- Develop Professional Scrum facilitation skills and a facilitator’s mindset
- Learn the facilitation principles that experienced facilitators fall back on when interactions are
difficult - Understand the roles that facilitation principles and the Scrum Values play in enhancing healthy
collaboration in Scrum Teams - Explore how facilitation can address challenging scenarios most Scrum Teams encounter
- Apply facilitation skills and techniques to improve the Scrum events and other interactions
- Understand how to encourage diverse perspectives while bringing the team together to reach
decisions - Experience the elements of group dynamics and how they influence the decision-making process
- Leave class with a toolbox of facilitation techniques and understand how to apply them in different
circumstances
Who Should Attend?
- Scrum Masters and any Scrum Team member interested in learning how to use facilitation to
enhance their team’s success - Scrum Coaches, Agile Coaches, and Consultants
Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills Class Description
Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills™ is an interactive course designed to help Scrum practitioners develop a facilitator’s mindset, and proficiency in facilitation skills and learn when and how to select effective techniques for various circumstances. Strong facilitation skills enable better problem-solving, more effective Scrum events, and greater team alignment, all leading to better outcomes.
A key tenet of Scrum is to put problem-solving and decision-making in the hands of the Scrum Team. The Scrum Framework creates venues for this to happen and the Scrum Values help create an environment in which each Scrum Team member’s voice can be heard. However, team interactions don’t always go well. Sometimes team members lose sight of goals, don’t fully engage, and/or can’t reach an agreement. Effective facilitation can guide the team toward their desired outcomes.
Professional Scrum Facilitation Course Overview
In this one-day* skills-building course, participants will learn how to become better facilitators to improve interactions with their Scrum Teams, stakeholders, and customers. They will focus on how to adopt facilitation as a stance and enable the Scrum Values. Students will address a series of common Scrum-related scenarios by applying several facilitation techniques that they can add to their collection of agile practices. They will create and leave with their own facilitation “plan” to improve their next team discussion or Scrum event.
Course Topics
- Facilitation skills within the context of Scrum
- Facilitating groups with diverse perspectives
- Improving Facilitation Skills & Techniques
- Students Walk Away with a Concrete Plan to Improve Their Own Facilitation Skills
Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills Assessment Certification
All participants completing the Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills course will receive a password to attempt the Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills I (PSFS) assessment. Class participants who attempt the PSFS assessment within 14 days of receiving their free password and do not score at least 85% will be granted a 2nd attempt at no additional cost.
Additional Course Offerings
Scrum.org offers the following additional training courses, which are available publicly and privately.
- Applied Professional Scrum
- Professional Scrum Master
- Professional Scrum Master II
- Professional Scrum Product Owner
- Professional Scrum Product Owner – Advanced
- Professional Scrum Developer
- Scaled Professional Scrum with Nexus
- Professional Agile Leadership – Essentials
- Professional Agile Leadership – Evidence-Based Management
About The Trainer
John Gillespie
John Gillespie is a Professional Scrum Trainer with Scrum.org. He is one of only a few Scrum trainers globally able to offer the full range of Scrum.org courses. John has numerous LinkedIn recommendations from happy clients.
John has better than 10 years of experience with Scrum and 25+ years of experience in delivering complex software systems. John led the development of Fleet Bank’s (Bank of America) first online banking application and more than 10 lottery system implementations globally. His classes are filled with numerous examples he has garnered on the front lines of software development over the past 25 years.
Over the last 10 years, John has been guiding organizations including Oracle, Bank of America, US Navy, Wells Fargo, Publix, BNY-Mellon, JP Morgan Chase and Warner Music.
He is based in New York City and offers Scrum training courses with certification all over the world. He trains and coaches Scrum Masters, Product Owners, Development Teams and organizations in their transition to Scrum and Agile.
John is always happy to arrange private training for your company. Please reach out to find out more.
What Clients Have To Say About John:
I had the opportunity to learn from John in his Professional Scrum Master class. John was not only extremely knowledgeable about the framework of SCRUM, but he brought years of experience consulting various organizations to achieve their vision. The experience and stories breathed life into the material and made the class that much more impactful to my learning. I absolutely recommend John to anyone who is interested in learning how to cultivate high-performing teams through the SCRUM framework.
Jared Blake, PMP, PSM I Business Program Manager at Microsoft
“John provided our group of 8 new Product Owners an excellent course. We discussed real-life scenarios, John’s experiences, and how to put the classroom material together with his experience into our business model. It was an excellent experience. Additionally, this course provided the material and requirements necessary to pass the 80 questions Professional Scrum Product Owner I exam. I passed the exam one day after the course ended! Thanks for your expertise and for such a great course, John!”
– Peter Gorman. U.S. Department of Homeland Security
“I took the Professional Scrum Master certification training from John. This training is for folks who would like to understand the basics of Scrum framework and dive deep in roles/responsibilities for a scrum master. John is an amazing teacher who focuses on explaining the course with examples and use cases. He is always open to questions and encourages them (either in class or over email). He made the entire learning process very interactive, which made it so easy to understand. I highly recommend taking the class with him.”
Jose Awarado Senior Business Analyst at Shell
John is a very knowledgeable instructor. He provides a clear presentation with examples and insightful feedback into problems we are facing in our organization. I look forward to attending more Scrum courses.
Swati Gupta. Oracle
John has an encyclopedic knowledge of what it takes to be a Scrum Master, as well as plenty of real-world examples to contextualize that knowledge. After spending the two days with John during his course, I was able to not only pass the PSM I exam but more importantly, I was able to bring his guidance back to my organization and help us improve our own practices. It also helps that he is a nice guy, a patient instructor, and impossible to stump with a question. I recommend John to anyone looking to improve their knowledge of Scrum.
Brecken Hipp QA Analyst at Dataworks Development, Inc.
John was a very patient and informative instructor. He made sure that everyone understood every concept before moving forward, and took the time to answer any questions that were asked with great detail.
Thank you for the great class!
Hanna Heaps, PSPO Business Product Analyst at PayScale, Inc.
John is a skilled Scrum instructor. His presentation makes everyone feel comfortable, no matter their skill level or experience; John’s disarming charm accepts everyone where they are. He also has a deep well of real-life experience with project management that he humbly draws from to refresh whatever content he’s dispensing. A skilled practitioner and trainer, making the world better one Scrum at a time.
Tommy Poole
I took John’s Professional Scrum Product Owner course to sharpen my Scrum/Agile knowledge and to learn more about the Product Owner role in a Scrum environment. John is extremely knowledgeable and was very accommodating to the class. You could tell he really is passionate about teaching the subject. He made sure to answer all of our questions and provided numerous resources to help advance our Scrum knowledge. Additionally, he gave useful advice and real-life insights on how we could improve our Scrum practices at our jobs (and made me realize how little Scrum we actually exercise). I would highly recommend his courses if you’re interested in furthering your career in Scrum.
Brandon Kumagai Scrum Master at Elektrobit (EB)
John is an amazing Agile coach and trainer. His two days of training ( BNY employee training) was priceless in learning agile. I still remember how confused and resistant faces (to adapt to agile) changed to smiles, and everyone relaxed. This was only possible due to the way John encouraged questions and patiently cleared each doubt without being too focused on completing his training modules for day 1. Once the group doubts were cleared, the next day we not only finished the all the training modules but had time for questions. I for one thoroughly enjoyed his coaching. Even after the training, he was fully available to hand hold anytime and help us succeed as the organization worked its way to adapt to Agile. He is a great trainer, mentor and someone who made me love Agile and made it so easy for me to understand and apply. I thoroughly recommend John to anyone who wants to go the Agile way, both individual or organization.
Pinky Padi Lead Mgr- App Devp (VP) at BNY Mellon
More
If you need more information, check out the following options:
- Check out the Professional Scrum Facilitation workshop description on the website
- View upcoming courses & workshops
- Read what it takes to be a Professional Scrum Trainer
Contact
- Phone: 516-317-8301
Email: john@agile-ity.com - Website: www.proscrumtraining.com
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/johntgillespie
- Scrum.org Profile: www.scrum.org/john-gillespie
- Contact me to discuss bringing courses to your location and how your organization can leverage Scrum to improve your business agility.
- Contact support@scrum.org for general information
