As this was the first of its kind, we would appreciate learning as much as possible about what worked, what didn't work, what could be improved, etc. We have created a short survey for you to fill out so we can gather this feedback. Please fill out the survey by next Wednesday, December 21: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dERmcDZGVG5VMURzNmxlSjJvRTlZamc6MQ We are also beginning preparations for how we will be carrying this fo... [read more]

Pete Behrens: Results of the survey are posted at http://wiki.scrumcoachretreat.com/Retreat_Feedback

If you want to find the results of the retreat, please visit the Scrum Coach Retreat Wiki at http://scrumcoachretreat.com

Is there a continuation of the energy from the conference? Will you be writing a blog post about your learning / ah-ha moments/ connections - if so I'd love to read them. Care to post a link here back to your blogs - please. I'm a big fan of RSS feeds and read many Agile blogs - I'd love to include yours in my reading list. So in hopes that you are still reading this - I'll start. My blog is: Agile Complexification Inverter http://agilecomplexifi... [read more]

Mark Levison: David: - The wiki probably won't be enough, I'm looking for the right mailing list to host our conversations. The obvious choices are: ScrumAlliance mailing list (http://groups.google.com/group/scrumalliance?pli=1) or Agile Coach Support (https://gro... [read more]

Allison Weiss: David and Mark~~Thank you both for keeping the energy flowing and looking for ways to keep it so. I can already tell this is one of those sessions that will come to mind again and again during 'real life'. Can't wait to hear more from everyone.

My wife finished her SM training today; we have a new SM in the house! Woo woo woo! Based on our 45 min conversation, I believe that she may not think I am crazy anymore [WRT to Scrum anyways].

Great participation and interaction! Look forward to seeing you all online and at other events. Blessings to all. -Daniel

By making our sessions fun do we make our sessions more productive?

Something like a coaching dojo. I have some failures I would love to get your perspective on!

Fantastic start to the conference last night! I am encouraged by how passionate everyone is about helping individuals and organizations. I think many great things will emerge through this organic format that we are using. I am very interested in "elevating my coaching", as Jim York put it, through this intimate retreat. Great job so far, everyone! -Daniel

Hello Pete - I would like to sign up for the Thursday night activity. What is the best way to do this?

Pete Behrens: Rebekah, All you need to do is go to the Goals-Agenda tab and select select it to say you are attending. Additionally, there will be a sign up at the registration table.

I was really looking forward to attending the retreat and meeting you all, but unfortunately, need to cancel. Does anyone know someone locally in / around Boulder who might be interested? Thanks in advance for your help! Ravi.

WEDNESDAY, DEC 7th @ 4:30PM REGISTRATION - 5:30 DINNER & KICKOFF We are 1 week away from the start of the Scrum Coaching Retreat. Registration opens at 4:30PM on Wednesday, December 7. We will have a buffet dinner for you at 5:30 to enjoy, but more importantly, that will be the kickoff in forming our teams and backlogs for the retreat - so please don't miss this first evening! Plan on staying until 10PM on Wednesday evening. THURSDAY, DEC 8th - E... [read more]

I see that each proposed topic is limited to 10 people. Why is that? I understand that it's hard to collaborate in a large group. If a topic draws more than 10 and the topic is large enough to split, could we self-organize into smaller groups?

Pete Behrens: Thanks Brad. I agree. I opened up each goal to 20 people and we can look to create sub-teams if we get too much for one team. We are trying to create a space where people only "sign up" for a single team - creating a Scrum team-like focus, right now ... [read more]

To what extent do you find that cultural differences play into the participation of team members on a Scrum team? Some cultures are reluctant to challenge the leader on technical or estimation items, resulting in over commitment to story points. Retrospective discussion gets agreement on "doing better" next time. Comments?

Allison Weiss: I hope we can discuss more! I am currently coaching a team that is 1/3 Indian on-site, 1/3 Indian off-shore, and 1/3 melting-pot-American. Even celebrations can be difficult to coordinate...

Coaching Retreat Participants, A key component of the retreat will be forming teams focusing on topics/goals which require depth to drill into and to exit the retreat with tangible "product" take aways. In order to take most advantage of our retreat time, we are identifying, discussing, voting, and pre-signing up for these goals. These goals are in the Goals-Agenda tab. You will also find the rest of the schedule for the retreat including the ope... [read more]

... Read all 5 comments ...

Pete Behrens: Lyssa, You are correct that the intent is for a team to be working on a goal across all of the working sessions of the retreat - a deep dive into the topic. Thus, it is designed for people to be on a single team - similar to the way we focus Scrum te... [read more]

Ivy Armagost: What if I get into something and discover it isn't what I had hoped it to be? Can I switch to ensure I get as much value as possible? I would much rather learn about a few things than focus on one thing. How will I know if I have chosen correctly?

Pete Behrens: Ivy, Thanks for your question. It is a good one and one that we will be discovering throughout the retreat. Typically open space has "the law of two feet". This is critical in making sure that people get the most out of the workshop and that they onl... [read more]

In just three weeks, we will be gathering for the Scrum Coach Retreat - starting on the evening of Wednesday, December 7th at 5:30. Registration will open at 4:30. Dinner will be served this first evening as we gather to form our teams and retreat focus. As a reminder in how we are running this retreat - differently than any other conference or gathering. Our goal is to form teams around shared goals. These teams will form on Wednesday evening an... [read more]

In case anyone else is confused on where the proposals are being made under the Goals-Agenda tab, it looks like we're putting the proposals under the 'July 1' date section.

Pete Behrens: Steven, Correct. While this is a "hack" and not an ideal way to manage them, it appears to work well, and will allow people to discuss, sign up for, and rate proposals. If I see a proposal put on a different date, I am moving them to July 1. If you c... [read more]

A topic I'm interested in is managing a portfolio of projects/initiatives using agile/scrum principles. This is a big struggle for many large companies. How do you coach organizations on the importance of this and the lean/agile principles that guide it? Even once you have buy-in for the principles, what are some tools and techniques for managing the portfolio?

... Read all 5 comments ...

Pete Behrens: Thanks Dan. Good start.

David Koontz: When I think Portfolio management I look for evidence of this technique. Not just a PMO but actions from this office to manage at the portfolio level. I would love to see these offices make a visible board of projects and order these by which will be... [read more]

Brad Swanson: David, At this point we may want to move this discussion to the GOALS-AGENDA section, since that it where we're supposed to collect thoughts around topics for the retreat. I'll move it there and post a reply.

One of the topics I am interested in is organizational agility assessments. This is a topic we started to discuss in Amsterdam and only had an hour or so to work through. I am hopping that one of our deep dive teams will take this one on to work through and create a killer assessment framework that all coaches can use.

Mark Levison: You might want to ping Micheal Sahota and get his notes/info from Agile2010.

David Koontz: This topic "Agility Assessment" is of interest to me in that I'm often asked for a recommendation or asked to create one for "our" group. Have just enough knowledge on creating valid & reliable survey instruments I always shutter when some group of "... [read more]

Pete Behrens: David, Thanks for your feedback and interest in this topic. I think this would be a great focus for a team to work on. Would you be willing to create a PROPOSED GOAL in the Agenda-Goals tab? There are other proposed goals to follow and a template exp... [read more]

The Coaching Retreat is now SOLD OUT! We had over 20 people also looking to join the retreat beyond our limit of 75 coaches. We chose not to increase the retreat size for a couple of reasons: 1. Our collaboration space would be compromised by removing one of our team rooms to open up our large gathering space - thus reducing focus area for teams to work. 2. We wanted to make sure we have a manageable size for this first attempt at a new collabora... [read more]

In large agile coaching engagements once agile has reached critical mass, I am often asked to propose ideas for re-organization. There are roles like development managers that if they don't become Scrum Masters or move to something else in the organization, they are left hanging. Depending of the structure before becoming agile, often there are blatant inefficiencies that agile exposes and executives finally agree to address. The topic I am propo... [read more]

Pete Behrens: Dimitri, This is an excellent topic - thanks for suggesting it. I would ask that you re-write this topic as a PROPOSED GOAL in the "Goals-Agenda" tab. This is the place we are documenting proposed teams and retreat focus discussions. There is an exam... [read more]

The current retreat price set at $350 and $450 for Scrum Alliance members and non-members respectively will be increasing by $150 by Friday, October 7th. The price will be $500 and $600 after that date. If you haven't already done so, please register through the RegOnline link on the registration tab.

Jim Reed: Hi Pete! I just tried to register and the price was $500.00. How can I get the $350 earlybird member price? Thanks, Jim

Pete Behrens: Jim, Thanks for the notice, it was an error that has been fixed.

Pete Behrens: I apologize that the Scrum Alliance website was not updated in line with this website. In any case, the registration was closed last Friday as the retreat is full. We have started a waiting list for those wishing to attend. Please email me if interes... [read more]

I am excited to announce that we have chosen two pre-retreat workshops to align with the Scrum Coach Retreat - Coaching Agile Teams with Lyssa Adkins and Michael Spayd, and Leading/Coaching Agile Organizations with Pete Behrens. These workshops will be two-days running December 6-7 from 8:30 - 4:30PM leading up to the retreat kicking off on the evening of December 7. They will be held in the same location - Hotel Boulderado. Coaching Agile Teams ... [read more]

We have created a theme for the retreat, something close to many of us working in the agile community for quite some time. We often see individual successes and failures, but don't often look for the patterns that drive them. This retreat will help us explore and identify some of these patterns to help our current and future clients. “Sustaining Agility beyond the coaching engagement” – helping build sustaining agile leadership, organizations, an... [read more]

Pete Behrens: Andrea, While we would sorely miss not having you there, we understand that events do not fit everyone's schedule. You raise an interesting question regarding non-attending discussion participation. My initial reaction is to keep the discussion to th... [read more]

Bob Hartman: I believe we all teach/coach that co-location works far better than distributed. While I'd love to Andrea's input, I think we should concentrate on those that are present in order to have maximum effectiveness. To try to do otherwise doesn't seem lik... [read more]

Thank you to everyone who has logged into this website - we are looking forward to a great event and will be starting some pre-retreat communications shortly. I noticed some of you have signed up as an attendee on this website, but have not officially "registered" with the Scrum Alliance. If so, you are not registered. If you plan to attend this event, you must register with the Scrum Alliance (see the registration tab). Remember, we only have sp... [read more]

Welcome to the Scrum Coaching Retreat information and collaboration website. We are in the process of creating a brand new conference retreat experience for Scrum and other agile mentors. Unlike other conference and gathering experiences, our goal is to provide a more collaborative and deeper learning retreat structure using Scrum to advance our practices. While we have some of the retreat structure in place, the content and teaming is open and t... [read more]