Gene Tweet Agile frameworks (e.g. Scrum, Kanban, XP), individuals’ roles & responsibilities, processes & tools, metrics & reporting, burn-up charts, estimation techniques, backlog prioritization, agile engineering practices, agile maturity models etc. – all of them are important attributes of a typical agile transformation. However, NONE of them are first-degree-of-importance system variables that are responsible for transformation … Read more
When people go to the doctor’s office, they often complain of superficial manifestations of a problem (i.e., “chief complaints”) that don’t present any serious concerns, but in reality, are indicators of a much more serious systemic illness. I’ve come to the conclusion that we in the Scrum field are also dealing with a similar type … Read more
Tweet When we ask an experienced scrum master, product owner or developer define a user story, they usually understand that “…every user story must be INVEST-able…(taken from B. Hartman’s post)”. When we further elaborate on the “INVEST” part, we discover that splitting a user story is done vertically (along features), not horizontally (along components e.g. … Read more
Tweet Lets kick off this post with the quote from another recent discussion that generated a number of strong comments from experienced professionals: “…as long as companies remain complacent and reliant on outlived staffing/head-hunting approaches, cold-calling techniques, and ineffective HR-screening processes, performed by people that poorly understand the essence of an agile coaching profession, while trying to … Read more
Tweet [also, cross-posted on less. works] Large Scale Scrum (LeSS). It is the framework for scaling agile development, done by multiple teams, as they work on same product and work for a single Product Owner. In order to be effective, LeSS requires organizational descaling that means simplification/flattening of organizational design. What is Organizational Design? … Read more
Tweet If you were a company’s CEO and had a very clear and urgent need to improve your organization, to stay competitive and successful in a marketplace, and therefore, were looking for guide-level senior advisers and coaches, whom you could trust and rely on during your challenging journey, who would you choose: people on the … Read more
Tweet Examples of Command & Control behavior can be historically traced back into centuries, to the periods of dictatorship, imperialism, monarchy, feudalism and even further back, to more primitive social systems. However, for the sake of this discussion, let’s refer only as far back as Industrial Revolution of the last century. Back then, workforce predominantly … Read more
Tweet These days, almost everyone knows that organizations cannot “do” agile; they can “be” agile. And today, this contrast is used not just by agile coaches and scrum masters. Everyone likes building this fancy figure of speech in their daily lexicon: managers, analysts, developers. Great!!! Below is a snippet from Wikipedia, defining the word … Read more
2017 Scrum Coaching Retreat in Kiev is in the books!!! The event has brought together a few dozens of agile coaches and trainers from nearby and far away. The participants came from different backgrounds and focus areas but due to everyone’s extensive experience in self-organization and self-management, got the show on the road very quickly. After … Read more
What is the best Sprint length? Who decides on Sprint length? Are there any exceptions? What are some of the most common mistakes people make, when making decisions about Sprint length? Let’s start from grassroots and answer the following basic question: “What is Sprint main goal?” And while looking for an answer, let’s refer to … Read more
