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How to get the C-Suite to support Agile
“I’m not here to experiment. I’m here to get production stacks out the door, and Agile helps us get there.” — Tim Burke, VP of Cloud and Operating System Infrastructure Engineering at Red Hat Yearly...
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Specialists Are Overrated
“Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.” – Agile Manifesto “Watch the baton, not the runner.” – D. Reinertsen, 2007[1]...
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How to Cross-Skill and Grow T-shaped Team Members
As we discussed in “Specialists Are Overrated,” developing cross-skills and “T-Shaped” people in a team has many benefits – for the team/organization itself, the customer, and the individual. That’s...
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Scrum by Example: Feeling Pain from your Daily Scrum?
Scrum by Example is a narrative-style blog series designed to help people new to Scrum, especially new ScrumMasters. If you are new to the series, we recommend you check out the introduction to learn...
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Scrum by Example – Stories for the Working ScrumMaster
What does it take to be a Great ScrumMaster? When I was in my early years as a Scrum Trainer, circa 2011, it was noticeable to me that while there was a plethora of content out there explaining the...
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How to Be an Effective Manager in Scrum
You’re a manager. You recently helped implement Scrum in your organization. You have received praise for this, because quality of work is now steadily improving and customers are delighted by the...
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The Role of Agile Managers: Why Job Titles Are Dangerous
Managers transitioning from waterfall to Agile will need to renegotiate their relationship with their teams if they are to succeed. A manager cannot simply become an Agile Manager – a big part of a...
View ArticleScrum By Example – Scrum Anti-Patterns & Unplanned Work Disrupting the Sprint
The Team is in the middle of a Sprint, but the Product Owner has discovered unplanned work and interrupts their flow mid-Sprint to deal with it because it’s now “high-priority.” How should a...
View ArticleScrum By Example – How to Deal with Bad Scrum User Stories as a ScrumMaster
It is common in the early stages of Scrum implementation for there to be misunderstandings about what User Stories are for and what makes them useful. A ScrumMaster’s task is to be able to help the...
View ArticleWhat Are the Limits of the Scrum Framework?
Frequently in workshops, I get asked, “Where shouldn’t we use Scrum?” The short answer is there are lots of instances where the Scrum framework doesn’t fit. However, to give a more complete and...
View ArticleScrum by Example: Product Backlog Refinement in Action
In Scrum, Product Backlog Refinement is an essential meeting of the Product Owner and the Development Team to gain clarity and a shared understanding of what needs to be done through discussion and...
View ArticleScrum by Example – The Story of an Incomplete Sprint
A Scrum Sprint is incomplete when the Team can’t deliver the working features they committed to. We cover the reasons for this and how you can help your Team. Dramatis Personae Steve – a ScrumMaster...
View ArticleScrum Anti-Patterns: The Hardening Sprint
Hardening Sprints are one of the most common kinds of Scrum Anti-Patterns: ways of addressing recurring problems that seem like effective solutions at the time but in fact hamper productivity or create...
View ArticleScrum by Example – How to Handle Production Support Issues in Scrum
Whenever you are building and deploying a complex system, there are always going to be bugs, defects, and unforeseen problems with usability — commonly referred to as Production Support issues. Today,...
View ArticleScrum by Example – Team Friction Inspires Working Agreements
Working Agreements are a simple, powerful way of creating explicit guidelines for what kind of work culture you want for your Team. They are a reminder for everyone about how they can commit to...
View ArticleScrum Anti-Patterns: Micromanagement
A design pattern is a description of a solution to a recurring problem. It outlines the elements that are necessary to solve the challenge without prompting the reader to address the issue in a...
View ArticleScrum Anti-Patterns – How We Hold Back Our Scrum Teams
In software development work, a design pattern is a description of a solution to a recurring problem. It outlines the elements that are necessary to solve the problem, including context and the...
View ArticleChoosing a Scrum Sprint Length – Shorter Beats Longer
How long should a Scrum Sprint be? A Scrum Sprint is a short period of time when the Scrum Team works, but there is no hard rule as to how long that should be – in this post, we cover the pros and cons...
View ArticleDefinition of Done vs. User Stories vs. Acceptance Criteria
One of the more frequently asked questions in my Scrum workshops is around the difference between Definition of “Done” and Acceptance Criteria, and how they relate to User Stories. While Acceptance...
View ArticleWhat is the Recommended Scrum Team Size?
Nearly every client I work with asks me this question at some point. The Scrum Guide offers very limited guidance, suggesting 3-9 people per team (exclusive of ScrumMaster and Product Owner), without...
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