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Is your team confused about who is doing what? Are you facing constant infighting? Use my 'Roles and Responsibilities' game to set the stage for success as a team.

Get all the details on this 'Roles and Responsibilities' game here

Fun should be an integral part of your Agile Journey. I encourage my teams to have fun while attempting to be agile. I encourage them to create a Fun Backlog - activities and things that they can do together as a team to infus fun.

And, you don't have to wait for your company to pay for these activities. These activites does not have to elaborate and expensive. They could be simple, in-expensive, and fun! 

Here are some of the items that have showed up on Fun Backlog of teams that I have coached in the past. 

• [Weekly] Bagel Friday - one team member brings bagel for the team
• Pizza Friday - one of the team had this as a weekly ritual, followed by appearance from a mystery Guest speaker
• [Monthly] Team Lunch with Card Game
• [Quarterly] Potluck Lunch - each team member bring an authentic dish for the team lunch
• Retrospective at a local Cafe
• Bowling Afternoon
• [Trip to] Escape Room
• etc.

Go ahead, create Fun Backlog with your team. Work hard, and have fun! 

Point is, you got to have fun while learning the 'ropes' of doing and being agile. The team that enjoys the work, stays together longer, and delivers an awesome product 🙂

You must be wondering why I recommend starting your sprint on Wednesday - middle of the week?!? You might be thinking that this will confuse the hell out of your team members and other teams that you interact with.

On the contrary though, starting the sprint in the middle of the week, and not using the calendar-week (Mon-Fri) has several advantage. Here are some of the reasons why Wednesday-to-Tuesday week improves your team's productivity.

Long Weekends

They typically fall on Monday or Friday. If you used calendar week, you will have difficult time getting your team members on those critical days (remember, you might be doing sprint planning or sprint review/retrospective on Monday or Friday since you used calendar week). And, often, people take extra day off around them to make it longer weekend.

4-day work week

In certain conutries, and companies, it is normal and accepted norm that people work only 4-days a week. In this case, they would either take Monday or Friday off to make it a 4-day work week.

'Mental weekend' syndrom

On Monday morning, people are still in the weekend mode; they are just trying to get over it and get back to the work routine. Imagine trying to do Sprint Planning on one of those Mondays?

Similarly, on Fridays, people have mentally tuned out and already in weekend mode. Now, try doing your Sprint Review and Retrospective on this day?

People flying in and flying out..

If your company is one of those who use lot of outside talent and hire consultants, theny you might have seen this. These consultants are typically flying in on Monday morning and flying out on Friday. How productive would be your sprint planning or sprint review/retro if they are part of your team?

So, my advise and strong suggestion: stay away from calendar days and start your sprint on a Wednesday, Wed-Tue 'virtual' week.

Getting ready to standup a new Agile team? As we know, there are several 'set up' activities that need to be completed, to build a stable foundation for the team, on which to start their Agile Journey. Call it Sprint Zero, or call it the initial setup activities. The fact is, the team needs to complete them in order to enter their first sprint. These set up activities, this foundation should include ...

• Team Name
• Team Norms or Working Agreements
• Definition of READY
• Definition of DONE
• Team Room setup / Co-location
• Product Backlog (PB) creation
• Establishing Scrum Calendar, agreeing to the day/time/location for various scrum ceremonies
• Creating 'Fun' backlog
• etc.
• etc.

Gamify all these activities with my Agile Bingo! 

As an Agilist, as a change agent, you are almost always playing the role of a “Facilitator”as you interact with your business stakeholders as well as members of your teams. I like these sessions to be interactive and collaborative. I encourage you all to use Post Its and White boarding as you go through these sessions. As we do the white boarding sessions, taking a picture of it and attaching it to your Feature/Story might be good enough documentation, at that point in time. White boarding also become highly collaborative session, with just in time discusion and documentation. And, I highly recommend an app Office Lens to take picture of white board. [Click here to get my list of suggested apps ]

How do you do Sprint Planning?

Are you struggling to keep the team interested in coming to Sprint Planning, every sprint?

Show them the VALUE! Use my 7Cs of sprint planning to keep your sprint planning on track and make it the most productive meeting for the team. 

Read more detailed explanation on each of these 7Cs here

What would your team do if you were absent (for whatever reason)? What would they do if you were delayed (to your Daily Standup or other ceremonies)?

Would they start without you or wait (or even worse, cancel) because you, the Mr. Scrum Master, did not show up for the ceremony?

And.. to get answers to these critical questions, you got to be absent from the team.. intentionally! You want to ‘practice’ that before you really need it.

As we say, Daily Standup (and other ceremonies) are there for the TEAM, and they should take the ownership of them. You, Mr. Scrum Master, are there just to facilitate them.

Being 'absent' will also help you in identifying natural leaders within your team. Once you know them, you can help them grow (or watch them go away if they don’t get the opportunities).

So, your challenge for this week - Be absent and watch from the distance as to how the team handles it.

Does your Team rise up to the challenge or crumble down under the pressure? There is only one way to find out..!

More Tips are coming your way, in the following weeks. Tips such as...

• Scenario Lab
• Backlog Refinement... for Velocity!?
• 'Virtual Doors'
• Visual Facilitation
• Start with 'Y'
• Say 'No'
• Your Elevator Speech.. on value of Agile
• Get the Roadshow going..
• Improvement Stories
• Ground yourself in current Moment