Category Archives: Better Agile

Key Impediments – Toronto

I am a big advocate of a public impediment list.  (Yes, for some of you, I am saying this again.  I think in general it bears repeating and repeating in a company.) It requires discussion to explain to skeptics WHY we recommend this. I will not attempt that discussion here ( maybe I should in […]

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Scaling: How about the “Don’t do it!” option?

There is a lot of talk lately about scaling. And, to some degree, scaling is necessary and good. They say only truly professional Teams try complicated plays.  Or should try complicated plays.  Most ‘lesser’ Teams do well to stick to basic blocking and tackling.  I think this is wise advice for most teams. Scaling by […]

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More success with Scrum – How to get it

Fernando Cuenca has an excellent blog post, here.  He discusses what he learned at Agile 2013. I will summarize his teachings in my words. The ultimate question is: how to have a better life for yourself, your Team, and your Customers.  Specifically at work, using Scrum. Measure velocity.  Look for increases in velocity. Otherwise known […]

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Story Splitting (Feature Decomposition) Workshop

We have added a 1 day Workshop to many of our courses.  The one day is composed of 1/2 Day on Story Splitting. And 1/2 Day on Scaling.  This Workshop can be attended ‘alone’ (ie, you can take only this one-day workshop). What.  Story Splitting is always required. We always need smaller stories in the […]

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Impediments – From the Charlotte Class in Sept.

Here are some impediments identified in an exercise by the Charlotte CSM Class in September. Some duplicates, some overlaps. May this list make your Team more creative about identifying impediments. May it lead to your Team to fixing the highest priority impediment first. The List: Personal Agenda Hierarchical approach Understand tasks (tasks not understood, I […]

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Scaling: Don’t forget the Team

What do you have if you have good scaling but all the Teams are terrible?  Nothing. What do you have if you have lame scaling, but all the Teams are good?  Something that is still pretty darn powerful. *** What happens when ‘everyone’ is talking about scaling?  They forget about the Teams.  And the Teams […]

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Adopting Agile: Ask questions

Some of you know I like Yogi Berra.  As a side note, here are a lot of his quotes. I hope you laugh at a few. (Laughter is a great way to influence people.) Ok, so Yogi Berra reminded us by saying: “Some people, if they don’t already know it, you can’t explain it to […]

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Impediments: from the Charleston CSM class in September

As you may know, I think in Scrum it is key to aggressively attack impediments. I think each Team should have a (mostly) public impediment list. The SM should be attacking the top impediment each day.  This ‘kaizen’ should lead to improvements in velocity. Every Team can get better. Always. An impediment is anything (anything!) […]

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When would I not want to do Scrum?

This is a slight variant on the question I asked before. I wanted to add a few things that I did not say before.  You still might want to do a project despite some of the things I will mention, but I have gotten impatient as I have gotten older. So, when? Some things I […]

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When should you NOT use Scrum?

I was asked this question in a class recently.  (When should I not use Scrum?)  I gave an answer, but I want to give a better answer, or at least a different one. To be fair, it is a hard question. And a hard question for me. My personal answer, which I gave, is I […]

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