Blog: Agile & Business

Starting with Scaling

July 21, 2013

Question: “We are starting Scrum. We have the kind of projects that require scaling. But how do we start with Scrum and have some scaling?” Answer: The basic framework of Scrum does not attempt to answer this question.  It assumes you will use lean-agile-scrum principles and values, and devise your own specific solution to this […]

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The ScrumButt Test (1): Iterations must be timeboxed

July 19, 2013

I will be doing a series of posts that discuss each element in the ScrumButt Test (see earlier post). In this first post, I will focus on the first element in the ScrumButt Test: “Iterations must be time-boxed to less than six weeks.” Remember that the first section of the test is to determine whether […]

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Achieving the Goal of a Retrospective

July 19, 2013

Some teams seem to approach Retrospectives without a real drive to succeed.  Or so it seems.  They just use it to ‘talk.’  About the ‘good, the bad, the ugly’ as I sometimes tease. Now, talking can be helpful.  Still, we can usually do better than this. What is the goal of a Retrospective?  Well, I […]

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Enabling Specifications

July 14, 2013

I recommend using the ‘Enabling Specification’ practice. This is NOT part of the bare framework of Scrum. But it is a frequently recommended practice. Typically recommended. This is: Just-enough, just-in-time documentation. Meaning that the implementers in the Scrum Team have enough information to build the user story correctly the first time. Or at least they […]

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The Team is primary

July 10, 2013

There has been a lot of discussion in the community lately about scaling.  With specific discussion of the SAFe and LeSS frameworks. I don’t have a strong opinion on many of the issues. I do think each scaling situation is different.  I do think the music (the values and principles inside the players) is at […]

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Sample Impediments (RDU)

June 27, 2013

Just did a course in Raleigh-Durham.  Here are some impediments the group identified…. Lack of people Turnover in staff Unclear scope Requirements changing too much Cutting corners Lack of communication with customer Bureaucracy – pessimistic stakeholders Poor morale Manage by fear Budget (insufficient) Lack of visibility Lack of management skill Dependencies (other projects) Traceability (lack […]

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Managing self-organizing teams

June 8, 2013

How do we suggest that managers …well… manage self-organizing teams? By self-organizing, I also mean self-managing.  Let’s assume that not all ‘self-organizing teams’ will self-organize or self-manage effectively. So, a few suggestions. 1. Get rid of almost all the old stuff. I really want you to think about getting rid of it all.  I cannot […]

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CBA: new Maserati vs. used Lexus??

June 3, 2013

Ladies, Please forgive me. I have to make an obvious point with some guys. And you know how guys can be. Sometimes you have to make it really obvious to them. *** We need to know the BVPs (business value points) and the SPs (Story points) of each story, so that we can do CBA […]

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Why I prefer ScrumBan to Kanban

June 1, 2013

I have spoken about why I like Lean and why I like ScrumBan, a combination of Scrum and Kanban. Some people prefer ‘Kanban’, as it is being called in the software development community.  Sometimes: Kanban Method. To be honest, I think I know what Kanban is in Lean Manufacturing. But I am unsure what ‘Kanban’ […]

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Story Points rather than hours

June 1, 2013

Jeff Sutherland has a great post about this, here.  A must read.    

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