Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast: Agile storytelling from the trenches

Measuring Agile Team Success Through Stable Delivery Flow | Marina Lazovic

Mar 27, 2025

Marina Lazovic, a Scrum Master and Kanban Trainer from Belgrade with nearly a decade in IT, shares her insights on measuring Agile team success through stable delivery flow. She highlights how her views on delivery optimization have evolved, emphasizing that true success is about supporting teams to deliver effectively. Marina discusses the importance of defining 'delivery' within teams, using the 'circle of influence' to identify actionable improvements. She also advocates for the Lean Coffee retrospective format for its simplicity and focus on what truly matters.

18:35

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Episode guests

Marina Lazovic

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Episode notes

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Quick takeaways

Success for Scrum Masters now hinges on optimizing team delivery and maintaining accountability to ensure value creation.

The Lean Coffee retrospective format fosters clarity and ownership, allowing developers to address critical issues directly and efficiently.

Deep dives

Simplicity in Retrospectives

Keeping retrospectives straightforward is emphasized as a way to enhance team effectiveness. Many developers prefer to address key issues directly without the distraction of complex formats or games. A favored method is the lean coffee retrospective, which allows team members to propose discussion topics and prioritize them for conversation. This approach encourages clarity, ownership of actions, and a sense of accountability by specifying who is responsible for completing tasks and when they are due.

Intro

5min

The Essential Role of Scrum Masters in Ensuring Delivery Success

2min

Understanding Delivery in Agile Teams: Perspectives and Responsibilities

3min

Understanding Circle of Influence in Agile Retrospectives

3min

Navigating Agile Ownership and the Global Agile Summit Announcement

5min

Marina Lazovic: Measuring Agile Team Success Through Stable Delivery Flow

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.

Marina reflects on how her understanding of Scrum Master success has evolved, noting that delivery optimization is an aspect she previously undervalued. For her, success means supporting teams to deliver in an optimal way with stable flow. She emphasizes that since software is built for users, delivery is the ultimate measure of value creation. Marina recommends discussing with teams what "delivery" actually means in their context and focusing on aspects within the team's control. She suggests using the "circle of influence" concept to define what constitutes delivery and to identify actionable improvement options during retrospectives. By concentrating on sprint-level delivery metrics, teams can establish a concrete definition of success that ties directly to value creation.

Featured Retrospective Format for the Week: Lean Coffee

Marina prefers keeping retrospectives simple and direct, recognizing that developers typically appreciate getting straight to the point. She particularly recommends the Lean Coffee format, which provides structure while allowing teams to focus on what matters most to them at that moment. What makes this format effective is its adaptability and efficiency. Marina emphasizes the importance of asking teams which retrospective formats they prefer rather than imposing a particular structure. To make retrospectives actionable, she insists on specifying WHO will do WHAT and by WHEN for every action item, ensuring clear accountability and follow-through on improvement initiatives.

Self-reflection Question: How clearly defined is "delivery success" for your team, and what specific flow metrics could you introduce to make it more concrete?

About Marina Lazovic

Marina is a Scrum Master and Kanban Trainer from Belgrade, Serbia, with nearly a decade in the IT industry. Though not from a technical background, she is passionate about helping development teams and organizations optimize processes and build great products using Agile. She thrives on driving efficiency and fostering collaboration.

You can link with Marina Lazovic on LinkedIn.

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