Blog: Agile & Business

Spotify Scaling Model

August 21, 2016

Here is some reference information about the Spotify scaling model. Most of this information is via Henrik Kniberg. Here is the key article: “Scaling Agile @ Spotify with Tribes, Squads, Chapters & Guilds” — A blog post (2012). It also links to a longer article in the third paragraph which is pretty key. Here are […]

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How to start a group on Agile

July 25, 2016

QUESTION Hi Joe, [Slightly changed]  We are looking for an approach to getting our group started. [50 to 150 people] We have one team that is doing Scrum pretty well.  The other teams are not Agile. It will be completely new for them. Management is looking for ‘How’ to best train them to be Agile. […]

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Self-organization: The secret sauce for improving your Scrum Teams

July 14, 2016

Here is a video of Jeff Sutherland speaking at the Googleplex in NYC a few years ago. It seems very relevant still. A couple of things to emphasize: If you are not enjoying the “Where the Hell is Matt?” video at first, bear with it. I think you’ll enjoy Jeff’s explanation. One of the hardest, […]

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Starting an Agile Transformation

July 13, 2016

Imagine you are a medium-sized company. Your innovation team might be in the range of 300 people. You are not a start-up, and equally, you are not a huge company. Let’s imagine, at least for now, that you have no special issues. Your situation is fairly normal. (To be fair, every situation is different to […]

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Aggressive Scrum to produce real value – Jeff Sutherland interview

July 9, 2016

Brent Barton has a good interview with Jeff Sutherland on a great topic.  Watch! https://youtu.be/rT28dmremZc

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Happy 4th of July!

July 4, 2016

We hope you have a wonderful day. Let freedom ring! Since we were born in Virginia, we must remember the Virginian who famously died on this date.  His words (or mostly his words) were: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with […]

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Topics for the Executives (managers)

June 18, 2016

I was brainstorming what kinds of topics or exercises the executives (or senior managers) need. This also includes things for the managers close to teams, but it is not especially for them. OTOH, we’re not addressing the CEO of JP Morgan Chase, either. In an example with that kind of firm, we mean the ‘executive’ […]

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Questions: Agile Release Planning

June 10, 2016

Question: Hi Joe! Hope you are well. We are cranking up the Agile Scrum. I know you are likely very busy, and I tried to find answers to my Agile Release Planning questions below, but I am not finding what I am looking for on the net. That said, I have three quick questions that […]

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HBR on Agile! May Issue.

May 30, 2016

The Harvard Business Review has three new resources on Agile now. The original classic article is “The New New Product Development Game” by Takeuchi and Nonaka. The first of three new resources is here. This is by Darrell K. Rigby, Jeff Sutherland and Hirotaka Takeuchi. Rigby is with Bain, Sutherland is the co-creator of Scrum […]

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Stop Starting, Start Finishing

May 21, 2016

The phrase in the title is a well-known Agile phrase, but perhaps not well-enough known. In one way, it is saying: minimize WIP. Work-in-process or work-in-progress. In another way, it is saying what my friend Mike Vizdos says: Focus. #Deliver. _____________________________________ But let me tell a story that gives a different meaning. A few months […]

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