Agile Mentors Podcast from Mountain Goat Software

Lance Dacy joins Brian to dig into cross-functionality. Overview You will often hear people say that Scrum teams are cross-functional. But what do we mean when we say that? Are we talking about a jack of all trades but master of none? Do we want team members who can do anything? How does a cross-functional team actually work together and what should we do as agilists to support and nurture cross-f...

Kert joins Brian again to talk about Kanban Kanban is a pull system of working where work is ‘pulled’ in based on a team’s capacity. Whether it’s a card from a backlog, or a bin of items on a manufacturing floor, the concept of pulling in work is common to both kanban and scrum. It supports the idea of being agile because whenever you’re pulling work in, you’re basing it on the latest feedback and...

Brian and Mike talk about why and how to use Story Points in estimating. Overview To estimate or not to estimate. There are many different views on the matter. It’s important then to start with why. Why would we spend time estimating in the first place? What is the benefit of that effort? Do all Agile teams need to estimate? Join Brian Milner and Mike Cohn as they discuss estimating using Story Po...

Brian and Mike talk about how to capture requirements with User Stories. User Stories are not native to Scrum. We actually borrow the practice from XP. Traditionally, requirements were gathered in huge binders that were very detailed and complex. These were considered complete and were locked down when development began. Teams quickly found that change was a constant and this method of capturing r...

Brian and Kert talk about the final component of the Scrum Framework - Artifacts. Overview The term “artifact” seems a bit strange, doesn’t it? Why would the authors of Scrum include this as a component of the framework? What are the main artifacts that Scrum prescribes? And what are some of the other artifacts that are not required but many teams see as helpful to the running of a Scrum team? In...

Join Brian Milner and guest co-host Scott Dunn as they discuss why the retrospective is an important part of agile and how to use this meeting to help teams to improve continuously. Overview In this episode, Brian Milner is joined by guest co-host Scott Dunn, Certified Enterprise Coach and Scrum Trainer, to get insights into delivering retrospective sessions that energize and inform the whole team...

Join Brian Milner and Julie Chickering as they discuss the true purpose of the Sprint Review and why it is a mistake to call this event a ‘demo’. Overview Brian Milner talks with Julie Chickering about Sprint Reviews, addressing the myth that the Sprint Review is primarily an opportunity to ‘demo’ the increment to stakeholders. As an experienced Project Management Professional, Julie shares her pe...

This week, Brian Milner is joined by Julie Chickering to talk about the best practices and common pitfalls to avoid during the Daily Scrum event. Overview Brian Milner and Julie Chickering discuss the true purpose of the Daily Scrum and how to make this 15-minute meeting more efficient. According to the Scrum Guide, the Daily Scrum is to inspect progress towards the Sprint Goal, synchronize activi...

In this episode, Scott Dunn and Brian review the key aspects of leading an effective sprint planning meeting: its purpose, how it works, who attends, and ensuring yours are achieving the desired result. Overview Brian Milner and Scott Dunn discuss product ownership and leading a sprint planning meeting. 2020’s Scrum Guide introduced new guidance: sprint planning must go beyond the WHAT and the HOW...

Join Brian Milner and Sherman Gomberg for a discussion of the importance of a Scrum team’s developers and why self-organizing teams are at the heart of agile methodologies like Scrum. In this episode of the Agile Mentors podcast, Brian Milner and Sherman Gomberg discuss the evolution of one of the Scrum roles: developer. They also explain why self-organizing teams of developers have become critica...

Join Brian Milner and guest co-host Lance Dacy to look at the key capabilities of the product owner, mistakes to avoid, and getting maximum business value from the resources available. In this episode, Brian Milner and guest co-host Lance Dacy take a detailed look at the role of the product owner. They discuss a common source of confusion about what a product owner is, or does: people try to boil...

In this special episode, Brian describes the upcoming Scrum Gathering in Denver, including the subject of his talks on the daily scrum and leadership styles. The Scrum Gathering is happening in Denver on June 6-8, so in this podcast episode Brian discusses the conference and shares a preview of his two talks: one on the daily scrum and one on leadership styles. In “Daily Scrums Suck: How I Killed...

Join Mike Cohn and Brian Milner as they discuss the Scrum Master role: its distinctions from project management, Scrum Master responsibilities for team success, and advice for new Scrum Masters. In this episode, Brian Milner talks with Mike Cohn about the Scrum Master role from the inception of its title to the role it plays in agile today. Mike Cohn has trained more than 30,000 Scrum Masters and...

Join Mike Cohn and Brian Milner as they discuss succeeding with agile, including how to choose a framework, the best place to start, & when to break the rules. In this first episode of the Agile Mentors podcast, Brian Milner and Mike Cohn explain why it’s important to understand and sometimes break the rules if you want to succeed with an agile approach like Scrum . While the Scrum Guide state...