#20: Best of Coaching Calls with Mike Cohn

Mike and Brian take audience questions in the “best of” from the Agile Mentors Community’s monthly coaching calls.

Overview

Twice a month, there is an open Q&A session we offer as part of the Agile Mentors Community where anyone from the community can join in and ask either Mike or Brian questions. These are open discussions and allow the users to ask their own questions that are unique to their situations. We call these “Coaching Calls” because they are there to help coach the members and help them overcome obstacles along the way. 

Everyone who takes a class with Mountain Goat Software receives 12 months membership in the Agile Mentors Community and they are able to attend these calls and ask questions. Take a listen to some of the best questions we’ve received over the past few months to get an idea of what these sessions are all about.

By the way, we are aware there are a few places where the audio is not perfect in this episode and apologize for the less-than-ideal audio in several places. This is because these answers come from live sessions and there were a few streaming hiccups while delivering them.

Listen now to discover: 

• 3:10 - Brian: How to conduct fun retrospectives when you aren’t allowed to use cloud-based tools?
• 7:40 - Mike: How much planning is needed to ensure we complete items in a Sprint?
• 11:50 - Brian: Do you change the story points on an item if it turns out to be bigger than you thought?
• 14:50 - Mike: Why use Fibonacci numbers to estimate?
• 18:05 - Brian: Should Product Owners attend a Daily Scrum?
• 20:25 - Mike: What’s the best practice for capturing Non-Functional Requirements?
• 23:00 - Brian: How do you get your first experience as a Scrum Master if you have none?
• 26:46 - Mike: Tips for starting out with a new team?

Listen next time when we’ll be discussing…

Next week we will be taking a very short break of just one week. We are trying to practice a sustainable pace approach and are taking just one week off in order to do that.

References and resources mentioned in the show

• Funretrospectives.com
• Agilementors.com

Want to get involved? 

This show is designed for you, and we’d love your input. 

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This episode’s presenters are: 

Brian Milner is SVP of coaching and training at Mountain Goat Software. He’s passionate about making a difference in people’s day-to-day work, influenced by his own experience of transitioning to Scrum and seeing improvements in work/life balance, honesty, respect, and the quality of work. 

Mike Cohn is co-founder of the Scrum Alliance, and founder of Mountain Goat Software. He’s a veteran of applying Scrum and agile principles and practices to help organizations build better products and ship them on time.