roadmap, after all, defines the key objectives of the project. Hence this is the most important element of your project roadmap. It should help viewers understand the key tasks, project targets, how are the targets being achieved, the time taken to achieve the targets, deadlines, and whether the project is on time and within budget. Deliverables and resource allocation is presented with respect to timelines so that it’s easy to understand whether timelines are being followed and the status of things.  Targets: Targets or project milestones are an important aspect of the project roadmap. They help stakeholder buy-in and help team members to schedule their work commitments and priorities accordingly. Monitoring milestones helps track project progress.  Deliverables Just like targets or milestones, deliverables are also a means to measure project status and help stakeholders clearly understand how the project is progressing. Deliverables are the product releases that are expected to be derived from the project. Resource Management: Resource management helps to track the resources in terms of team members, technology, budget, etc allocated to the project. Plotting them on the roadmap ensures efficient use of resources and helps decide whether to increase or decrease resources allocated based on project performance.  Risk Management: Risk management is among the most important stages of a project lifecycle. The roadmap identifies possible risks or problems the project might run into. By having this always listed out the team members would avoid them or take the necessary actions if they do run into these risks.  Timelines: Timelines and schedules need to be maintained for every stage of the project. This helps the team as well as the stakeholders who can understand if milestones and key deliverables are being delivered on time and if the overall project is on track.Source: pmmajik.comProject Scope Statement The Project Scope Statement is an important part of the project roadmap and maps out details of the project objectives, deliverables, assumptions, requirements and constraints. It is a legally binding agreement between the project sponsors and the project manager and as such must be included in the project plan.  The project scope statement highlights: Organizational needs Project objectives Project need/justification Key deliverables Key milestones or releases How to increase the value of your Project Roadmap A project roadmap is common for different types of projects. But what’s essential is that each team should find out ways to enhance effectiveness and maximize value. This can be done by: Identifying the key internal and external stakeholders Identifying the key project components and defining the project plan Identifying resources and allocating tasks and roles Holding a meeting to go over the project roadmap and clarify doubts and set expectations Defining project scope Identifying project risks Maintaining communication with all involved by developing a solid communication plan Benefits and Challenges of a Project RoadmapA project roadmap offers many benefits including: Offering a clear brief to the team members and the stakeholders: The project roadmap is the best way to easily, effectively and quickly communicate project goals and plans to all those involved in the project. It helps to maintain a high level of transparency and removes ambiguity.  Manage priorities: The roadmap helps team members identify priorities and work towards the goal.  Stay on path: The project roadmap serves as a reference guide for the team to stay on track and meet project goals. Sets expectations: The customers know what to expect when they see the roadmap that has clearly defined goals and milestones. Project roadmap challenges, include: Guess-timating: It’s never a good idea to guess estimates even if for a roadmap. This could lead to several challenges as the project progresses and may lead to compromise on quality.  Not sharing the roadmap: The roadmap is your project’s story. It must be shared with all those involved to maintain transparency and set expectations.  Not updating the roadmap: The roadmap is a living document and should be updated continuously. Any changes that have been made on scope, resource or budget allocation or deliverables must reflect in the project roadmap so that anyone accessing it will know the status of things. Too much information: The project roadmap unlike the product roadmap is a strategic document and only presents a high-level view of the project details? It does not require too many details that would obscure its readability. Not enough foresight: The project roadmap should provide a view of the future. By not planning enough for the future, there are risks that the project may run into delays, risks, cost overruns etc. Roadmap best practicesCreate the roadmap before you create the project plan:  The roadmap and project plan are two different elements of the project. While the project plan outlines the tactical details of a project, the roadmap outlines the strategic details of the project. So, it is obvious that the macro level document that focuses on the overall, high-level view of the project should be created first. This will help as a source to create the more detailed document that is the project plan. Getting an understanding of the overall goal will help in breaking down tasks, roles and responsibilities.  Make sure everyone understands your roadmap: There’s a reason why we create the roadmap and that is so that all those involved, especially those outside the project team, such as management, stakeholders and investors, understand what the project is about, its objectives and goals. If you present this information in a way that is complicated or doesn’t make sense to external stakeholders, then there would be no point is making a roadmap. Hence makes sure to use tools that are clear and help to present information in a visually appealing and easily understandable manner.  Keep the roadmap updated: Any changes in scope, release date modification or change in resource allocation etc should immediately be updated in the project roadmap. This is especially true for complex projects that are very likely to undergo changes due to scope changes or the long duration. Since this is a document that serves as a view on the project dashboard and both stakeholders and project team members can access it, keeping it updated always is important; so that anyone accessing it will know where the project stands and the status of deliverables. Old or non-relevant information can mislead stakeholders and even damage your reputation.  To summarize… The project roadmap sets the stage for you to start the work on your project. The creation of the project roadmap should not be neglected as it brings all those involved on board and ensures that everyone is in alignment with project goals and objectives. The project roadmap gives teams the clarity to be effective, productive and motivated.  
What Is a Roadmap in Project Management?
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What Is a Roadmap in Project Management?

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A Guide to Scaling Scrum

Scrum has been proven to work well for small teams. But the true benefits of Agile can only be reaped if Agile and Scrum are scaled at the enterprise level. However, this is easier said than done. According to statistics, 47% of Agile transformations are not successful. While this is a worrying trend, there are still hundreds of organizations who have got it right and are able to survive the competition by innovating faster, delivering value and adapting to changing markets. How are they doing it? By using scaled Scrum.There are several tools and frameworks available for scaling Scrum at the enterprise level. In this blog, we attempt to look at a few of these.  Scaling Scrum with NexusNexus is among the most popular frameworks for scaling Scrum. According to the Nexus Guide, “Nexus is a framework for developing and sustaining scaled product delivery initiatives. It builds upon Scrum, extending it only where absolutely necessary to minimize and manage dependencies between multiple Scrum Teams while promoting empiricism and the Scrum Values.” How is Nexus different from Scrum? Scrum defines three primary roles: The Product Owner, the Scrum Master and the development team. These three roles work together in one team.The Nexus framework consists of several Scrum teams that work together toward a common product goal and defines the Nexus Integration Team as an additional accountability.  Nexus helps to build on the values of Scrum and also solves the collaboration and dependency challenges that tend to occur between teams in Scrum.Benefits of using Nexus Nexus extends Scrum in the following ways:  Accountabilities: Nexus introduces the Nexus Integration Team, which consists of the Scrum Master, Product Owner, and members. This team is accountable for delivering a workable product at the end of each sprint.  Events: Nexus events aim to add to or supplement Scrum events and serve not just individual teams but also the Nexus Integration Team. The objective of a sprint is to achieve the Nexus sprint goal. Artifacts: Although the teams are different, within the Nexus framework they all work towards a single goal and follow a single product backlog. There’s a high amount of transparency and work is allocated to each team. The Nexus Integration TeamAccording to the Nexus Guide, “the Nexus Integration Team exists to coordinate, coach, and supervise the application of Nexus and the operation of Scrum so the best outcomes are derived.” The Nexus Integration Team or NIT comprises of the Scrum Master, the Product Owner and Nexus integration team members. There are generally three to nine Scrum teams working together in Nexus. All of them follow a single product backlog and work towards delivering a single product. The Nexus Integration Team forms an essential role within Nexus and is tasked with providing transparent accountability among the teams in Nexus.Product OwnerThe Product Owner is accountable for maximizing the product value and the work carried out in Nexus. Their primary task is to order and refine the product backlog. Being a member of the Nexus Integration Team, the product owner will work with all the Scrum teams in the Nexus Integration team. The product owner and the teams work towards better defining and refining the product backlog.Scrum MasterJust like in regular Scrum, the Scrum Master in the Nexus Integration Team is also responsible for ensuring that the Nexus framework is understood by everyone on the team as prescribed by the Nexus Guide.   MembersThe members of the Nexus Integration Team are the Scrum team members who aid the Scrum teams in adoption of tools and practices that will help the team and members deliver value at the end of each sprint that meets the definition of done. Nexus Integration Team membership should be considered more important than the individual Scrum Team membership and members should work towards first fulfilling their Nexus team responsibilities.What are the Events in Nexus?Nexus adds or augments the events as defined by Scrum. The Nexus event durations are like Scrum event durations and are guided by the Scrum Guide.  Nexus events consist of: Sprint- A Nexus sprint is the same as in Scrum, at the end of which a single increment is delivered.  Cross team refinement- The aim of Nexus is to enhance collaboration and reduce cross team dependencies. Cross team refinement helps to make dependencies and responsibilities more transparent. This makes it easier for Scrum teams within the Nexus to clearly identify and deliver their allocated tasks.  Nexus Sprint Planning- Nexus sprint planning will involve the participation of the Product Owner and concerned teams' members from each team. The purpose of the Nexus Sprint Planning is to assign and co-ordinate activities for a single sprint.  Nexus Daily Scrum- This is like the daily stand up in Scrum. Nexus daily scrum is used to identify any issues and track progress. Any issues are immediately prioritized and solved so that they do not hinder the work of the developers.  Nexus Sprint Review- This event is held at the end of sprints to provide feedback on the increment that has been built and on any future updates that have to be made. Nexus Sprint Retrospective- Like in Scrum, Nexus retrospectives are an important part of the project and are used to reflect on how quality and consistency can be improved.  Some Nexus ArtifactsNexus artifacts are the same as Scrum artifacts and when implemented correctly ensure transparency and value maximization. Every artifact is designed to give a commitment. For example, the product backlog is the artifact and its commitment is the product goal. Other artifacts and their commitments include: Nexus Sprint Backlog-Nexus Sprint Goal Integrated Increment-Definition of Done Along with Nexus, LeSS is another popular framework for scaling agile.  Scaling Scrum with LeSS The Large-Scale Scrum (LeSS) framework is an offering from Atlassian and is a framework for scaling Scrum to multiple teams that are working on the same product. The idea behind LeSS is to start with a single Scrum team as defined in the Scrum Guide and then replicate it to multiple teams who are working on a single product. LeSS has earned the label of being “barely sufficient” as it is a simple framework to apply and uses the basic concepts of Scrum to scale.  How do Sprint Planning meetings in LeSS work?  LeSS generally carries out sprint planning in two stages. Sprint Planning One focuses on selecting items that are of topmost priority, solving unanswered issues and defining the sprint goal. The Sprint Planning Two is like the sprint plan of regular Scrum and focuses on creating a plan of action for getting things done.  Daily meeting  The daily Scrum meeting in LeSS is similar to how it is done in normal single Scrum teams and involves team members discussing the work accomplished and the work to be done during the day. It is a time-boxed meeting and helps teams address any issues that may be hindering work.   Sprint Delivery Meeting (Review) The sprint review meeting is an essential part of LeSS and helps teams and stakeholders review the product built during the sprint and suggest changes and new ideas.   Retrospective The retrospective for LeSS is similar to one team Scrum. These retrospectives held at the end of the sprint will help teams to reflect on the progress of tasks, and identify the obstacles that may hinder or impede the overall project.  Let’s take a look at some of the other frameworks that are used for scaling agile. Scaling Scrum with SAFe®The Scaled Agile Framework, SAFe in short, follows the principles of lean and agile and helps in scaling Scrum to the enterprise. It helps to manage alignment, collaboration, and delivery from multiple agile teams to ensure enterprise success. It systematically focuses on applying Scrum at each level of the enterprise, to maximize value and ensure a successful agile transformation.A successful SAFe adoption ensures end-to-end business agility with significant improvements in strategy, delivery, execution and business competencies. It helps organizations overcome competition and ensure innovative business solutions to gain customer trust and partnership. The SAFe framework is continuously improvised in order to help organizations cope with the digital age and ensure that business outcomes are delivered.Scaling Scrum with the Scrum@Scale frameworkAnother framework that allows organizations to implement Scrum at scale is the Scrum@Scale framework. This framework expands on the core principles of Scrum and helps to scale Scrum over a wide range of industries and sectors, ensuring customer satisfaction and creation of successful products. It promotes communication across all teams and departments, and optimizes resources, removes roadblocks and ensures creation of innovative products.A Final Word By driving Agile at the organizational level, companies can gain all the benefits of team-level Scrum at scale. More often than not the principles of team level Scrum are not sustainable at the enterprise level and the transformation fails. Tested and proven Agile scaling frameworks are now able to turn this around, and help organizations scale up the principles and practices of Scrum to become more adaptable, flexible and responsive. Professionals can master these frameworks and help their organization adopt the culture, mind-set and principles of Scrum and agile.  
A Guide to Scaling Scrum
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A Guide to Scaling Scrum

Scrum has been proven to work well for small tea... Read More