I embarked on my Agile journey in 2003 when we wrapped eXtreme Programming in Scrum. Besides having engaged with many teams and organizations I have also created and facilitated many Scrum workshops and classes about various topics for various audiences since then. In 2011 I obtained my license as a Professional Scrum Trainer for Scrum.org from Ken Schwaber (co-creator of Scrum). From 2013-2016 I maintained the official “Professional Scrum” series of Scrum.org meanwhile training candidate-PSTs and shepherding the global community of Professional Scrum Trainers and coaches. After ending the exclusivity of Scrum.org over my work in 2016, I had to think about a new title. I started calling myself “Scrum Caretaker” because it best represents what it is that I do. As a one-person company, all other titles felt silly too (like CEO, CFO, cleaning person, helpdesk, sales agent, office manager or spreadsheet administrator). I added ‘independent’ to my self-chosen title to emphasize that I am not part of any fixed structure, small nor big. As from the start of the program, my company and business vehicle, Ullizee-Inc, became a member of the Professional Training Network of Scrum.org. Next to teaching Professional Scrum classes, I keep evolving my Scrum Pocket Classes, a series of proprietary half-day workshops based upon my book “Scrum – A Pocket Guide”.
Allow me to highlight 5 Whys to attend the Scrum exploration opportunities that I (as an independent Scrum Caretaker) have lined up for your learning and improvement purpose:
- Why [1]: Re-imagining (your) Scrum
- Why [2]: Interaction and Dialogue
- Why [3]: (Escaping) The Commodity Trap
- Why [4]: Guaranteed to Run
- Why [5]: Certification (and beyond)
Don’t worry if you are still in doubt even after considering these 5 Whys. It’s fine to not just take my word for it. It’s likely even better to believe the people that have actually attended my sessions and check out what they say. You can do that on my TrustPilot or my LinkedIn. I am even sure that these people could give you even more whys to join my sessions.
Regardless of whether you have attended or plan to attend a session yourself, you can show that you also care about Scrum and share my Scrum exploration opportunities with people in need of deeper insights in Scrum.
Warm regards
Gunther
independent Scrum Caretaker
What?
Next to teaching the official 2-day Professional Scrum classes of Scrum.org, I am evolving my Scrum Pocket Classes, a unique series of proprietary half-day workshops based upon my book “Scrum – A Pocket Guide”. My Scrum Pocket Classes have a razor-sharp focus on specific subjects and complement my Professional Scrum offering.
Therefore, I am able to offer you very diverse options to explore Scrum together:
- In my official Scrum.org PSM classes (‘Professional Scrum Master’) we uncover the many aspects of Scrum mastery.
- In my official Scrum.org PSPO classes (‘Professional Scrum Product Owner’) we uncover what Product Ownership through Scrum entangles, company-wide.
- In my official Scrum.org PSM-A classes (‘Advanced Professional Scrum Master’) we explore how to more effectively master the Scrum Master role.
- In my official Scrum.org PSPO-A classes (‘Advanced Professional Scrum Product Owner’) we get you on the path of becoming a next level Product Owner.
- In my unique Scrum Pocket Classes “The Scrum Values” we discover what the value in the Scrum Values is in a way that is not done anywhere else.
- In my unique Scrum Pocket Classes “Scrum in the Large” we discuss how to scale Scrum in the most simple way, a way without any additional frameworks that is not introduced anywhere else.
Check out more detailed information about our Scrum Training Services in our Ullizee-Inc description of Scrum Training Services (2024).
Why [1]: Re-imagining (your) Scrum
Imagine being in a group where you are asked to raise your hand if you believe to be applying Scrum (remark: I’ve done this at many events). Would you be among the few people that would raise their hand without hesitation or doubt? Or would you be among the vast majority of people in doubt whether it is actually Scrum that you have implemented? Do you also feel that your Scrum is a twisted version of Scrum, something that might look like Scrum, but probably is far from the real thing? That this might be a reason why you are not getting the benefits from Scrum that you envision and feel should be possible?
Having 20+ years of experience, having been one of the few people ever to have been invited into a partnership by the toughest co-creator of Scrum (and actually surviving it for three years) and having been one of the (only) three people worldwide that was asked for his viewpoints before the last (2020) update of the Scrum Guide (although backing out during the effort) I believe I can help you grasp the spirit underlying the rules and roles of Scrum and how to apply Scrum from an improved understanding of how Scrum was designed to be.
If you, your team or your organisation are in need to deepen your insights in Scrum, learn what is/is not a mandatory part of Scrum and the many aspects of adopting Scrum (as a foundation to start re-imagining your Scrum), then you definitely want to check out the Scrum exploration opportunities I offer.
As an independent Scrum Caretaker, you can be sure that it is an undiluted explanation of Scrum, unhindered by corporate, sales, scaling or commercial interests.
Why [2]: Interaction and Dialogue
Do you also have trouble keeping awake in a typical class? Do you also feel bored having to just sit and listen to a trainer reading out an immense amount of slides for 1 or 2 days in a row? Do you also feel brain-dead by the end of such a session (and even before already)?
I am always delighted to hear from attendants of my classes that they love the room for interaction, dialogue and questions in my sessions. Attendants regularly say it’s an actual living demonstration of what is called ‘Training from the Back of the Room’. As I have no formal background or was formally trained in TBR, I’ve never considered or called it that. I consider what I do facilitating people’s learning experience using an “exercise-first approach” (similar to a “test-first approach”) and other forms of teaching approaches all serving to build on the collective intelligence of the people attending a class. Attendants of my classes have repeatedly mentioned going home with more energy than they had when they came.
At the same time this feedback saddens me because it seems to be an exceptional experience. This means that there are a lot of classes out there that are all about a trainer preaching and reading out slide decks like you would read a manual. I can’t stop thinking about the people not joining my classes because of the bad reputation of classes in the domain of IT and software development (where Scrum classes are typically categorized) due to such unprofessional trainers.
I also want to emphasize that collaboration and engagement of students has nothing to do with the tools used in a class by the class facilitator. Whether a trainer uses a PowerPoint slide deck or only hand-painted flip charts (or Lego as far as I’m concerned) is in itself what will determine the level of interaction and dialogue during a class.
To invoke interaction and dialogue, my sessions have lost of room for assessing and discussing cases and stories from my unique, ancient “Scrum Caretaker Book of Exercises”. These cases are based upon my 20+ years of actual experience with Scrum and are not available anywhere else (except when I used them as inspiration for some questions in the first version of the PSM II assessment that I created in 2015).
If you, your team or your organisation want to really engage and interact about Scrum with an independent Scrum Caretaker with 20+ years of experience, then you definitely want to check out the Scrum exploration opportunities I offer.
In case you wonder about (post-class) feedback forms as a sort of ‘dialogue’, I don’t do those. The main reason is that the success of my classes or workshops largely depends on the people attending; their openness, their eagerness, their willingness to (un)learn, their contributions, their questions. It is not fair to make people unknowingly judge themselves. Plus, it is easy to achieve high feedback scores (it requires no more than convenience and avoiding difficult and challenging matters). Plus, it takes time for deep insights to take root and be applied (which often happens long after the class and may not even be attributed to the class anymore).
Why [3]: (Escaping) The Commodity Trap
One of the downsides of Scrum being globally adopted at scales never seen before is that Scrum is increasingly being treated as a commodity, an off-the-shelf appliance. It breaks my heart to notice how organizations and people that used to drive forward the understanding and use of Scrum as a highly innovative method seem to abide by the counter-productive status-quo resulting from falling for this commodity trap. It breaks my heart to see them become conservative followers (following market demand and striving for convenience and compliance) rather than remaining inspirational leaders who challenge (new or existing) practitioners towards getting more from their Scrum.
This is not the time (and it never will be) to give up wanting to change the world for the better. This is not the time (and it never will be) to accept reality as-is. This is not the time (and it never will be) for the dreadful “Yes, but…reality” attitude rather than wanting to shape a new reality, creating a better place for people to live and work in.
I believe that we have far from reached the full potential of Scrum and I intend to keep challenging the status-quo, regardless whether this makes me the last man standing or not. As I am working on the 4th edition of my book “Scrum – A Pocket Guide” I realized that many people backed out, gave up or lowered their ambitions after the past waves of Scrum in which people’s hopes and believes of a better workplace and better results were drowned in failed attempts to scale it and failed ‘Agile Transformations’. Too many people act from a ‘Been there, done that’ attitude or give in to all these “Scrum is dead” loudmouths on social media.
If you have doubts whether you’ve been introduced to the real Scrum thing and are looking to connect with an independent Scrum Caretaker who is not giving up or giving in, then you definitely want to check out the Scrum exploration opportunities I offer.
Because they are not about convenience or compliance.
Why [4]: Guaranteed to Run
How frustrating can it be? You have registered for a class and you are eager to join because you want to develop or evolve your insights in the famous framework of Scrum. And finally you have obtained the permissions and funding to do so. But then…your session gets cancelled by the trainer or the training organizer because (typical example) “there are not enough participants” (or some other reason).
I did that once. I canceled a class once. It was in the first lockdown period of the Corona crisis (spring 2020). Having only one registered student not too long before the session, I decided to cancel it. It left me with a nagging feeling about why I did and I ended up feeling so bad about the cancelation that I promised myself I would never ever do that again. I felt it was an act of pretension and disrespect. I decided that as soon as there is even only one person who wants to be in my class, spend some precious and valuable time on it and pay for it, I will run the class. I will not deny a person the opportunity to connect with me to learn about Scrum (unless that person would rather not have such one-on-one coaching opportunity). A class might not happen, but it will not be because I canceled it.
If you want to be really, really sure that the class that you are dying to attend will happen and want to potentially benefit from my very direct and personal attention, then you definitely want to check out the Scrum exploration opportunities I offer.
Because, even if it’s only you signing up, the session is guaranteed to run.
Why 5: Certification (and beyond)
As a licensed Professional Scrum Trainer (since 2011) I obviously teach the official Scrum.org Professional Scrum classes. That means that vouchers and discounts for the associated Professional Scrum certification assessments are included in my classes (and are shared by Scrum.org). That includes a free re-attempt on the associated core assessment if students do their first attempt on that assessment within 14 days after the class without achieving the certification score (typically 85%).
This allows you to check whether you have attended or are planning to attend an official Professional Scrum class or not, where ‘not’ means attending a class by someone wrongly pretending to offer a “Professional Scrum” class.
Know that it is NOT an official Professional Scrum class of Scrum.org if:
- You have to buy the voucher for the assessment yourself.
- The trainer has to mail you the voucher.
- You don’t have that second, free re-attempt.
I have no idea why but I discovered that there was a general expectation that I was going to set up my own Scrum classes and certification scheme when I stopped my exclusive work for Scrum.org in 2016. I have no idea why because that was never an ambition and I even deeply pity the many people out there (driven by money, financial dreams and the desire to own a few Teslas) that want to copy-paste the classes, certification and licenses trainers model that Ken implemented not once, but even twice (first with the ScrumAlliance and later with Scrum.org).
Over time fewer and fewer people seem to attend my classes with no other purpose than to certify. Although the Professional Scrum assessments are an interesting way to assess your knowledge and insights into Scrum (as designed and intended), not attending a class for certification reasons only contributes to the success of a class. Gaining knowledge and insights are simply better reasons to join and, actually, the learning emerging from that are likely to substantially increase your chances of success on the assessments.
As I started developing and facilitating my Scrum Pocket Classes I decided to still offer a certification but in a slightly unconventional way. I created a “Certificate of Gratitude” to show my gratitude for people’s willingness to spend some precious time in a class with this independent Scrum Caretaker. Although I created it as part of my proprietary Scrum Pocket Classes, I also hand out such “Certificate of Gratitude” to all people attending my Professional Scrum classes. It’s likely because it doesn’t bring any money, but I haven’t seen this practice being copy-pasted a lot.
On top of that, I share a free copy of the latest edition of my book “Scrum – A Pocket Guide” with every student of my Professional Scrum classes. People seem to value it, either for the knowledge, either to prepare for the various Professional Scrum certification assessments.
If you want to be sure of attending a recognized class with an established and recognized Scrum practitioner and trainer calling himself an independent Scrum Caretaker, then you definitely want to check out the Scrum exploration opportunities I offer.
Meanwhile, I am actually considering creating and launching a “Scrum Pocket Test” (working name) as an extension to my Scrum Pocket Classes.
Closing
If any of the above 5 Whys or the reasons that past attendants have shared about attending my classes, then you definitely want to check out or share with others the Scrum exploration opportunities I have lined up:
