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build trust

To Build Trust, Risk Being Candid

Feb 15, 2018
Search Google Books on trust and candor and the first listings you’ll get are business examples. Why? Because for a Team to respond agilely, we need to be candid with each other and have a basic trust in each other. Naturally, we’ve all experienced being on a Team where this wasn’t the case, and our whole Team was held back as a result. Read More
agile relationship

The PO and SM: A Match Made in Agile

Feb 08, 2018
Every year as the middle of February approaches, our world is taken over by little red hearts, cherubic cupids hoisting arrows and foil wrapped drugstore chocolates. The heavily scented fragrance of Valentine’s Day is in the air. For us at 3Back, even though the holiday has come and gone, our thoughts turn to partnerships that stand the test of time; a Scrummy yin and yang where complementary forces interact to create something great. We think we found it. Read More

What Football Teaches Us About Scrum Teams

Feb 01, 2018
Even if you think that a “Fair Catch” has something to do with a summer carnival fishing tournament and a “Flea Flicker” can be eradicated with a dog collar, there are two things that all football and non-football fans know: The crazy intensity of the championship football season is among us. And, the only football teams that prove themselves worthy of achieving this level of greatness are the ones that are the epitome of a Well-Formed Team.™ Read More

SHHHHH!!! 5 Ways to Quiet Organizational Noise

Jan 18, 2018
Throughout our day, we experience an inordinate amount of noise. Whether it’s the garbage truck barreling down our road at 5 am, the dog that excitedly greets every passerby or the co-worker’s emphatic phone conversations on the other side of the paper-thin cubicle wall, noise is everywhere. Read More

The 7 Essential Roles To Be the Best ScrumMaster

Jan 11, 2018
The ScrumMaster is seldom a ‘Master of Scrum;’ but the ScrumMaster’s primary responsibility is to help the Scrum Team use and improve its use of Scrum. This isn’t simply for Scrum’s sake; it’s because the Team needs to get better at doing what the Product Owner needs it to do. In practice this means that the ScrumMaster works with the other Team Members to help the Team produce Quality Results at a rapid, though Sustainable Pace. Read More

When Should You Start a Sprint? When Should You Finish?

Jan 04, 2018
Starting. It’s on all of our minds as we work through the first week of the new year. The concept of starting brings to mind one of the most frequently asked questions I receive when I am both training and coaching. When should you start a Sprint? And, the question’s inevitable counterpart, when should you finish a Sprint? Read More

Reawakening Retros: Good Habits Versus Bad Routines

Dec 28, 2017
“We had a few good Retrospectives, but they stopped working;” “I don’t know what the point of this is anymore;” “Maybe this Retro thing was a good idea once, but we need to try something else.” “Can we just finish this so we can get back to work?” These are the kinds of things we say when a repeating process like Team Retrospectives, that used to work or maybe seemed to work once, has stopped feeling useful. Read More

The Twelve Days of Scrum

Dec 21, 2017
In the spirit of the holiday season, the 3Back Scrum Singers presents to you, “The Twelve Days of Scrum.” Feel free to sing along. Read More

4 Scrum Stories We Can’t Get Enough Of

Dec 14, 2017
Who doesn’t love a good story? Writing a good Story is a critical, and somewhat challenging, component to the Agile process. To further assist you in your quest for good Story writing, we’ve identified 4 categories of Scrum Stories to keep in mind as you write away. Read More

The Dangers of Hybridized Agile

Dec 07, 2017
A few weeks ago, an ad caught our 3Back eye. The ad, promoting an upcoming webinar, made a claim that the best approach to solving all of your Organization’s Agile process needs is to pick and choose from a multitude of scaling frameworks, put them all together, and design your own Agile framework potpourri. This “Kitchen Sink” approach to Agile is what we call Hybridized Agile. And it’s dangerous. Very dangerous. Read More