How do you want to learn about Agile/Scrum? This question is a 21st century problem. Only a few years ago (last century) there was practically one way to learn a new skill or domain of knowledge - study via the printed page, e.g. buy a book. But today we have alternative ways. And yes they very well may be better at teaching than books. Heck, I know a woman that learned English by watching cartoon network in Poland.
So when people want to learn about Scrum (or Agile - they are not the same thing) I typically ask how they would like to learn. Do you want a book, or a google search term, or perhaps a video? Most people are responding to the question with a request for a video.
Here's my best resource: http://scrumtrainingseries.com. The Scrum Training Series is 6 video cartoons that follow a new team into the daily activities and learning of a newly forming team with a Scrum Trainer (facilitator or coach) by the name of Michael James of CollabNet. And yes, he wears a cowboy hat in real life also. The videos are in 6 modules: Introduction to Scrum; Backlog Refinement Meeting; Sprint Planning Meeting; Daily Scrum Meeting; Sprint Review Meeting; Sprint Retrospective Meeting. There are also quizzes to be taken along the way. I suggest you watch these with a group and then discuss the topic, compare and contrast what you are currently doing or have done in the past with what the team in the video does to succeed.
Since I've been doing the Agile Coaching gig, I've never seen a successful team that didn't have an engaged and dedicated Product Owner. This is the first role to get functioning in an Agile transition (adoptions or transformation), and sadly the most overlooked (see: 5 keys to Scrum Adoption). Why is it often overlooked? Because it is a leadership role, and most leaders are not willing to change how they approach doing work. Rather they wish the teams (individual contributors) to change while the leaders are allowed to stay in status quo. (See Also: We Don't Hire Product Owners Here by Rich Mironov).
A great video overview of the Product Owner role in Scrum is by Henrik Kniberg of Crisp's Blog: Agile Product Ownership in a Nutshell.
Here is Kniberg's explanation of what your manager is doing when they optimize resource utilization rates on your team. Is this what you really wanted?
And another of Kniberg's videos on Spotify culture and how they have mutated Scrum.
Mike Cohn has entered this space of educational videos with a new (Apr. 2014) offering called Front Row Agile, a pay for access site. Currently most courses are labeled "coming soon".
Alan Dayley of Big Visible has a nice example of Release Planning:
Rally Dev has some videos on their Agile Chalk Talk series:
Iteration Planning
User Stories
Story Points
Sizing and Estimation
Agile Teams
Agile Manifesto
Retrospecting Your Iterations
Lean and Agile
Kanban and Scrum
If you find other videos on the web that are useful - please add them in the comments below. Thanks.
So when people want to learn about Scrum (or Agile - they are not the same thing) I typically ask how they would like to learn. Do you want a book, or a google search term, or perhaps a video? Most people are responding to the question with a request for a video.
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| Scrum Training Series (dot-com) |
Since I've been doing the Agile Coaching gig, I've never seen a successful team that didn't have an engaged and dedicated Product Owner. This is the first role to get functioning in an Agile transition (adoptions or transformation), and sadly the most overlooked (see: 5 keys to Scrum Adoption). Why is it often overlooked? Because it is a leadership role, and most leaders are not willing to change how they approach doing work. Rather they wish the teams (individual contributors) to change while the leaders are allowed to stay in status quo. (See Also: We Don't Hire Product Owners Here by Rich Mironov).
A great video overview of the Product Owner role in Scrum is by Henrik Kniberg of Crisp's Blog: Agile Product Ownership in a Nutshell.
 |
| http://blog.crisp.se/2012/10/25/henrikkniberg/agile-product-ownership-in-a-nutshell |
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| The resource utilization trap |
And another of Kniberg's videos on Spotify culture and how they have mutated Scrum.
Mike Cohn has entered this space of educational videos with a new (Apr. 2014) offering called Front Row Agile, a pay for access site. Currently most courses are labeled "coming soon".
Alan Dayley of Big Visible has a nice example of Release Planning:
Rally Dev has some videos on their Agile Chalk Talk series:
Iteration Planning
User Stories
Story Points
Sizing and Estimation
Agile Teams
Agile Manifesto
Retrospecting Your Iterations
Lean and Agile
Kanban and Scrum
If you find other videos on the web that are useful - please add them in the comments below. Thanks.
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