mountaingoat software. Starting out as a developer, Brian worked up through management layers, then transitioned to Scrum Master and then Coach. mountaingoat software

 
 Starting out as a developer, Brian worked up through management layers, then transitioned to Scrum Master and then Coachmountaingoat software  At this level an agile transition can be self-sustaining with each improvement encouraging further improvements

Team satisfaction. Scrum & Agile Training . More than 11,000 agile professionals chose Mountain Goat Software for their Product Owner training and we'd love to welcome you to an upcoming course. Relative weighting is a prioritization approach that considers both the benefits of a feature and the cost of that feature. User Stories & Story Writing Capture user needs and deliver value. Learn what sprint goals are and. Teams are the heart of the Scrum framework, and work. Learn agile and Scrum tips and techniques from expert ScrumMaster, educator and author Mike Cohn and the staff of Mountain Goat Software. Learn agile and Scrum tips and techniques from expert ScrumMaster, educator and author Mike Cohn and the staff of Mountain Goat Software. Teams that don't include their product owner. Somewhere in your virtual tool, physical whiteboard or on a large sheet of paper, write the basics of the user story template. Scrum Masters exhibit a shared set of traits. Scrum & Agile Training . It should not be up to the ScrumMaster or the product owner, but up to the team. During a sprint planning meeting, Scrum and agile teams accomplish three things: Determine which set of product backlog items the team can commit to complete during the sprint (or iteration). These tools are based on ideas described in Mike Cohn's books. 8K subscribers ‧ 121 videos. A product can even just be an idea (a patentable algorithm or the secret to getting more right swipes on Tinder). For over twenty years Mike’s been building high-performing software development teams and organizations through the use of agile and Scrum. Mike is the author of User Stories Applied for Software Development, Agile Estimating and Planning, and Succeeding with Agile Software. User Stories & Story Writing Capture user needs and deliver value. collaboration. Private Training Customized training for. Join Mike Cohn for a FREE user stories webinar, Wednesday November 8th at 10am PT / 1pm ET. Certified Scrum Training 2-day certification classes. Through the 9 modules and course materials you can transform the way your team (or teams) write user stories. He is a co-founder and former board member of the Scrum Alliance, and a co-founder of the non. facilitation. Learn agile and Scrum tips and techniques from expert ScrumMaster, educator and author Mike Cohn and the staff of Mountain Goat Software. ” But to slow the project down appropriately for an. 4. He is the author of User Stories Applied for Agile Software Development, Agile Estimating and Planning, and Succeeding with Agile. But I do think we might have lost something as we’ve moved to shorter sprints. Training. Training for any role. New: Advanced Certified ScrumMaster now available live, online. coaching. The product owner or key stakeholders then. Mike Cohn's Better User Stories course is now available Live Online. Work at improving your estimating so that you're very predictable as a team, even if your estimates means you'll be "late". I help organizations succeed with agile. Why the Fibonacci Sequence Works Well for Estimating. Whether you want extra coverage of one topic or to skip a t topic entirely, we can accommodate you in most private courses. Learn agile and Scrum tips and techniques from expert ScrumMaster, educator and author Mike Cohn and the staff of Mountain Goat Software. When it comes to agile and. There are no agile NFTs. Somewhere in your virtual tool, physical whiteboard or on a large sheet of paper, write the basics of the user story template. Companies large and small and across all industries have attended his training courses. Mountain Goat Software offers education and certified training on. Certified Scrum Training 2-day certification classes. I am most definitely not saying they code something in a first sprint and test it in a second sprint. Choose from a variety of courses year-round on agile estimation and planning, succeeding with agile, user stories for agile software development, the certified Scrum product owner and ScrumMaster certification. Agile Teams Plan. Online multiple-choice exam required. Sprint goals are something every Scrum team should try to create. Online and in-person training to help you succeed with agile. All Mountain Goat Software methods, including Scrum, emphasize. Typically, a Scrum team and its product owner begin by writing down everything they. He is the author of User Stories Applied for Agile Software Development, Agile Estimating and Planning, and Succeeding with Agile. It requires zero explanation to understand. 2) Velocity measures a team's ability to turns ideas into new functionality in a sprint. Brian Milner is SVP of coaching and training at Mountain Goat Software. Almost every year, on or around April 1, Mountain Goat Software releases a new mock product for the agile industry. Sprint goals are something every Scrum team should try to create. Founder, Mike Cohn is the author of the popular book: User Stories Applied, creator of the Better User Stories course, and was co-founder of the Scrum Alliance. He is the author of User Stories Applied for Agile Software Development, Agile Estimating and Planning, and Succeeding with Agile. " This tool will give you new ways to tune and adjust what you and your teams are doing. Estimating & Planning Create reliable plans and estimates. Explain story points to your team AND stakeholders. CSM. This is simply not true. CSM Certification from Mountain Goat Discover Certified Scrum Master Training. The Certified ScrumMaster (CSM ®) is a two-day class, taught by one of our Certified Scrum Trainers (CST ®). 5 PDUs and 8 SEUs. First is that it helps the team determine how much work to bring into the sprint. Show edited by Rhett Gill. They are subtly different. Poorly attended sprint reviews cause real problems. For animation, this was often “the character is animated in a white room. Mike Cohn's Better User Stories course is now available Live Online. In the Scrum framework, a sprint goal is a one-sentence summary of the focus of the sprint or iteration. It requires zero explanation to understand. They remove impediments, facilitate meetings and work with product owners. For each user story or theme to be estimated, a moderator (usually the product owner or an analyst) reads the description. k. Send a screen recording to people who could not participate. The Scrum Alliance charges $25 per attempt after that. a. A sprint goal is created and finalized by the entire Scrum team ( Scrum Master, product owner and developers) during sprint planning, and helps communicate why the sprint is valuable to stakeholders. Hi! I'm Mike Cohn. Mentoring & Coaching. User Stories & Story Writing Capture user needs and deliver value. If you’re looking for individual agile coaching and mentoring,. Next ». Scrum & Agile Training . With that in mind, we've created this. com. Scrum & Agile Training. Two-day courses are 15 PDUs and 16 SEUs and one-day classes are 7. The Scrum Alliance charges $25 per attempt after that. Learn agile and Scrum tips and techniques from expert ScrumMaster, educator and author Mike Cohn and the staff of Mountain Goat Software. As CEO of Mountain Goat Software, Mike’s focus is coaching, training, developing new courses, sharing ideas in his blog posts and tips, and participating in the Agile Mentors Community, especially with the live Q & A sessions. Eliminate the chaos from your story-splitting process. Scrum Foundations is a short video course that provides an overview of the Scrum framework. Learn agile and Scrum tips and techniques from expert ScrumMaster, educator and author Mike Cohn and the staff of Mountain Goat Software. For animation, this was often “the character is animated in a white room. The are two reasons to estimate the sprint backlog. He is the author of User Stories Applied for Agile Software Development, Agile Estimating and Planning, and Succeeding with Agile as well as the Better User Stories video course. presentations. Add your favorite exercises and you can easily create a half-day introduction to Scrum. Learn agile and Scrum tips and techniques from expert ScrumMaster, educator and author Mike Cohn and the staff of Mountain Goat Software. During the sprint planning meeting, the team selects some number of product backlog items, usually in the form of user stories, and identifies the tasks necessary to complete each user story. Sprint Retrospective. We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us. By splitting product backlog items into small, discrete tasks and then roughly estimating them during sprint planning, the team is better able to assess the workload. While we believe all of our agile development training courses will help you get better at being agile, we understand that your training budget and, perhaps more importantly, the time you can commit to training, are limited. Mountain Goat Mountain is a fast arcade game, where you climb the highest and most treacherous mountain ever seen by a goat. User Stories & Story Writing Capture user needs and deliver value. If people aren’t going, to be honest in a retrospective, the argument goes, they’re a waste of time. 70–80% Is a Win. In this new episode of the Agile Mentors Podcast, Brian welcomes Maarten Dalmijn to discuss the secrets to setting impactful sprint goals, fostering collaboration, and bridging the gap between team objectives and stakeholder expectations for Agile success. Each member of the Mountain Goat Software team is dedicated to giving you the best training, resources, and support you need, to succeed with agile. Learn agile and Scrum tips and techniques from expert ScrumMaster, educator and author Mike Cohn and the staff of Mountain Goat Software. Those could look like: I will do nothing but code from 9:00 to 1:00 tomorrow. Learn agile and Scrum tips and techniques from expert ScrumMaster, educator and author Mike Cohn and the staff of Mountain Goat Software. 10 items. Learn agile and Scrum tips and techniques from expert ScrumMaster, educator and author Mike Cohn and the staff of Mountain Goat Software. Items per page. This two-day, live and online course is a chance to prove your value as a specialist with the skills you need to become an exceptional Scrum. Planning Poker® in Scrum brings together multiple expert opinions for the agile estimation of a project. While some refuse to exert any influence on their teams, others rely too much on command-and-control management styles. Certified Scrum Training 2-day certification classes. Learn agile and Scrum tips and techniques from expert ScrumMaster, educator and author Mike Cohn and the staff of Mountain Goat Software. com . A big advantage of private training is that we can tailor most content to your exact needs. User Stories & Story Writing Capture user needs and deliver value. Join Mike Cohn for Better User Stories, now offered Live Online. Scrum & Agile Training . Scrum & Agile Training . Note that Junior’s number of hours per point is 4 times that of Superstar. Certified Scrum Training 2-day certification classes. Scrum & Agile Training Certified Scrum Training 2-day certification classes Because these team members represent all disciplines on a software project, they’re better suited to the estimation task than anyone else. All classes are led by Mike Cohn of Mountain Goat Software – a leading choice in agile training and Scrum certification for Fortune 500s, startups and everything in between. Scrum & Agile Training . Join Mike Cohn, founder of Mountain Goat Software, as he reveals the little-known secrets smart agile teams adopt to get the best results from user stories. courses. Scrum & Agile Training . Mountain Goat Software includes a free online Planning Poker tool as part of every Agile Mentors Membership. Join Mike Cohn for a FREE user stories webinar, Wednesday November 8th at 10am PT / 1pm ET. Mountain Goat Software offers individual training, private team training, and onsite coaching to help you and your team get started and get better at agile and Scrum. User Stories & Story Writing Capture user needs and deliver value. Overall velocity is higher. . Scrum & Agile Training . Teams can keep moving, without needing to pause between iterations of work to rest. Mike is a founding member of the Agile Alliance and Scrum Alliance and can be reached at [email protected] product can be a something physical (the chair). A team shouldn’t estimate just to make their boss feel better but rather when the estimates lead to. When I teach Certified Scrum Master courses, I always emphasize that great agile teams don’t always finish everything they say they’ll do in a sprint. Ilan Goldstein is an avid agilist with over a decade of practical hands-on experience. Mike Cohn and the other trainers at Mountain Goat Software offer agile guidance that helps you deliver. Deliver on time. Scrum & Agile Training . Choose from a range of options including self-paced study courses, one-day classes, or private training for your team. Take the Free Assessment. The next are NFTs that can be exchanged or. Mike is CEO of Mountain Goat Software, and one of the industry’s most well-respected Certified Scrum Trainers. Mountain Goat Software has trained more than 9,000 agile professionals in Live Online certified classes and over 25,000 agile professionals in person certified classes, trained 100s of teams in private training, and issued more than 12,000 licenses for on-demand video training. You can re-take the exam (if needed) at no charge one time. Certified Scrum Training. For Individuals . The primary advantage Kanban has over Scrum is that it is immediately intuitive to anyone. Learn agile and Scrum tips and techniques from expert ScrumMaster, educator and author Mike Cohn and the staff of Mountain Goat Software. Listen in for valuable advice from Chris and Brian on sidestepping the fear of going. On-Demand Video Training Instant, streaming access to courses. At MGA we can build apps, it's what we do. It also has details to help prepare for the day and plan an agenda. Being on time for daily standups. Mike ran his first Scrum project in 1995, making him among the most experienced of Scrum trainers and coaches. He is a co-founder and former board member of the Scrum Alliance, and a co-founder of the non-profit. Listen in for valuable advice from Chris and Brian on sidestepping the fear of going. A partial list of companies who have received on-site agile and Scrum training classes and coaching from Mountain Goat Software and Mike Cohn. They discuss the importance of finding ways to work within regulatory frameworks, building trust with stakeholders, and adapting Agile principles to fit the unique needs of the organization. He is a co-founder and former board member of the Scrum Alliance, and a co-founder of the non-profit. User Stories & Story Writing Capture user needs and deliver value. Certified Scrum Training 2-day certification classes. Join Mike Cohn for a FREE user stories webinar, Wednesday November 8th at 10am PT / 1pm ET. Let's see what they are. Learn agile and Scrum tips and techniques from expert ScrumMaster, educator and author Mike Cohn and the staff of Mountain Goat Software. Live Online In Person Configurable Two Days. Estimating & Planning Create reliable plans and estimates. A capacity-driven sprint planning meeting involves the product owner, Scrum Master and all development team members. Mountain Goat Software offers education and certified training on Scrum and agile processes to helpLearn agile and Scrum tips and techniques from expert ScrumMaster, educator and author Mike Cohn and the staff of Mountain Goat Software. Feb 14, 2023 49 Comments. Scrum & Agile Training . In this two-day class, participants will be introduced to the fundamentals of Scrum so that everyone has the same understanding about what it means to be agile. One of the most common complaints about retrospectives is that people fail to bring up real issues or admit to their problems. The agile product backlog in Scrum is a prioritized features list, containing short descriptions of all functionality desired in the product. To do this, you create, maintain and prioritize the product backlog for each sprint. Finishing one story before starting the next. Test fee is included in your course registration. The Sprint Goal: What It Is and How It Can Help. Please also feel free to share the. He is a co-founder and former board member of the Scrum Alliance, and a co-founder of the non-profit. At Mountain Goat Software, we can outline a recommended training path for your teams, taking into consideration: Your goals and current challenges; Where you are in your agile development; The experience and skills of your teams; The specific needs and nuances of your industry and business;Learn agile and Scrum tips and techniques from expert ScrumMaster, educator and author Mike Cohn and the staff of Mountain Goat Software. In this episode, Brian Milner is joined by guest co-host Scott Dunn, Certified Enterprise Coach and Scrum Trainer, to get insights into delivering retrospective sessions that energize and inform the whole team — while ensuring they are effective at meeting goals. Scrum & Agile Training . Mike Cohn is the founder of Mountain Goat Software, a process and project management consultancy that specializes in helping companies adopt and improve their use of Agile processes and techniques. You might also worry if your team provides the estimates that management wants, the numbers might come back to haunt you. Fortunately, non-functional requirements in software development can be easily handled as user stories. I've. Certified Scrum Training 2-day certification classes. Scrum & Agile Training Certified Scrum Training 2-day certification classes As the agile manifesto explains one of the 12 principles of agile project management: "At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly. Fortunately there are easy fixes. They dive into everything from the importance of having a clear vision and passion to weighing the benefits of partnerships and investors. Brian is the Senior Vice President of Training and Coaching with Mountain Goat Software and is a Certified Scrum Trainer. Agile leaders and managers have difficulty coming to grips with their role on self-organizing teams. Then, once the business understands you can be predictable we can address how to improve schedules, if required. Or, play Planning Poker online for free. Scrum & Agile Training. In Improving Agile Retrospectives, leading agile coach/trainer Marc Loeffler combines practical guidance, proven practices, and innovative approaches for maximizing the value of retrospectives for your team―and your entire organization. What you need to know is how to. User Stories & Story Writing Capture user needs and deliver value. Mike is CEO of Mountain Goat Software, and one of the industry’s most well-respected Certified Scrum Trainers. He is the author of User Stories Applied for Agile Software Development, Agile Estimating and Planning, and Succeeding with Agile as well as the Better User Stories video course. Scrum is a framework. Introduction to Agile. You can contact Mike via e-mail or follow him on Facebook , LinkedIn , YouTube , Threads , and Instagram. Online multiple-choice exam required. Certified Scrum Training 2-day certification classes. Learn agile and Scrum tips and techniques from expert ScrumMaster, educator and author Mike Cohn and the staff of Mountain Goat Software. Mountain Goat Software is a term used to describe a general approach to software development. Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) awarded by the Scrum Alliance. Scrum has five values that are essential for success: focus, openness, commitment, courage, and respect. Choose from a variety of courses year-round on agile estimation and planning, succeeding with agile, user stories for agile software development, the certified Scrum product owner and ScrumMaster certification. But to slow the project down appropriately for an organization that wants. These techniques offer. Scrum & Agile Training . Create great estimates, even on teams with diverse skills, experience, or personalities. Learn agile and Scrum tips and techniques from expert ScrumMaster, educator and author Mike Cohn and the staff of Mountain Goat Software. Ever few weeks (typically two to four), teams deliver a fully functional chunk of work (an increment). It is perhaps comparable to learning a new language. Mentoring & Coaching Tailored support for agile teams. Remembering they are under pressure to increase velocity, they decide to call it a five. As the author of three agile and Scrum books, Mike tailors the class curriculum to cover the gamut of what you need to know to jump. Mike is a founding member of the Agile Alliance and Scrum Alliance and can be reached at hello@mountaingoatsoftware. It includes how often you should run one, who should facilitate it, and who should attend. chevron_left. Mountain Goat Software popularized Planning Poker® as a way of estimating and is far and away the leading distributor of cards. Building on the popularity and success of Scrum, LAFABLE projects employ a variation of Scrum’s “sprints. If you're tempted to run a sprint retrospective without your product owner, I strongly suggest you think about why. Some teams are conservative in what they choose because of their own natures. Whether you're introducing agile or Scrum to your org. Overview. The Scrum Master Role Gets Easier Over Time. Author and industry thought leader, Mike Cohn, is your class instructor for agile and Scrum training in Colorado. The technique is best applied for setting approximately quarterly goals rather than each sprint. Today on the show, John joins Brian to share how he started introducing the Agile framework to educators. 5% overall improvement in flow efficiency. Convey that You Each Have the Same Goal. A company can post new job openings. Overview. The Mountain Goat Software Blog. On-Demand Video Training Instant, streaming access to courses. Mountain Goat Software | 18,903 followers on LinkedIn. Mountain Goat Software. Our cards are the highest quality available but we sell them at a far lower price than others do for two reasons: (1) We buy far larger quantities of cards than others do, which keeps our costs down; and (2) We’re. Join Mike Cohn for Better User Stories, now offered Live Online. Now raise your hand if your team is physically in the same space for each and every daily scrum meeting you conduct. Certified Scrum Training 2-day certification classes. Some teams do extremely well with a stretch goal. Scrum & Agile Training Certified Scrum Training 2-day certification classes Mountain Goat Software offers individual training, private team training, and onsite coaching to help you and your team get started and get better at agile and Scrum. 3. They allow individuals with differing skill sets and speeds of working to agree. So if a team has a velocity of 30, they bring in 30 points of work. Theme screening is a useful and easy prioritization technique that can be used to prioritize themes and/or epics against one another. Mountain Goat Software. Viewing 1-10 of 21. Learn agile and Scrum tips and techniques from expert ScrumMaster, educator and author Mike Cohn and the staff of Mountain Goat Software. User Stories & Story Writing Capture user needs and deliver value. g. It provides a structure to work within and desired outcomes to achieve, but leaves teams room to decide how best to achieve those outcomes in their specific context. Agile teams need space and safety to experiment with new ideas and approaches. Like the runners, these two programmers may agree that a given user story is 5 points (rather than 5 miles). Learn agile and Scrum tips and techniques from expert ScrumMaster, educator and author Mike Cohn and the staff of Mountain Goat Software. Four syllables, ten letters. In agile projects, a spike refers to a time-boxed research activity that helps teams make better decisions & deliver better products. adapting. Mike is CEO of Mountain Goat Software, and one of the industry’s most well-respected Certified Scrum Trainers. About Mike Cohn. Scrum & Agile Training . To start a poker planning session, the product owner or customer reads one of the desired user stories or describes a feature to the estimators. Learn agile and Scrum tips and techniques from expert ScrumMaster, educator and author Mike Cohn and the staff of Mountain Goat Software. Learn agile and Scrum tips and techniques from expert ScrumMaster, educator and author Mike Cohn and the staff of Mountain Goat Software. Certified Scrum Training 2-day certification classes. Author and industry thought leader, Mike Cohn, is your class instructor for agile and Scrum training in Colorado. Succeeding with Scrum is easier when you know when and why to conduct each of the Scrum events. My usual recommendation is to assign points to bug fixing the agile defects. Since 1995 Mike Cohn has been using agile and Scrum to build high-performing software development teams and organizations. They dive into everything from the importance of having a clear vision and passion to weighing the benefits of partnerships and investors. Stop being derailed by 'urgent' interruptions. Sprint plans live in a sprint backlog. Learn agile and Scrum tips and techniques from expert ScrumMaster, educator and author Mike Cohn and the staff of Mountain Goat Software. Learn agile and Scrum tips and techniques from expert ScrumMaster, educator and author Mike Cohn and the staff of Mountain Goat Software. Scrum is an agile way to manage work. Join Mike Cohn for a FREE user stories webinar, Wednesday November 8th at 10am PT / 1pm ET. Certified Scrum Training 2-day certification classes. . When applying Scrum, it's not necessary to start a project with a lengthy, upfront effort to document all requirements. 10 items. so that some reason. Scrum & Agile Training . To see how that works, imagine you chose a one-year sprint. Here’s a recap of the seven things you can do to improve the quality and timeliness of feedback: Start doing iteration review meetings if you aren’t already. He is the author of Agile Estimating and Planning, UserLearn agile and Scrum tips and techniques from expert ScrumMaster, educator and author Mike Cohn and the staff of Mountain Goat Software. Live, online Scrum certification classes, short-course video training, and free downloadable resources to take your agile team from good to great. JUMP up the mountain. FREE webinar on user stories with Mike Cohn - THU 9/14 @ 10am PT / 1pm ET. Starting out as a developer, Brian worked up through management layers, then transitioned to Scrum Master and then Coach. Learn agile and Scrum tips and techniques from expert ScrumMaster, educator and author Mike Cohn and the staff of Mountain Goat Software. Mountain Goat Software and Mike Cohn, author and Agile Scrum expert, have announced the release of. Stop writing stories too often. Scrum & Agile Training Certified Scrum Training 2-day certification classes Let Go of Knowing is a short course based on Mike Cohn’s popular conference keynote session. Discover Certified Scrum Master Training. Scrum & Agile Training . For over twenty years I've been building high-performing software development teams and organizations through the use of agile and Scrum. Scrum & Agile Training . The Scrum team is accountable for all product-related activities. User Stories & Story Writing Capture user needs and deliver value. You want the sum of your estimation points to represent the real amount of work there is to do: 20 points’ worth. While we believe all of our agile development training courses will help you get better at being agile, we understand that your training budget and, perhaps more importantly, the time you can commit to training, are limited. A team takes a product backlog item to definition of done Level 1 in a first sprint, to definition of done Level 2 in a subsequent sprint, and so on. It is a fun and engaging way for teams to apply relative estimates to planned work. refinement. As the author of three agile and Scrum books, Mike tailors the class curriculum to cover the gamut of what you need to know to jump. That is, the best agile teams will sometimes not deliver a product backlog item or two that had been brought into the iteration. There are, unfortunately, some problems with these practices. Learn more about Onsite Training. Agile teams plan, and they plan often. Information on Mountain Goat Software training options - live online, in-person and on-demand video options. In this episode of the Agile Mentors podcast, Brian and Scott Dunn delve into the challenges of implementing Agile practices in regulatory environments. Learn agile and Scrum tips and techniques from expert ScrumMaster, educator and author Mike Cohn and the staff of Mountain Goat Software. In the absence of psychological safety, innovation recedes. Yet in almost every Certified Scrum Master course I teach, I'm asked if teams really need to do a retrospective every sprint. First, the value of small bits of functionality are often intertwined. The Agile Mentors Community is a place for agile practitioners around the world to collaborate in a safe, experiential learning space. Sprint planning is a time set aside at the beginning of each sprint. 5 PDUs and 8 SEUs. remote teams. Certified Scrum Training 2-day certification classes. Mountain Goat Software is delighted to be able to give users a choice of free agile tools that they can use to help with their agile and Scrum projects. Welcome! I'm Mike Cohn, founder of Mountain Goat, Certified Scrum Trainer, and co-founder of Scrum Alliance & Agile Alliance. Leadership Underestimates the Change that Is Needed to Be Agile. A cross-functional team has members with a. Co-founder of Agile Alliance and Scrum Alliance, he’s passionate about agile and finds it. Brian is the Senior Vice President of Training and Coaching with Mountain Goat Software and is a Certified Scrum Trainer. In this episode of the Agile Mentors podcast, Lance Dacy joins Brian to delve into the intricacies of utilizing metrics in software development to ensure optimal performance while avoiding incentivizing adverse behaviors.