Episodes

#19. We’re on a mission to ensure every Microsoft customer and partner successfully implements Dynamics 365 using the Scrum framework. Do you have a question for the Scrum Dynamics podcast? Visit Customery.com and click on the Send Voicemail button to have your question feature on the show. Dermot and Neil discuss how to optimise Scrum teams on a Dynamics 365 project. Todd Mercer, from MD Financial Management in Ottawa Canada, asks “What to do motivate a team to operate at peak capacity for a...

#18. Neil recently presented a live session on YouTube for the Dynamics 365 Community Corner. He recorded this special version of his presentation for the podcast covering: His first Dynamics CRM project using Scrum at Premier Medical Group How and why he switched from Microsoft Dynamics SureStep to Scrum after publishing the functional requirements document The horrors of basing a project plan and statement of work on a requirements specification The definition of Scrum as a framework, not ...

#17. Dermot and Neil discuss what to measure in your Dynamics 365 projects when you're using Scrum. Tracking velocity is the basic measure of progress. Velocity is the total number of story points of 'done' stories in each sprint and should be averaged over several sprints (usually 3 to 5 sprints). Using velocity within the team to plan the capacity for the next sprint, and by the product owner for forecasting the release. There's no velocity credit for partially done stories at the end of th...

#16. Dermot and Neil talk about the last two events in a sprint: the sprint review and the sprint retrospective, including: The format of sprint reviews and retrospectives How these events are structured Who should attend How to tailor them for Dynamics 365 projects Support the show (https://buymeacoffee.com/amazingapps)

#15. Dermot’s picked up his Professional Scrum Master II and Professional Scrum Product Owner certifications. Good timing, Dermot, because our first question was from Dick Clark at eBECS who has a client project who wants to get certified in Scrum. Neil has recorded the Scrum Guide as an audio stream on SoundCloud to help Dermot get to sleep at night, and they debate whether holding a Scrum certification or having experience is more important for scrum masters. Squads, Tribes, Chapters and Gui...

#14. Neil provides a behind-the-scenes peek into ‘Orientation Week’ in his Dynamics 365 project kicking off this week, the Jupiter Programme. Orientation Week (O-Week) is designed to onboard two Scrum teams so that they can start delivering the Dynamics 365 workstream of an enterprise programme as quickly as possible. I talk through some of the planned O-Week activities and provide my assessment of some of the project’s risks and strengths. What are your experiences of launching new Dynamics 3...

#13. Neil covers all aspects of sprint planning for Dynamics 365 projects: What is sprint planning and when does it take place? Who attends sprint planning, and what to do if the product owner can’t make it? How long is sprint planning? What happens during sprint planning? Sprint goals, sprint backlog forecasting, Dynamics 365 feature design. What’s needed for sprint planning? Support the show (https://buymeacoffee.com/amazingapps)

#12. Co-hosts, Neil and Dermot (yes, he's back!), discuss the sprint backlog. What is the sprint backlog and how does it relate to the product backlog? Who is responsible for the sprint backlog and who can change it? How the development team and the product owner negotiate the contents of the sprint backlog, with the help of the scrum master. The effect of swapping items out of the sprint backlog. How to handle capacity issues towards the end of the sprint when you’re ahead of or behind sched...

#11. Estimating product backlog items using planning poker is the topic for this episode. The benefits of planning poker: gain a shared understanding of the work, bring diverse perspectives to the estimation process and estimate the work as we learn about the Dynamics 365 system. Who plays planning poker: the role of Scrum team developers, the product owner and proxy product owners in estimation. When to play planning poker during each sprint: sprint planning and storytime. What to play plann...

#10. Neil compares the to-do list on his 100-year old house to the product backlog and goes on to describe: Using epics to capture your project scope Getting your product backlog started Estimating backlog items using story points and not t-shirt sizes or ideal days User stories, spikes, chores and bugs The product backlog in sprint planning and sprint reviews Refining the product backlog in storytime workshops Managing the backlog in Atlassian JIRA or Visual Studio Team Services. Suppor...

#9. Neil is joined by Nick Doelman (@ReadyXRM) who shares his experience learning Scrum and applying it to one of his recent Dynamics 365 projects. During the episode we cover: Nick’s background in Dynamics 365 since CRM 1.0 beta Some of his recent projects for a community organisation organising summer camps, classic car auctioneer, certification portal for a company in the mining industry, a telecommunications company in the Caribbean, a reinsurance company, and others Before starting a la...

#8. Dermot and Neil answer questions submitted by podcast listeners about: Estimating chores to reduce technical debt (Todd Mercer). Prioritizing items with dependencies and the principle of emergent design (Alan Rachid). Whether business analysts are part of the development team or not (Greta Sharples). Planning agile projects, especially in the sales cycle (Jeffry van de Vuurst). You can submit your questions by tweeting @customery or clicking on the Send Voicemail button anywhere on the ...

#7. Dermot and Neil discuss sprints and the daily scrum events in a Scrum project. What's the ideal sprint length when you're using Scrum on a Dynamics 365 project? When is it a good idea to use special sprints like Sprint 0 or a hardening sprint? Can you cancel a sprint? What's the purpose of the daily scrum? How can we run the daily scrum with remote teams? Support the show (https://buymeacoffee.com/amazingapps)

#6. Neil and Dermot discuss the development team in a Scrum project implementing Dynamics 365. Covered in this show: The role of the development team in a Scrum project What it means to be cross-functional and self-organizing How many developers should be in your dev team Support the show (https://buymeacoffee.com/amazingapps)

#5. This episode of Scrum Dynamics is brought to you live from the Dynamics 365 User Group Summit EMEA in Dublin, Ireland. In this session, Neil covers the basics of Scrum and best practices for each of Scrum’s roles, events, and deliverables from his Dynamics 365 and CRM projects over the last ten years. He also highlights the lessons learned from his first Scrum for Dynamics CRM project at Premier Medical Group. Support the show (https://buymeacoffee.com/amazingapps)

#4. Neil and Dermot discuss the role of the scrum master in a Dynamics 365 project. A servant leader Is the scrum master a project manager? The role of the scrum master in sprint events The three questions a scrum master asks during daily standup Project planning Reviews and retrospectives Do Dynamics 365 scrum masters need to be Microsoft certified? Can scrum masters have other scrum team roles such as product owner or developer? What are the characteristics of a good scrum master Tec...

#3. Neil introduces the role of the Product Owner in Dynamics 365 projects, including: The primary responsibility of the Product Owner Five ways the Product Owner manages the Product Backlog Characteristics of great Product Owners How a Product Owner spends their time How to use Proxy Product Owners Top ten tips for Product Owners Where do Product Owners come from? Remember to download the Scrum Terms cheat sheet for a handy guide to all the Scrum terms you hear in this episode. Support...

#2. Neil and Dermot introduce the Scrum framework’s events, roles, deliverables and the Scrum theory. We cover: Sprints, Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective events Product Owner, Scrum Master and Development Team roles Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog and Product Increment deliverables Empirical process control, and the pillars and principles of the Scrum theory Download the Scrum Terms cheat sheet to go along with this episode for a handy guide to all the S...

This is the premiere episode of the Scrum Dynamics podcast with Neil Benson and Dermot Ryan. If you have heard of Scrum or would like to use it in one of your Microsoft Dynamics 365 projects, you’re in the right spot. What is Agile What is Scrum Using Scrum for packaged software vs custom development Scrum vs Waterfall Soft skill benefits of Scrum Sustainable delivery The role that management plays in Scrum Budgeting for a Scrum project Support the show (https://buymeacoffee.com/amazing...