Advanced Scrum Master Skills

Advanced Scrum Master Skills for Building High Performance Teams

If you are an experienced scrum master looking to guide your team to a higher level of performance, then this is your workshop. Jeff McKenna and Chris Sims will be your guides as the workshop delves into:

  • Skills for your role as change agent – Learn how to keep your retrospectives fresh sprint after sprint, how to manage thorny communication issues, and more.

  • Tools and techniques to guide teams to higher levels of performance – Learn to root out impediments like a truffle hound.

  • The deeper ins and outs of "done" – Use your definition of done to secure organization-wide commitment to value delivery.

  • Scaling scrum success beyond your team – Learn how to encourage and integrate value-driven practices up and down the organization.

  • Visibility – learn how to make the path to highest value delivery crystal clear to your team and your stakeholders.

We'll be moving beyond what is taught in a certified scrum master workshop, delving into systems thinking, organizational and team dynamics, as well as ways to keep the scrum practices fresh and relevant. Bring the issues that you and your teams are facing, and we will use these for applied learning in the workshop.

Workshop Leaders:

  • Chris Sims - Chris Sims is a Certified Scrum Trainer and the founder of Agile Learning Labs. He is co-author of The Elements of Scrum and hosts the monthly Agile Managers’ Support Group.

  • Jeff McKenna - Jeff McKenna is a Certified Scrum Coach and Certified Scrum Trainer who has been involved in software development for some 45 years. He consulted on the very first scrum team alongside Jeff Sutherland and John Scumniotales.

What to expect:

Our instructional style is highly interactive, so you will be moving about, participating in games and simulations. Participation in any physical exercise is of course optional--in fact the role of "observer" is quite valuable, so feel free to participate at your ability and comfort levels.

When do we start and end each day? The classroom opens at 8:30 AM each day and class will begin promptly at 9:00 AM. We will end at 5:00 PM each day.

Will there be food? We'll be providing continental breakfast, lunch, and snacks both days. Vegetarian options will be available both days. You are also welcome to bring in food.

What should I bring? Yourself. You won't need a laptop, but you are free to bring one. And yes, there is wifi so you can check your email.

Is there something I should read before the workshop? When you take any Agile Learning Labs scrum certification class, you will receive a bound copy of our book, The Elements of Scrum on the first day of class. This book is a field guide to the real-world application of scrum, and reading it after the training will help cement your knowledge. You can also buy a copy of the book without registering for a course, right here. In the meantime, you can read an excerpt here that chronicles a week in the life of a scrum team.

Relax, this is Agile Learning Labs, not Dunder Mifflin or Initech. We'll be wearing jeans, and you can be, too.

I'm a PMP, how do I claim my precious PDUs? The instructions from the Project Management Institute can be found on their page How to Submit a PDU claim

Feel free to email us if you have more questions about the workshop.

Testimonials from students who have taken CSM workshops with us:

One of the best professional training courses I’ve attended, period. Thanks, Chris!

“I came into the CSM training as an experienced agile practitioner who had very recently adopted scrum as the official process framework being used at my company. I was very pleasantly surprised with a wealth of information to confirm the things we already did well and offer many new ideas or tweaks to bring our team closer to the coveted efficiency of a “High Performing Team.” Whether you are new to the world of agile and scrum or looking for ways to revitalize and improve your team, I highly recommend any of the courses put on by Agile Learning Labs.”

“The combination of relevant exercises, clear lectures and real Scrum methodology was superb. We also had excellent class participation.”

“By far the best, most illuminating professional improvement course I’ve ever taken.”

“The content was relevant and the exercises drove home the information in a way that I felt clarity about what was being taught.”