Deep Dive on Scrum Values with Sam Falco

This week, Dan Neumann is joined by AgileThought colleague and return guest, Sam Falco! Sam is an Agile Coach and Certified Scrum Professional with an extensive background leading Agile development teams.

A few episodes ago they discussed Scrum and empirical process control and today they’ll be doing a deep dive on Scrum values!

One of the problems many people tend to face with Scrum is that it can feel very mechanical. But luckily, there is a solution to that. There’s a statement in the Scrum Guide that the successful use of Scrum depends on people becoming more proficient in living by five values; the values that drive Scrum. These values truly put the heart in Scrum - and they’re exactly what Sam will be talking about today!

Tune in to learn what these values are, why they are so critical to the success of Scrum teams, and how to apply these values. Sam also gives some examples of where he’s seen the values be really present (and, where they haven’t) in a Scrum team and the effect that it has on the organization overall.

Key Takeaways
The five values that put the heart in Scrum:
Commitment
Courage
Focus
Openness
Respect
Why these values are so critical to Scrum teams and how to apply them:
You need commitment to stay on track with Scrum
Openness and courage are key to having transparent and honest communication
Stay focused on the work of the sprint and the goals of the Scrum team
Stay focused on the sprint goal helps to eliminate distractions
Don’t get distracted by side projects and focus on the main task at hand (Sam recommends using personal Kanban boards)
Respect all members of the Scrum team to be capable, independent people
Show respect by showing where you have dependencies with the Scrum team
Show respect by not expecting everyone to know what you know
With openness and courage: share the whys, share the issues you ran into, how you overcame them, and where you need to escalate them
How to strengthen these values in your Scrum team:
See where they’re present and figure out where they can be strengthened
Bring it up in a retrospective and have some deeper conversations about it

Mentioned in this Episode:
Sam Falco (LinkedIn)
The Scrum Guide
Agile Coaches’ Corner Ep. 23: “Scrum and Empirical Process Control with Sam Falco”
Agile Coaches’ Corner Ep. 21: “Why Are Games Important to Agile? With Sam Falco”
Agnostic Agile
Kanban Guide from ProjectManager.com
Personal Kanban Board
Agile Manifesto
Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance, by Alex Hutchinson

Sam Falco’s Book Picks:
The Servant as Leader, by Robert K. Greenleaf
Agile Project Management with Scrum, by Ken Schwaber
The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner, by Alan Sillitoe

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