Category Archives: Better Agile

Retrospectives and the role of the SM

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

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

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?

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

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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A song for the season

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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Impediments – Charlotte December Course

I am an advocate of a public impediment list.  The ScrumMaster must always be working on the top impediment until the Team is perfect (and it is never perfect). The value of that can be seen when the Team has doubled (or increased) their productivity or velocity. The Team must be creative and aggressive in […]

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Agile Contracts

Jeff Sutherland did a presentation at Agile 2013 that I think everyone should read and think about.  And read and think about again. Here is the slide deck: http://jeffsutherland.com/Agile2008MoneyforNothing.pdf

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Agile Contracts – Question 1

Adela asks this question: Imagine we have a brand new project. And we must bid on it, and we want to use the agile-scrum method.  How should that work? This is a good question.  I will answer it quickly here. Too quickly.  I have partly answered it in my book, Agile Release Planning. And partly […]

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What if Scrum is not working for you?

I was speaking to a smart guy who had taken (some while ago) my CSM course.  We were both waiting at the Cluj (Romania) airport. He made me think about this problem. The first thing to say is: Scrum is not a panacea.  It requires hard work.  Often people expect Scrum to magically make things […]

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