Category Archives: Better Agile

“Do or do not. There is no try.”

Most everyone knows that quote from Yoda, and it highlights the three key things we must do, and maybe the couple things we must worry about. Don’t do it half-baked. Jeff Sutherland calls it “ScrumButt” and Ken Schwaber calls it Flaccid Scrum. (The second is not my favorite phrase.) You don’t play a game using […]

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What to fix first?

One could imagine many situations… But imagine this one.  Imagine that you are trying to start Scrum, or perhaps re-start it, or take it to a new level.  You have a few teams.  But you have some of the following impediments. The project or products are not well prioritized. You have too much work in […]

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Defining Agile at Your Firm (or in your Department)

The Idea (or the Practice) Let me propose an idea. I am happier if you call it a practice. The idea is simple.  That agreeing on what you are doing will help.  Or, that not agreeing and only kinda sorta roughly trying to do [agile] is likely to lead to notably less-good results. And I […]

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Inhouse Courses and Workshops

I am about to do, in the next 2 months, three different inhouse courses.  Well, actually more, since some clients will be doing more than one thing. We do a variety of different things.  The typical thing is that we need 10 people.  And you save money. But the key thing:  It helps a lot. […]

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The Release Burndown Chart

This is one in a series on Scrum Intro. The preceding post is here. Now we come to the release burndown chart. What is the idea? The first idea is that we want to hit the date. But let’s agree that things can be a bit more complex. Side notes: There are many different kinds of […]

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Course & Workshop Summary – For January 2 Minute Survey

Intro This is background information for a public survey. You can take our survey here. Why? The key purpose is to serve you better. The needs of the larger group are diverse. Some want courses, some need workshops. Some people are looking as individuals, and some are looking for something for a group. Some are […]

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The Sprint Burndown Chart

This is one in a series on Scrum Intro. The preceding post is here. Now we come to the Burn Down charts. You could start with either one, but let’s start with the Sprint Burndown chart. We might first note that the Scrum Guide does not talk about a (Sprint) Burndown chart.  There is a […]

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The Sprint Backlog

This is one in a series on Scrum Intro. The preceding post is here. This artifact is different than many suppose. It is the list of stories and the list of tasks for those stories, that the Team thinks they can get done in a Sprint. (In my mind, the normal sprint should be 2 […]

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“Path to CSP” – The A-CSM

Here are some key points about the A-CSM. The overall purpose is “learning to become more effective so that you can help the Team and your company be more successful” through lean-agile-scrum. If you have an A-CSM through me, I will be completely convinced that you are notably better than an average CSM. This ability […]

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The Product Backlog

This is one in a series on Scrum Intro. The preceding post is here. Intro The Product Backlog is usually the first mentioned of the artifacts. In some sense, Scrum starts with the Product Backlog, or at least the first Sprint cannot start without a Product Backlog. The Product Backlog is a list of all […]

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