WHAT I DO:
For a few years, I have worked as a ScrumMaster for the people / Agile Team Coach, mostly in IT. This is my passion –> Empowering people and teams. The definition comes close to what Tobias Mayer describes in his book The People’s Scrum. „People over Processes & Tools“. I’m also a massive fan of Richard Kasperowsky’s Core Protocols for creating a psychologically safe working environment. Working together with people and helping them work even better as a team in an organisation. In a relatively short time, I worked with many different teams, team settings, and companies and learned a lot!
Last year in my latest freelance project, I had the chance to support 3 teams in an Agile Lean transformation in a regulated environment. This experience reinforced that my skills as an Agile Team Coach can have a significant impact even at the organizational level—when the structures and environment enable it. Through this journey, I’ve realized that my true strengths lie with the team and the people. As a long-time ScrumMaster, I enjoy coaching at higher levels, but I also thrive when I can stay connected to the ground and actively support a team as an Agile Team Coach.
I’m terrible at writing buzzwords on PPTs and presenting these in front of people who may have their minds already somewhere else. My skill set is geared towards achieving things together with people in interactive workshops while the work is happening. I love giving training and prefer to pack it into small portions exactly when needed, just in time – as I like to call it. And I’m very successful at it, not as a consultant but as an Agile Team Coach. With my positive, curious and open attitude, I can transport agile values and principles without naming them. (Keyword: Not by the „book“). I also developed over the years my mindset and I like to put it in easy words like:
It evolved from
„OH, ANTIpattern“ to „OH, THIS is interesting!“
Here are just some quotes:
„….Even when things get tough, Barbara is open to new ideas and always looks for different ways to solve problems. She loves her job and it shows in her work, inspiring everyone around her.“
„Barbara is highly experienced in creating truly agile environments and helping teams finding their way into agile ways of working. She is curious and helps others by asking relevant questions and shares her knowledge with passion.
„Barbara will be a very valuable addition to any initiative that aims for more agile ways of working through her passion and creativity. She has a talent in creating comfortable working environments to leverage the people’s strengths that clearly shows her capabilities and experience.
I really appreciated working with her, learning from her and laughing with her!“
„A neutral observer and facilitator who helps teams work better together through experience and understanding with individualized assistance.“
„Barbara has always inspired us to reflect and change perspectives and encouraged us to see and think differently“
„…..structure and order the chaos in people’s minds.“
„I’d rather change the chairs in the room than people“
re SAFe:
I am NOT SAFe certified and emphasize small, independent, empowered, creative teams in my work. If you work with SAFe and have fully empowered teams, I am eager to learn more. What little I know of SAFe has been a bit unattractive to me, because of the hierarchical control structures. I am always curious though, and am willing to work in a SAFe environment if the teams are given independence, creativity, and empowerment. (I copied that from the profile of one of my like-minded people over there at the Hands On Agile Community)
And last not least, what would be the everyday work without having fun! Recently I discovered doing sequences to start a meeting (icebreaker) for an engineering team is big fun! And it works…
How did my career as ScrumMaster start? Read HERE
Other than that, I’m doing a lot of things around the agile world:
- Metrics for forecasting. I learned a lot about the Monte Carlo Simulation and did the Kanban Training at Scrum.Org (PSK 1)
- Eventstorming – Attended a great Meet-Up where we simulated to colonisation of the moon. FUN! and learning.
- I actively attend a lot of meet-ups to keep my brain happy. (Agile topics, facilitation, playfulness)
- Started blogging!
- Became a certified Agile Team Coach (ICP-AAC)
- Got my brain deep into the topic of „Neuroscience of Behaviour.“
- Learned everything about Kanban (I’m not a fan of certificates… but somehow it needs to be mentioned)
- In general, I learn a lot through conference talks, meet-ups, and workshops (some highlights: Cynefin with Woody Zuillen, Conflict resolution workshop with Tobias Mayer, Agile meets Architecture, Agile Online Summit and many more)
- Facilitated Retrospectives + other Scrum ceremonies and a lot of
Workshops: Story-Mapping, Project Kick-Offs, Ways of Working, DOD, DOR, Workflow/Process, How to give Feedback, Introduction to Agile, Why and how to estimate (or not) and many more. - Supported a team of very smart engineers (Impfplatform for INOG), establishing a Scrum process, Workshops (Vision, ways of working, Story writing and splitting, Retrospectives, Futurespecitves)
- #seriousgames4remote (meet-up organizer and player) and currently: Virtual Play (we meet once a month!)
- Was a guest at a podcast (An Den Decks) where I talked about my music history and how I became an Agile Coach (German language)
- Another podcast where I talked about my fave exercise: How To Make Toast
- #EUvsVirus Hackathon: Participated with my own team: CatinaBox.eu
- Main part of the Agile Camp Berlin 2019 Orga Team.
- Organisation and Facilitation of a Design Thinking and Prototype Sprint (Freelance Project for a hardware company)
- Chaos Communication Camp: Introducing Kanban to the Kids Space and the GSM-Team (Daily, Planning, Stories etc.)
- Liberating Structures Scrum Workshop (2 days workshop as a participant)
- Vision/Mission Workshops for Start-Ups
- Manage Agile (Berlin) 4 Days facilitation of the games area together with a bunch of likeminded players
- Training the Trainers: Held a session for trainers about playing games
- Lead Developer Conference in Berlin: On behalf of Architrave I played agile games all day with the conference participants.
And What else am I doing?
When I’m not waving the agile flag, convincing random strangers to play games etc… I’m digging and playing (DJing) weird HipHop and Bass – Music. You can find my music recommendations on my Support Your Local Ghetto Tumblr and most of my mixes on my Soundcloud, Mixcloud, Hearthis
I also have a blog (or 2) with a lot of music industry things, good stories, bad stories, fun things etc.. (currently on hold) –> Hallama.org (Sharing Means Caring)
And WHAT else??
….. biking! Love biking in the beauty of Brandenburg’s nature with my road bike „Mr. Weasel“
