Blog: Agile & Business

Question: How do I implement Scrum?

January 31, 2014

Question from Denise: “My organization has decided to go from Waterfall to Agile SCRUM. I have experience with SCRUM, but very little experience implementing it. I was wondering if anybody has this experience? If so, what were some of the challenges you faced? Lessons learned? Best practices?” Answer: This is a big question. And no […]

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The Retrospective and uncovering the best impediments

January 30, 2014

I chuckle when I say ‘best’ impediments.  Because, by its nature, an impediment is something that is slowing the team down.  It is ‘bad.’ But, to get better, the Team must focus on the most important things first.  And this is true for impediments.  We must fix the most important impediment first. It is human […]

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Agile Reading for Executives

January 29, 2014

A recent email I sent, slightly edited. ____________________________________ Dear Mike and Mark, You asked for something to give the executives and managers. I might send them “The New New Product Development Game” article (see below), with a short explanation. And then, offer these other things to review. Other options: “Software in 30 Days” by Ken […]

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Retrospectives and the role of the SM

January 29, 2014

A very bright and quick class attendee asked: Why don’t you talk in the class more about Retrospectives? And why so much about the PO? Why do you focus on the basics so much?  I want more advanced materials. *** First, I actually think we do these things, as explained below. We do talk about […]

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Planning Poker Tools

January 20, 2014

Updated:  9/27/2023 Mike Cohn has the phrase ‘planning poker’ registered.  So, this is acknowledgement of that. And, like Kleenex, that’s what we call the thing itself.  It no longer has a generic name. A more descriptive name is maybe ‘wide-band delphi estimation using the Fibonacci sequence.’  But planning poker and priority poker are faster.  Planning […]

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Impediments – Charlotte Class Jan 2-3

January 3, 2014

Here are some impediments that were identified. Lack of awareness of other projects Unwillingness to say ‘no’ Clearing plate of current projects Poorly prioritized projects by management Pulled off project Poorly defined reqs Access to stakeholder / SME Reaction to rapid market changes / demands Budget ? People –> Teams In addition, these impediments were […]

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When should we do Agile?

January 1, 2014

This is a question many have asked, and here is my approach to answering it. Let me refine the question a bit.  For a specific project or set of work, when do we do Agile or should we use something else (waterfall)?  (This might be the first project or the next project that comes to […]

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Courses We Offer

December 30, 2013

We offer many courses and workshops: Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) course – This is the basic course, which I recommend for everyone and for teams. We now almost always include a 1-Day workshop (on Agile Release Planning). I strongly recommend this. Occasionally, I offer a 2-Day workshop as well. Intermediate Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) course […]

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New Scaling Workshop

December 23, 2013

We have added a 1 day workshop to many of our courses.  Dave Muldoon and I will do the Workshop.  Dave has years of experience scaling in a large multinational corporation, and with other large organizations. What is it: The workshop reviews quickly the several approaches to scaling in the community now: SAFe, LeSS, DAD, […]

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A song for the season

December 22, 2013

In the western world, this is the season of peace. One of my favorite hymns from this time of year is ‘O come, o come Emmanuel’.  Emmanuel means ‘God with us.’ Here is a version by Linda Ronstadt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fsqk9FOBtuo Below are two verses from the lyrics: O come, Thou Day spring from on high, and […]

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