Growing Agile: A Coach's Guide to Training Scrum - Leanpub

34 Pages·2016·3.83 MB·English

Growing Agile: A Coach’s Guide to Training Scrum
Forewords by Ron Jeffries and Sharon Bowman
Karen Greaves and Samantha Laing
Thisbookisforsaleathttp://leanpub.com/TrainingScrum
Thisversionwaspublishedon2017-01-25
ISBN978-0-620-57767-0
©2012-2017GrowingAgile
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Contents
ForewordbyRonJeffries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i
ForewordbySharonBowman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ii
PraiseforGrowingAgile:ACoach’sGuidetoTrainingScrum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iv
AbouttheAuthors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v
Chapter1:Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
HowToUseTheCoach’sGuideSeries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Chapter7:ValuesandPrinciples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Appendix
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
StandingSurvey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Pop-Ups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
GrowingAgileOnlineCourses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
GrowingAgileBooks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
AboutGrowingAgile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Foreword by Ron Jeffries
If you’re going to do Scrum training, Karen and Sam’s book will be a gift from the skies. Using Sharon
Bowman’s Training from the BACK of the Room style, they show you everything about how they put
a class together. Everything? Just about the only thing they don’t provide is the flipcharts and markers
you’llneedfortheclass.Andaskthem-maybethey’llsendyouthoseaswell!
Foreachtopicintheentirecourse,theyshowyoutheir4Cscards,planninghowthattopicwillbedone
inBACKoftheRoomstyle.Thecardsalonearevaluable:theyshowyouhowtoplantopicsinthatstyle,
and give solid examples of how these experts do it. They show you their slides, hand-drawn, dynamic,
alive.Theytellyouwhattheysay,whatquestionstheyask,what’slikelytohappen,howtheyhandleit.
Frankly,itmakesmewanttobethere.
You could do your course exactly like this one,but that’s not the point. Yourcourse needs to be in your
style.Butyou’lldowelltolook,notjustatthespecificwaythatthisorthattopicishandled,butatallthe
various ways they’re handled. Karen and Sam show you how they do specific topic sessions, but seeing
howtheyarrangethe4Csforsessionsisequallyvaluable.TheymixandmatchMove,Speak,Draw,Listen,
andWriteactivitiesforeachtopicandeachpart.Theyfigureouthowmuchtimeeachpartneeds.
Oneofthehardestpartsoftryinganewstyle,likeTrainingfromtheBACKoftheRoom,isfiguringout
specificallyhowtofityourknowledgeintothatpattern.KarenandSamgiveusexampleafterexample,
and those examples will help us create our own. You might want to dip your toe into the style, or jump
allthewayinatthedeepend.Eitherway,you’llbeready.
Sometimesthere’llbeonetopicinyourtrainingthat’sabitstale,toyou,ortothestudents.Orthere’sa
topicwhereyoudon’thaveahandleonagoodwaytoapproachit.Again,lookintothisbook.Seehow
Karen and Sam address this topic, but also consider applying their approach to another topic to the one
thattroublesyou.You’llbegladyoudid.
Butwait,there’smore!Therearemassesofadditionalmaterialsthatyoucandownload.Trainingplans,
slides,aworkbook,PDFs!Istillthinkthere’sprobablyalinkforflipchartsandmarkers,butIjusthaven’t
foundityet.
Get this book now, and watch for its updates. Your teaching will improve, and so will your sense of
enthusiasm.Welldone,ladies!
RonJeffries
i
Foreword by Sharon Bowman
Agilecoachesandtrainersareanotoriouslyenthusiasticgroup–passionateaboutwhattheyteach,eager
tohelpotherslearn,andalwayswillingtogotheextramiletomaketheirclassesthebestthattheycan
be.
A challenge appears when Subject Matter Experts (and agile trainers are, indeed, SMEs) realise that
knowingthesubjectisonethingbutteachingitissomethingentirelydifferent.Infact,teachingitrequires
atotallyseparatesetofskillsthansimplyknowingallthereistoknowaboutagile.
Enter Karen and Sam and their newest book Growing Agile: A Coach’s Guide to Training Scrum. In
thisdetailedyeteasy-to-followguide,agiletrainerswillfindallthelessonplans,instructions,activities,
materialsandresourcestheyneedinordertoteachScrumandagileconceptswell.
The guide is a gem of a book – a one-of-a-kind resource that agile trainers will wonder how they ever
didwithout!KarenandSamhavetakenthebestofbrain-basedtrainingandcombineditwiththebestof
their Scrum classes. In doing so, they have created a guide that contains not only the lesson plans for a
fulltwo-dayScrum/agiletrainingprogram,butawealthofhow-toinformation:easylearningactivities,
scriptedinstructionalstrategies,uniquepictorialslides,engagingparticipantworkbookandhandouts,and
lotsoffun,interactivewaystopresentScrumandagileconcepts.
Ifyouareanagiletrainer,theguidewillbecomeyourconstantcompanion.KarenandSamprovidelots
ofencouragementalongtheway,andlotsofvariationstomakesureyourtrainingparticipantsgetwhat
they came to get: a rich, memorable, practical and useful brain-based learning experience. The authors
havewalkedthewalk;nowtheytalkthewalksothatotherscanfollow.
Mypersonalcongratulationsand“bravo!”toKaren,Sam,andGrowingAgile:ACoach’sGuidetoTraining
Scrum.
SharonBowman,Author
TrainingfromtheBACKoftheRoom
ii
Praise for Growing Agile: A Coach’s Guide to
Training Scrum
I have been an agile advocate for over 13 years and have been teaching Scrum for almost two years.
Recently,IsubmittedmytrainingmaterialtotheScrumAlliancetobecomeaCertifiedScrumTrainer.
As I waited for my material to be reviewed, I came across Growing Agile: A Coach’s Guide to Training
ScrumbyKarenGreavesandSamanthaLaing.Fromtheveryfirstread,Ibecameafan.Somuchsothat
IadaptedmyownmaterialforatrainingcourseIwasgivingtwodayslater!AbigaskandIhadtowork
hardtofititin.Butitwastrulyworthit.
The course feedback was unequivocal. Karen and Sam’s material helped me improve my course
satisfaction significantly. Not only that, a common thread was from executives who attended the first
twohoursofthecourseonlyandwhowishedtheyhadbeenabletostayfortherest,theyenjoyeditthat
much.
I’m now in the process of updating the material I submitted to the Scrum Alliance, to use some of the
greatmaterialprovidedbyKarenandSam.Irecommenditwithoutreservation.
DerekDavidson
ScrumTrainer,AgileCoachandScrumMaster
iii
Acknowledgements
Abigthankyoutothefollowingpeopleforreviewingthisbook:
ConcettaIsolano:ourScrumwife,especiallyforpointingouteverymissingfullstop.
PavelDabrytski:forsomeonewhosefirstlanguageisnotEnglishyouknowmuchmoreaboutgrammar
thanwedo.Thankyouforallthetips.Withoutyouthisbookwouldnotbethesame.Itwouldcertainly
havelongersentences,lessfullstopsandmuchrepetitionandtautology.
JustinKotze:fortestingoutthematerialandgivingussomegoodtipstoincludeinthebook.
Thisbookwouldnothavebeenpossiblewithoutourcollaborators.
Editor:MelissaFagan¹
Designer:LoanneMyburgh²
Thankyou
¹http://za.linkedin.com/in/melissafagan
²http://www.designobsession.co.za/
iv
About the Authors
SamLaing(left)andKarenGreaves(right)
Wehaveworkedinsoftwareourwholelives.WithTypeApersonalitiesandastrongworkethic,wehave
both done our share of overtime on death march projects. Eventually we knew we had to find another
way.AgilebroughtustogetherwhenweworkedatacompanytryingtodoScrumforthefirsttime.
In2012,wetooktheplungeandstartedourownbusiness,GrowingAgile³.Sincethenwehavebeendoing
theworkthatwearepassionateabout.Bestofallwehaveanimpactonotherpeople’slives.
If we have one principle at Growing Agile it is continuous experimentation. We love trying new things
anddon’tletfearoffailuregetintheway.OurfirstbookCollaborationGames⁴wasoneexperimentand
³http://growingagile.co.za
⁴https://leanpub.com/CollaborationGamesToolbox
v
AbouttheAuthors vi
the feedback was overwhelming. Plus we had a lot of fun in the process. This led to our second book,
whichyouarereadingnow.Wehopeyouenjoyit,anduseittogrowagile.
Asalways,welovefeedback,sodon’[email protected]⁵
orTwitter@GrowingAgile⁶.
⁵mailto:[email protected]
⁶https://twitter.com/GrowingAgile