Ivo Pekšēns

Proud is too little to describe how I feel about the SF Original Conference 2024 lineup. Three years ago, we started with the very first Scrum Facilitators Original Conference with a clear idea of sharing knowledge as a leading indicator for awesome conferences. As always, we wanted to shift up the agile community and show that, in this case, conferences can be done differently. ❌ No more out-of-the-box presentations ❌ No more "I have seen this talk before" ❌ No more boring presentations only ❌ No more high prices for a conference ❌ No more hassle to re-invent a long call for paper process ❌ No more speaking for free at a conference ❌ No more big conferences where you have to line up to get to know the speakers ❌ No more giving away gadgets that people do not use ❌ No more same faces and low diversity in the speaker list We decided to do things differently. 🎉 Only original and never-performed talks are allowed 🎉 only a few questions to submit the talk. We have a 30-minute talk with everyone who submits their idea. 🎉 All talks receive a €250,- compensation (yes, even for the key-note speakers) 🎉 Talks have to be interactive 🎉 Maximum of 100 people at the conference (including staff) 🎉 Agile community members are also on the program committee (Like my favorite Player Nancy Beers ♟ Serious Game Expert) 🎉 We aim to break even, and the ticket price is set at €250,- 🎉 designing the conference with sustainability in mind 🎉 and many more things we have done to make the original conference a fantastic international and affordable conference. Big kudos to Margo Dickhout, Elcin Marasli Ball, and Lucas Pluimgraaff for having over 50 conversations and making the program. I know from experience that it is not easy, especially when you get more than 50 calls for papers. Thank you to the sponsors Scrum.org, gerbsboardgames.be and The Cultivators You can get your tickets at www.sfconference.nl Looking forward to seeing all the speakers: Sarah Siebel-Janssen, Francisca Dalstra, Maaike Klasen, Rutger van Faassen, Theo Geelen, Obeya Coach and Agilist, Nancy Beers ♟ Serious Game Expert, Jonathan Frankenberger, Chantal van Kempen, Andy Hiles, Won van Kalsbeek-Geerdink (she/her), Mark Stapper, Marjoke Franken, Edwin Vielvoije, Erik de Bos and Bas Klinkhamer

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Super nice to see people come together, focus one a solution and build something useful within a few hours. Mobbing proves to be an amazing way for just-in-time knowledge exchange, just-in-time code review, just-in-time feedback loops, leading to amazing results within a short sprint. #mob #mobbing #mobai #collaboration #ale24

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Find a comprehensive overview of the #Agile #Leadership #Spiral here - a leadership tool for your own reflection and intention setting as well as guidance and structure for your relationships in your organization!

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This advice is definitely not for you if you believe that your perspective is the only one that matters. The upcoming game changer in business is collective intelligence. Here are 6 steps I use to help teams to achieve a high level of performance so that they make wise decisions and act accordingly.  In INQA Coaching I support teams in organising their trustful collaboration and managing actual transformation. My goal is to let them learn how to be prepared for future transformations and sustainable success. #INQA #Collaboration #FutureSkills #HerzensBildungimBusiness

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👀 You need to check this out! 👀 Like you, I’m only human, and I get tired of my managers asking me about the best career development pathway when there's a budget for training. I’m learning so much every day, but I still don’t know how to do it well. I can’t keep learning without guidance. I want experienced people to share their real-life scenarios and insights. Learning more theory isn’t enough—I need practical knowledge and mentorship to thrive. That's why I'm absolutely thrilled about ScrumCraft’s Career Coaching & Mentoring Program. It's mind-blowing! 🚀 This program is exactly what we all need to grow in our careers. If you're like me and want to learn from real experiences instead of just accumulating more information, join this incredible community and take your career to the next level! 🌟 #CareerGrowth #Mentoring #ProfessionalDevelopment #AgileMethodologies #ScrumCraft

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Hi, so I am just reviewing the content for this week's Professional Scrum Product Owner - Advanced class. There is an interesting section in it regarding Pricing -approaches, strategy and techniques, accompanied by the fact that the "Average Product Owner spends 13% of their time pricing" (Source Product Focus Survey 2017). If your are a Product Owner, do you agree? I admit it is not something I usually see, at least in larger organisations. If you don't currently influence pricing how does that limit or impact your role, what difference would it make if you could influence pricing? This is just one of many courses we provide at Agility.im which all raise fascinating insights and discussion points beyond just learning to pass the assessment

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One difficulty in agile development: accepting that the result is different from what we imagined but achieves the goal. I planted three geraniums in one of my flower boxes with the aim of being able to look at pretty flowers. Well, a lot of petunias and a pansy have grown, propagating themselves from flowers from the previous year. I had imagined it differently - but I think I've achieved my goal: I can look at pretty flowers. 💚 🌼 What was your biggest surprise from planning to realization? #agile #agileTransformation #flowers

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Another PSM-Advanced class! It was a pleasure to run a Professional Scrum Master - Advanced class over the past two days with several eager learners. I believe Scrum Master is like a music orchestra conductor. In fact, they are "Product Development Orchestra Conductor". To do so, first we need to own this concept. If you want to elevate your knowledge as a Scrum Master to an advanced level, don't miss my next PSM-A class. This is the link: https://lnkd.in/evgUj7Hi #scrum #agile #psm #psm_a #psm_advanced #professional_scrum_master #psm_ii

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I'd like to share one more thought, and perhaps Barry Overeem will have some insights to add (or not 🙃): Agile Coaches play a key role in helping organizations thrive in an ever-evolving world of Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity (VUCA)*. With that in mind, coaching teams to become self-learning is something that any manager—whether you're an Engineering Manager, Product Manager, or Delivery Manager—can take on. But before long, you'll find yourself using the very tools and practices that Agile and Team Coaches are known for! In essence, you’ll be stepping into a coaching role yourself. By the way, Jurgen Appelo recently expanded on the complexity components with some new ideas: Intricacy, Scalability, Modularity, and Reflexivity. Just thought I'd throw that in for reference 😜.

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Scaling Agility is often misunderstood. In this workshop, I would like to bust a few myths and introduce a pattern-oriented Scaling Approach (perhaps a descaling approach) The Certified Agile Scaling Practitioner 1 (CASP1) course is tailored to organizational leaders, managers, and anyone wanting to ramp up agile scaling results. Supercharge agile capacity and capability, whether you’re in the middle of an evolving scaling transformation or have never attempted scaling before. This course is designed to meet you and your organization wherever you are in your journey to expand the benefits of agile teams across an enterprise. Link: https://lnkd.in/gUEdUjfb #scaling #scrum Scrum Alliance Arunvignesh Ramakrishnan

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Agile values to me are at the root of working agile. 💫 I often see that people who joined companies that already apply agile ways of working don't get onboarded on the underlying values and principles of the agile mindset. Without this knowledge, agile practises are executed hollowly and adjusted in a way that contradicts the intended values and principles. 💥 ➡️ Whenever you feel that "working agile doesn't work for you", go back to the roots of agile and try to discover what value is violated. #agile #values #waysofworking —— 👋 Hi, I’m Milena from Hamburg, Germany. My mission is to grow excellence in software engineering to support leadership building high performing teams. 💫 ➡️ Get in touch if I can support you with Leadership Mentoring, Technical Excellence Training for Software Engineers or as an Interim Engineering Manager.

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AI is everywhere! From note taking apps, to our PM tools AI is getting added into every software it seems.  PMI has already created trainings on how to use it for Project Managers - but should we? According to PMI research, GenAI is already influencing how projects are carried out and changing the responsibilities of project managers. - 21% of respondents say they are using AI always or often in the management of projects. - 82% of senior leaders say AI will have at least some impact on how projects are run at their organization over the next five years. "Project management requires data and intuition,” said Juanita Woods, Ph.D, PMP, PgMP, I believe Project managers will still be needed because AI is great at repetitive tasks, but not so good at managing people.  We should definitely leverage AI to automate tasks and make brainstorming & requirements gathering more efficient. It will not replace the human element of change management & communications needed for successful projects.  When considering how and when to use AI to project managers should evaluate the tasks and deliverables of a project against two dimensions. The first dimension is the level of complexity, which should consider how many variables are involved in the task, if there are business context perspectives to consider, and if it requires specific project management knowledge and experience. The second dimension is the degree of human intervention needed to get the expected output from the AI tool. In this case, the more complex the task is, the greater the need for human intervention to complete the task. Using these two dimensions, PMI has a suggested tool matrix on when to use AI tools that ranges from automation to assistance to augmentation. *Image & content from Project Management Institute 

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As a Product Owner, the age-old question often arises: do you prioritize the product💻 or the users👩🏻👩🏾‍🦰👨🏽‍🦱👨🏼‍🦳 In yesterday's Scrum Master Mastery session, I gained a profound perspective: Product owner needs to focus on the relation between the user and the product. What happens when the user touches the product?🧐🤔 Have you ever encountered a scenario where clients or users badly wanted a new feature, only to find that it gathers dust after delivery? We all have those clothes in our closets we badly want but never actually wear, haven't we?🙃 While it might seem acceptable if the client buys but doesn't wear the clothes, as a team, we invest our effort🫶, time⏳, and energy🔋 to do our best. Yet, in the end, we may find ourselves lacking the satisfaction of the impact we wanted to deliver. It begs the question: not only what the client/user wants and why. But what will be different by having and not having this feature? Check out our Scrum Master Mastery sessions on Meetup https://lnkd.in/e9mKrui6 Join the Agile and Entrepreneur Coaching Learning community and let's explore together! We will be happy to see you at our next events! Shortly we are going to open the Product Owner Mastery session🥳 Who is in? #Agile #Scrum #Scrummaster #Scrumastermastery #Productowner #Productownermastery #Coaching #Mentoring

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I am excited to share that I have successfully passed the Professional Agile Leadership I (PAL I) certification from Scrum.org. This certification validates that I am a leader who understands the value Agile can bring to a business and how to actively practice Agile. It also demonstrates my knowledge of why leadership support of agile teams is essential to achieving organizational agility and what leaders can do to support their teams to help them achieve higher performance.

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Does the world really need another agile book? 🤔 Last night and this morning I started digging a bit into "The Art of Slicing Work" by my friend Anton Skornyakov. I read most of it now. And I can say yes, the world needs even more books like that. That is first and foremost because it is not really an agile book at all. It is also not on user stories or backlogs, or what many of us would probably expect. The book takes away all these layers of abstraction and tackles slicing of work at a fundamental level. And that is right up my alley. We need a better understanding of core concepts, not more methods. With simple examples, like how a chef operates in the kitchen, it lays out the two basic ways to slice any work, vertical or horizontal. It then goes on to discuss how these ways of slicing relate to unpredictability and transparency. Then, how they do or do not foster self-organization. And finally, how they relate to the Pareto principle and the concept of maximizing value. I recommend this book to everyone involved in product development or project management. But especially those who train others in approaches for these fields. I bet your training becomes simpler and better with this book. ❓ What is your favorite book currently and why? 👉 Please let me know in the comments. I bet the author likes hearing your praises. — 🙋🏻‍♂️ Hi, I’m Daniel and I want to make leaders of change more successful. Send me a message if you would like to have a short chat to get some quick advice or resolve a current struggle.

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Have you heard about Agile methodology in Software Development Life Cycle? Agile Methodology is being adopted and being used in many IT companies now. This is having many positive outcomes like ·       Flexibility to develop the product in small packages ·       Great collaboration with Customer ·       Enhanced Quality of the software through continuous testing and feedback loops ·       Increased Transparency among team members and stakeholders leads in building trust and accountability for the development Process But there are constructive challenges also by following this method which needs attention and needs to be resolved timely. ·       It requires Intensive Resource engagement, which could be a challenge sometimes ·       Due to the Iterative nature of Agile, if not managed properly ,it can worsely affect the Project timeline and budget ·       Lots of Dependency on Team Collboration, which may be a challenge in sometime ·       Initial training and coaching and to shift to adopt Agile initially can be Time-consuming.   So, Every Process has its Pros and cons and there is a fine line between that, so if we understand that and use wisely, so it would be a WIN WIN situation.. #sdlc #AgileMethodology #Telecommunications #GenAI #cgm #ProjectManagement

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Teamwork Hello, dear community! As a leader in agile change, I sometimes feel lonely in my current company.  Why? I have my own wonderful professional agile mentor, I have many wonderful supporters in professional chats, I have books and other online information resources, moreover, my company has three scrum masters and other great professionals involved in this transformation.  But! The people closest to me are my only team (I have three of them)! They argue with me respectfully, we are afraid of something together with them, we look for the best solutions, solve problems together, laugh at sharp jokes together. I do want to participate on meetings with this team. I feel comfortable with them when I talk, saying nothing... But I still feel lonely! I really want to have the same close relationship with the team of change agents! I had such experience in Educational projects. And I know it's not just a dream. There are companies with such teams for agile transformation. But I wonder if this is the department only or a real team? I believe that changes will be more effective and faster only through real teamwork.

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