The Agile Trojan Horse Covert Appetizers For Agile Discovery Part 1: Empiricism
If I had a penny for every minute I sat in a meeting where teams argued about what was and was not “Agile” I would be a gazillionaire by now. Sometimes, the most vocal and dominant voices are the least...
View ArticleAgile and Scrum, entwined and related
“Agile” (the label) is all over the place. Who would have guessed in early 2001? When the Manifesto for Agile Software Development was created and the English adjective ‘agile’ obtained its specific...
View ArticleEvidence-based Estimation
An analogy I can think of is… I want my dart to hit the dart board, and not necessarily the bull’s eye…. as it calls for a lot of details which apparently is missing during estimation. However, if my...
View ArticleAre you rocking the boat or flowing in between rocks?
One of the challenge working as a Professional Scrum Trainer is reading what is in people’s mind when they are silent. In a classroom setup, silence can mean many things and it depends on the local...
View ArticleDone is at the heart of Scrum
Scrum brings agility to and creates Agile organizations through the implementation of empirical process control, the process of frequent inspection and adaptation. The empiricism of Scrum serves...
View ArticleKEY LESSONS FROM STANDISH’S 2015 CHAOS REPORT
The Standish Group’s “Chaos Report 2015″ was recently published. Standish gathers data from projects done across a variety of industries. They present the data in buckets of “successful, challenged,...
View ArticleLarge Scale Agile and Scrum vs. Waterfall: Agile is 6X More Successful, 1/4...
A pair of recent findings from the Standish Group confirm the astonishing success and cost savings of Agile approaches over waterfall. In the “Chaos Report 2015“, Standish found that large Agile...
View ArticleFanatic Discipline
In Jim Collins and Morten T. Hansen’s book Great by Choice, a comparison is made between two expeditions to Antarctica in 1911. One of the expeditions mentioned is that of Roald Amundsen, the Norwegian...
View ArticleSo What is Agile Really About?
A couple of months ago I wrote the blogpost “What is Agile?“. Although the term “Agile” in the context of software development is quite well known, the definitions vary. Therefore I shared the most...
View ArticleWhat Product Ownership might entangle
What is a ‘Product Owner’? Scrum is a framework for product development, and specifically well suited for complex products. The Product Owner is the role in Scrum to bring the business perspective to...
View ArticleUse the Right Tool for the Job
When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail! Huh? I don’t know; it’s something my father always said. I think he meant that if you don’t have the right tool for the job, you’ll use the...
View ArticleScrum is the transport not the destination
Overview Working with a range of people, it is interesting to observe how many are aiming to “Do Scrum” or “Get Agile”. The issue with this thinking is that people are focussing on the transport, not...
View Article5 Beliefs That Predict Enterprise Agile Success
Agile approaches, including Scrum, are empirical approaches to delivering software and business value. It is ironic, then, that the biggest impediment to adopting an Agile approach is the culture of...
View ArticleWhat DevOps Taught Me About Agile
I’ve spent a lot of time looking at how organizations are using DevOps to improve their software delivery cycle time, their ability to innovate, and their ability to improve quality. I’ve heard some...
View ArticleFreeze The Pond Versus Take The Hill – Two Metaphors For Enterprise Agile Change
Organizations who don’t understand why they want to become Agile also often take the wrong path to get there. Agility requires empowering teams and helping them make decisions on their own, learning...
View Article80 SHADES OF GREY – TOP 10 TIPS TO PREPARE FOR THE SCRUM.ORG PSM-1 ASSESSMENT
THE PSM-1 ASSESSMENT The PSM-1 assessment is a foundational assessment from Scrum.org to gauge basic knowledge of Scrum Fundamentals. Many recruiters, hiring managers and Scrum Team members use this...
View Article6 KINDS OF AGILE COACHES – WHICH ARE YOU HIRING (OR APPLYING) FOR?
UNFLATTERING WISDOM OF HIND SIGHT As I look back at my many years as an Agile Coach – helping organizations introduce, optimize and scale Scrum, I am amazed and disappointed by the number of...
View ArticleAGILE OR SABOTAGILE: HELP YOUR MANAGEMENT UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENCE
EMBARRASSING CONFESSION OK, so this will be awkward, and maybe cringe-inducing post. But we are approaching the new year. Plenty of people might be making new year resolutions. Many will be around...
View ArticleThe Three Pillars of Empiricism (Scrum)
Empiricism means working in a fact-based, experience-based, and evidence-based manner. Scrum implements an empirical process where progress is based on observations of reality, not fictitious plans....
View Article2017 Waste Loss Challenge: Reduce Your Sabotagile Quotient!
NEW YEAR RESOLUTION So it’s a new year. New Year, new start, yadda yadda yadda… Maybe you are considering some New Year Resolutions so I wanted to invite you to take our 2017 waste-loss challenge by...
View Article
