The Stoic Scrum Master

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TL; DR: The Stoic Scrum Master – Making Your Scrum Work #30

Can wisdom from the past still be relevant to today’s VUCA-determined world? I started reading Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations some time ago and found it intriguing; maybe it applies to “Agile?” In other words: is there something like a Stoic Scrum Master?

If I understand stoicism correctly, it is about living a life of virtue, which comprises wisdom, justice, courage, and moderation. (All of those can be further subdivided, see Stoic Ethics.) For whatever reason, I felt reminded of Scrum Values and thought: could it be that the first principles of “agile” haven’t been defined by the Agile Manifesto but by “Zeno of Citium in Athens in the early 3rd century BCE?”

So, I embarked on a fun exercise of asking our beloved LLM to create an essay that applies Stoicism to Scrum, notably the Stoic Scrum Master.

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The Three Daily Scrum Questions Won’t Die — Making Your Scrum Work (29)

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TL; DR: The Three Daily Scrum Questions Won’t Die

The Daily Scrum serves a single purpose: inspecting the progress toward the Sprint Goal by reflecting on yesterday’s learning. Then, if the need should arise, the Developers adapt their plan to accomplish the Sprint Goal. While the theory may be generally accepted, applying the idea to the practice is more challenging. One of the recurring issues is the continued popularity of the “three Daily Scrum questions” from the Scrum Guide 2017.

Let’s reflect on why answering these obsolete Daily Scrum questions negatively influences the Scrum team.

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Club Scrum: What Are You Doing all Day, ChatGPT — as a Scrum Master?

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TL; DR: Club Scrum — You, too, ChatGPT?

A few years ago, I ran a survey to figure out what Scrum Masters serving a single Scrum team do all day. Now that we have a new kid, pardon: a new LLM, on the block, I reran the old questionnaire: Club Scrum: What Are You Doing all Day, ChatGPT — as a Scrum Master?

Based on the survey results from 2018, the normalized total amount of time spent on Scrum events, educating themselves, or coaching teammates and stakeholders, respectively, was approximately 12 hours per week, which leaves a lot of room for dealing with impediments.

Read on and learn what ChatGPT considers to be a typical workload. (Excluding the removal of impediments.)

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ChatGPT Product Owner Job Interview — Will You Compete for a Position w/ an LLM Soon?

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TL; DR: ChatGPT Product Owner Job Interview

A few weeks ago, I ran a simulated job interview with ChatGPT for a fictitious Scrum Master position. Admittedly, I would not have invited this “interviewee” for an interview with other team members; however, the interview produced some remarkable answers. Consequently, I tried the same with a Product Owner position, aware of the challenges this would pose, as the Product Owner role is significantly fuzzier than the one of a Scrum Master. So, I took a few questions from the Hiring: 82 Scrum Product Owner Interview Questions guide and ran a ChatGPT Product Owner job interview.

Read on and learn whether a statistical model will challenge product people in the near future.

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The Scrum Master Salary Report 2023

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TL; DR: The Scrum Master Salary Report 2023 — How Do You Compare?

The Scrum Master Salary Report 2023 is the fourth edition of the industry survey after 2017, 2019, and 2022. This free report is based on the answers of 1,143 participants globally. If you are considering a career decision this year, maybe, whether you should join the industry as a junior Scrum Master or move to a new organization or go independent, you will find the report’s information beneficial.

By the way, the average salary of the participants in the survey is US-$80,995, with a standard deviation of about US-$53,700. In the complete report, you will find more detailed information; download your copy below.

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Definition of Done: Business Agility Abhors Technical Shoddiness

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TL; DR: The Definition of Done: Business Agility & Technical Excellence

Most of the time, stakeholders are not interested in how we solve their problems as long as we ethically play by the rules. Instead, they are interested in the regular delivery of valuable Increments as these pave the road to business agility. However, there is no business agility without technical excellence, which brings us to today’s topic: the importance of an actionable Definition of Done.

Learn more about twelve success principles of employing such a Definition of Done as a Scrum team to help your organization become agile.

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Agile Transformation with ChatGPT or McBoston?

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TL; DR: Agile Transformation with ChatGPT or McBoston?

This article is another excursion into this nascent yet fascinating new technology of generative AI and LLMs and the future of knowledge work. I was interested in learning more about a typical daily challenge many agile practitioners face: How shall we successfully pursue an agile transformation? Shall we outsource the effort to one of the big consultancies — McBoston? Or shall we embark on an agile transformation with ChatGPT providing some guidance?

If technology can pass a Wharton MBA exam, maybe, it deserves some attention. We thought that AI might initially come after simple office jobs. I am no longer sure about that. Maybe, ChatGPT’s successor will start at the top of the food chain.

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Scrum Master Interview Questions 2023: The Scrum Master Role

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Scrum Master Interview Questions, Edition 2023: The Scrum Master Role

If you want to fill a Scrum Master position in your organization, you may find the following interview questions helpful in identifying the right candidate. They are derived from my seventeen years of practical experience with XP as well as Scrum, serving both as Product Owner and Scrum Master, as well as interviewing dozens of Scrum Master candidates on behalf of my clients. This revised set of questions addresses the Scrum Master role.

Given the remarkable results, ChatGPT recently scored in my fictitious interview for a Scrum Master position; I added extra scrutiny to the nature of the questions. While I find ChatGPT a fascinating technology, I want it to fail in this interview challenge.

So far, this Scrum Master interview guide has been downloaded more than 25,000 times.

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ChatGPT Prompts for Scrum Masters, Product Owners, and Developers

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TL; DR: ChatGPT Prompts for Scrum Practitioners

Last week, I ran an “interview” with ChatGPT as an applicant for a fictitious Scrum Master position based on questions from Scrum Master Interview Guide. (See below.) While the overall results were broadly acceptable, I thought that changing the ChatGPT prompts might deliver better results. So, this time, I chose to present ChatGPT with three everyday scenarios based on more comprehensive prompts. Lo and behold, it worked very well.

Think twice if you still believe this technology is a fad or a toy. Instead, grab a cup of coffee and read for yourself.

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A ChatGPT Job Interview for a Scrum Master Position

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TL; DR: A ChatGPT Job Interview for a Scrum Master Position

Can a large language model, not specializing in anything “agile,” pass a screening interview for a Scrum Master position? In this ChatGPT job interview, I put OpenAI’s latest generative AI to the test. I took several questions from the 73 Scrum Master Interview Questions guide, see below, covering the whole spectrum from the broad picture to more specific questions, only answerable with hands-on experience on the interviewee’s side.

So, read on and learn whether Scrum Masters will soon be replaced with a chatbot.

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