Collaborative Leadership Team Members Earn Prestigious Path to CSP Educator℠ Credentials
MINNEAPOLIS (September 10, 2018) – Collaborative Leadership Team (CoLead Team), an industry leader in providing Scrum and Agile coaching and training, is proud to announce that two of its team members have earned the rigorous Path to CSP Educator℠ credentials enabling them to deliver the Advanced Certified Scrum Master (A-CSM℠) certification. CoLead Team Founder and CEO, Angela Johnson and Certified Scrum Trainer, Christian Antoine are two of the first group of ten individuals to achieve this certification in the United States.
Johnson and Antoine part of first group certified in the United States
MINNEAPOLIS (September 10, 2018) – Collaborative Leadership Team (CoLead Team), an industry leader in providing Scrum and Agile coaching and training, is proud to announce that two of its team members have earned the rigorous Path to CSP Educator℠ credentials enabling them to deliver the Advanced Certified Scrum Master (A-CSM℠) certification. CoLead Team Founder and CEO, Angela Johnson and Certified Scrum Trainer, Christian Antoine are two of the first group of ten individuals to achieve this certification in the United States.
“For Christian and I to be among the first group that achieved the Path to CSP Educator is profoundly important to us,” said Johnson. “It demonstrates how committed we are to our own continuous improvement and continual advancement of Scrum. We are passionate about providing a path forward for solving problems and accomplishing business objectives!”
To achieve the Path to CSP Educator certification, Johnson and Antoine had to demonstrate advanced learning techniques that will be used in the program to the Scrum Alliance and undergo Scrum Alliance® approval of their materials and approach.
As a Path to CSP Educator, Johnson and Antoine will serve as mentors to individuals pursuing their A-CSM certification and validate all of the A-CSM learning objectives Those who pursue A-CSM certification must demonstrate their experience working as a Scrum Master and work with a CSP Educator prove their ability to facilitate dialogue and work with teams as an effective Scrum Master.
In addition to being among the first to achieve the CSP Educator status, Johnson is a Certified Scrum Trainer and Certified Less Practitioner and Scrum@Scale Trainer. In 2010, she founded CoLead Teem to provide education and coaching to clients adopting Scrum and Agile. Prior to founding the company, Johnson was an independent Scrum Master consultant to a variety of companies including Jostens, Wells Fargo, Thomson Reuters and Best Buy. A graduate of Hamline University (B.A.) and the University of St. Thomas (M.B.C.), Johnson resides in Wayzata, Minn.
Working with Agile since 2008, Antoine’s diversified experience includes its application within the medical device, finance, healthcare, securities, international law and agricultural industries. He’s a Certified Scrum Trainer and Agile Transformation Coach and consults, trains and coaches teams and companies on Agile at all levels of the organization. He enjoys helping others see there is a different way to approach work, at a sustainable pace, and achieve outcomes that delight customers. Prior to CoLead Team, Antoine worked for Medtronic, Hollstadt & Associates and Computer Science Corporation. He is a graduate of St. John’s University and resides in Golden Valley, Minn.
About Collaborative Leadership Team
Founded in 2010, Collaborative Leadership Team is an industry leader in providing Scrum and Agile coaching and training to companies in a variety of industries including: software, hardware, services, marketing and more. Practicing what they teach, the employees of the Twin Cities-based company use Scrum to manage their services organization. The breadth and depth of Collaborative Leadership Team's experience extends beyond Scrum and includes Kanban, eXtreme Programming, Facilitation and Organizational Change for business agility.
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Aren't Product Backlog Items just User Stories?
So just what is a product backlog item in the Scrum framework? One of the Scrum artifacts is the Product Backlog. A Product Backlog Item, or PBI, is similar to the intent of the user story. It was a place to note conversations that needed to be held with the Product Owner and anyone else necessary to flush out more information about the item. As conversations are held, results of those conversations can be added to the PBI in plain old words. No prescription necessary!
Are Product Backlog Items the problem?
“As a <>, I want < > So that < >. ”
In nearly every Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) class, we have face template-zombieitis. This is the condition caused by the User Story template. User Stories are not required in Scrum nor are they one of the Scrum artifacts. One only has to read the official Scrum Guide to validate this: https://www.scrumguides.org/
To be fair, User Stories were never meant to cause the template zombie condition. Just like Product Backlog Items, they were intended to be placeholders for conversations that were needed, or could reflect details of conversations that were already held. Somewhere along the line people seemed to forget this and began just trying to make stuff up to satisfy every field in the template, skipping the most important part: the Conversation.
So just what is a product backlog item in the Scrum framework? One of the Scrum artifacts is the Product Backlog. A Product Backlog Item, or PBI, is similar to the intent of the user story. It was a place to note conversations that needed to be held with the Product Owner and anyone else necessary to flush out more information about the item. As conversations are held, results of those conversations can be added to the PBI in plain old words. No prescription necessary!
As noted in the Scrum Guide:
PBI’s can represent considerations, questions, features, functions, requirements, enhancements, or fixes that constitute the changes to be made to the product in future releases.
Product Backlog items have the attributes of a description, order, estimate, and value. Product Backlog items often include test descriptions that will prove its completeness when "Done"
Product Backlog items can be updated at any time by the Product Owner or at the Product Owner’s discretion
Higher ordered Product Backlog Items are usually clearer and more detailed than lower ordered ones.
Product Backlog items that can be "Done" by the Development Team within one Sprint are deemed "Ready" for selection in a Sprint Planning. Product Backlog items usually acquire this degree of transparency through Refinement activity lead by the Product Owner with contributions by the Development Team prior to Sprint Planning. If a PBI cannot get to Done in a Sprint it may be split into smaller items during Refinement.
If you're ready to learn more- checkout Christian's upcoming CSM class here.
ScrumMaster Certification: Answering Crucial Questions – What's A Self-Organizing Team?
In the first two parts of this four-part series, we addressed the broad question of “Why Get Certified?” and how a Certified Scrum Master (CSM) can help an organization transition from a project-based to a product-based organization. In this post, we examine a unique aspect of the Scrum Framework – a self-organizing team and the role that a ScrumMaster can play in helping the Team become self-organizing.
In the first two parts of this four-part series, we addressed the broad question of “Why Get Certified?” and how a Certified Scrum Master (CSM) can help an organization transition from a project-based to a product-based organization. In this post, we examine a unique aspect of the Scrum Framework – a self-organizing team and the role that a ScrumMaster can play in helping the team become self-organizing.
Before outlining the ScrumMaster’s responsibilities in this regard, it’s important to establish what “self-organization” means or more importantly what it does not mean. Self-organization is providing the team with a goal to achieve, constraints to which they must adhere and then getting out of their way as they determine the best way to achieve this goal. Note that this definition does not state the team gets to decide the goal, change the goal or generally decide on a day-to-day basis what work it would like to do or not do. A team that follows this approach is practicing Scrum or any other Framework, it is engaging in a method known as “Chaos”.
This is the first responsibility that a ScrumMaster has in regards to self-organization – teach its definition and highlight to both the team and the organization’s broader leadership the implication of this definition.
Beyond teaching this definition, the ScrumMaster must also encourage the team to practice self-organization. This means not letting the team wait for direction from management before taking action. Whether it’s something as simple as gaining access to a server or something as complicated as identifying the source of an intermittent defect, the onus needs to be on the team to take action. In organizations with a high-degree of “command and control” leadership, a ScrumMaster’s needs to be both persistent and patient with the team. Part of this patience involves the ScrumMaster advocating for action, but not taking that action on the team’s behalf. If the ScrumMaster becomes impatient and acts on the team’s behalf, they have simply replaced management in their former role and the next time the team needs to take action they will wait for the ScrumMaster to act.
Of course, the ScrumMaster also has to protect the team while it learns what it means to be self-organizing. Often times, management will understand the definition of self-organization and will give the team the opportunity to self-organize only to quickly become impatient and fall back to a “command and control” mentality when the team struggles to put the principle into action. A ScrumMaster in this situation needs to coach management regarding the time it takes for a team to adopt a new way of working and preach patience as the team works through this timeline.
In our next post, we will address another crucial question related to the ScrumMaster role – “Isn’t a ScrumMaster just a project manager by another name?” If you are interested in learning more and becoming a Certified Scrum Master (CSM)., click here to view our upcoming classes and register for our next CSM or CSPO course.
Author: Collaborative Leadership Team. Learn more about our coaches and offerings here.
Accountability Layers
In the ocean (as marine biologist and Tom Clancy fans well know) there is a point where warm surface water and cold water from below meet. It’s called the Thermocline layer. It’s where the heat from the sun can’t sufficiently heat the water relative to the cooling currents from below.
Do you know where your accountability layer is?
In the ocean (as marine biologist and Tom Clancy fans well know) there is a point where warm surface water and cold water from below meet. It’s called the Thermocline layer. It’s where the heat from the sun can’t sufficiently heat the water relative to the cooling currents from below.
How does this relate to Agile or Scrum? In a couple of ways, but the one we will focus on in this post is, “Where is your Accountability Layer”?
I’m talking about the level in an organization actually tasked with TCB (Taking Care of Business). In a waterfall project this are usually Project Managers, Resource Managers, Team Leads, etc. These roles use words like “driving” and “managing” staff. Accountability for the success or failure rests here. Sure the QA team missed a bunch of bugs but those were just missed requirements, right? If only we’d have just planned more time to get the right answers first.
Agile approaches, such as Scrum, push this layer down to the team level. The TEAM is accountable for their work. The TEAM plans and executes. The TEAM decides the best way (within the boundaries set by the organization) to achieve the goal and deliver the value.
We still need the folks at the old layer level because the Team will need help, guidance, and organization changes that they can’t manage in addition to their new TCB focus. That assistance has to come from the folks that are best at providing it – the old layer.
I really feel this isn’t often addressed in current thinking about change. Moving this layer is a huge cultural shift in addition to the obvious, practical one. Most species in the ocean live above or below the Thermocline layer- and they don’t usually cross it willingly.
Want to learn more about cultural shifts with Agile and Scrum?
Click here to view our upcoming classes and register for our next CSM or CSPO course.
Author: Collaborative Leadership Team. Learn more about our coaches and offerings here.
How do you Hire the Best Scrum & Agile Trainer
equal! It seems that everyone is offering “Agile” or “Scrum” training these days. In the rush for businesses and professionals to cash in on this new way to do work, it is you the learner that is at risk.
How do you hire the best Scrum & Agile Trainer? Not all Agile and Scrum Trainers are created equal!
It seems that everyone is offering “Agile” or “Scrum” training these days. In the rush for businesses and professionals to cash in on this new way to do work, it is you the learner that is at risk.
You run the risk of spending money on a training class that does not teach you the intended Agile values, principles and frameworks. You may spend money for a Certification that is not accredited with a reputable organization. And you may wind up with a “trainer” who is reading off of some prepared slides but who has never lead people at all levels of an organization through an Agile Transformation, a Scrum Transformation or any kind of change of this magnitude.
Here are 2 suggestions to use in making your selection:
1. Contact the trainer:
Call or email the trainer to ask if you may speak with them for a few minutes. Ask questions about their background, credentials and experience.
- Are they actively helping companies adopting Agile or Scrum?
- Or was that something they did 5, 10, 15 years ago, if ever?
- Are they just holding “training classes” as fast as they can?
2. Find out about the course approach:
Contact either the trainer or training provider to learn about the course content or the learning approach.
- Will the class be all theory or are real world customer examples and case studies used in the course?
- Does the course material adhere to the Scrum Guide, the core Scrum reference guide, or other credible Agile organization’s guidelines?
- Is the course interactive?
The Scrum Alliance also offers additional recommendations to determine if you are selecting a “certification” course that is best for you.
Want to learn more about how the Collaborative Leadership Team is transforming the world of work with our clients every day?
Click here to view our upcoming classes and register for our next CSM, A-CSM or CSPO course.
Author: Collaborative Leadership Team. Learn more about our coaches and offerings here.