Software the Agile Way....

When I first read the Agile values and principles, I found it really easy to understand as it talks really the basic things. And I thought this is already there in me and i know really well. But I was wrong. There is a deep meaning of each and every values and principles and understanding and implementing it, is a difficult job. But I took up the challenge and started learning about these and started implementing when I was just a software engineer. I volunteered for the role of Scrum Master and started applying these concepts. I learned during the implementation phase that before helping other understand and influence, I need to convince myself why this is helpful and how it is benefiting me. For example, instead of sending a formal email to my test engineer, I started going to his desk and started having the better interaction. This saved a lot of my time as I don't have to explain in email and i can close that issue quickly by having a quick interaction. This helped me to...

Whenever we set a goal, we or people who are concerned always ask when this goal going to be achieved. Basically, we start by setting a goal which is expected to deliver some value. How do we determine if this goal will actually result value.What is the measurement criteria of a goal. Consider an example, lets say your goal is to learn Python Programming language so that you can build professional websites and work for companies part time to provide solution in Python. How will you measure value. First of all this is a individual goal which means no one is affected by this goal, however if this goal is set by the employer then concerned people will be your manager who would like to consider you in the python projects. So how will you determine the size of this goal and duration it will take to achieve. And the way to achieve the determine is through planning ! There are 3 ways you may go ahead planning for this goal: Over- Planning   - In this case you will just identify e...

Even though  Scrum Guide   clearly defines the roles and responsibility of Scrum Master despite this in practical situations there are multiple activities where a Scrum Master need to get involved. This sometimes makes things difficult for a Scrum Master. This means Scrum master has to deal with all types of situations if the team is not self organized and not practiced Scrum for a long time. Some of them are: Behavioral issues,  Not having enough backlog for coming sprints,  dependencies with external teams Required people not available during a scrum events leading to reschedule of the scrum event Skill set issue ( from PO or Team) leading to spill over Conflicts within the team members action items follow up Blockers like environment down Scrum Master managing 2-3 scrum teams (which are not self organized) will have to face these issues quite frequently which may lead to scrum master's backlog becoming too big which ultimately will be unorganized a...

There are number of articles written on Scrum Master role and responsibilities. Most of the articles talks about the behavioral  aspects which is definitely expected in a Scrum Master. As this is a Leadership role, people skills are needed to help coach the team. While these skills are needed, I want to talk about the technical skills which a Scrum master should have which can further grow a Scrum Master. If these technical skills  are known to Scrum Master, then it will help in better understanding the problem which your team is facing and this can also help in resolving any blocker that your team may have. This does not mean SM will debug and start resolving the issues on his own. SM with these tech skills will ask questions which can uncover the unknown areas and can lead to solution. here's the top technical skills which I strongly recommend a SM to have: Tech stack- Be aware of the tech stack your team is using. Your team may be using Java /python/.NET for the ba...