The Mountain Goat Software Blog

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Article artwork for Top 7 Ways to Engage Stakeholders in Sprint Reviews.

Poorly attended sprint reviews cause real problems. Fortunately there are easy fixes.

A man and woman discuss the sprint goal inside open elevator doors. The caption reads, A sprint goal is a one-sentence summary of the focus of a team's sprint. The idea is to be able to relay what the team is working on in the length of an elevator ride.

Sprint goals are something every Scrum team should try to create. Learn what sprint goals are and what a good sprint goal looks like.

Article artwork for Why Sustainable Pace Is So Important to Agile Teams.

It isn’t just people who benefit when teams work at a sustainable pace. Overall velocity is higher and defect counts are lower. Find out why.

A definition of ready can be like a bouncer standing in front of a club. It blocks stories from entering the sprint and is a dangerous step towards a stage-gate process.

This post explains how to use a Definition of Ready successfully and avoid it becoming a first step back toward a waterfall process.

Article artwork for What Product Owners Do & 7 Mistakes to Avoid.

Learn what good product owners do to avoid 7 common product owner mistakes.

Article artwork for User Story Template: What It Is and Why It Works So Well.

The standard “As a...I...so that…” user story template is a way of expressing product backlog items. Learn what the three-part user story format is, more about the questions it answers, and the advantages and drawbacks of the user story template.

Article artwork for Agile Teams: Concurrent Engineering & Overlapping Work.

Overlapping work is one element of agile that is difficult for teams to understand and master. Discover three things agile teams can do to make it easier.

Article artwork for Agile Requirements Gathering: Three Types of Requirements.

Deadlines are often missed because teams fail to consider emergent requirements. Learn about the 3 types of requirements your agile team should be gathering.

Article artwork for Why I Don’t Emphasize Sprint Goals.

Sprint goals are considered a mandatory part of Scrum. Here’s why I disagree.

rpowell

Perhaps the most prevalent and persistent myth in agile is that a cross-functional team is one on which each person possesses every skill necessary to complete the work. This is simply not true. A cross-functional team has members with a variety of skills, but that does not mean each member has all of the skills.

Article artwork for Be a Great Product Owner: Six Things Teams and Scrum Masters Need.

Learn six ways effective product owners ensure their teams’ success.

Are you thinking about becoming a Scrum Master and wondering if you have what it takes…