Category Archives: Key problems

In medias res (“Into the midst of things”)

Here’s a famous quote of a man at the beginning of a journey. Or at least the story: In the middle of the journey of our life I came to myself within a dark wood where the straight way was lost. Ah, how hard a thing it is to tell what a wild, and rough, […]

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What if one Team member does not agree with the process? (eg, to do “scrum”)

For our work, we have two related ideas.  The Team and the team’s process.  (Yes, there are many other ideas, principles, values too.) The Team Most people, I think, like working on a pretty good team.  Often quite a lot. Of course, not every team is good. Some people need an adjustment time. See the […]

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Is Velocity Evil? (No.)

In a webinar today, someone said that Velocity is evil if equated with productivity.  I disagree.  And partly agree.   First some explanations (short, maybe too short for some): The Velocity of a sprint is the number of story points that the team “earned” (completed) that sprint. Well, I would say Velocity is really the […]

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Commonalities and Differences

What is unavoidable — in Teams we work with people. And we work also with people outside the Team.  But let’s discuss that topic in another post. The next obvious thing to say is that people are complicated, each person by herself or himself, and in a Team of seven then, we get a lot […]

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Agile Carolinas: Requirements with Agile – How to become better

Agile Carolinas meeting: May 17, 2022 – at 5:30 pm.  IN-PERSON. We may try to also broadcast via Zoom.  ie, Hybrid.  (We need someone to help with that.) [Links to be added]   *** Unclear requirements are always a problem.  Always hard in a way. So, let’s discuss how we are doing “requirements” in an […]

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More, Better…

Goethe wrote at the very end of Faust: Alles Vergängliche ist nur ein Gleichnis Das Unzulängliche, hier wird‘s Ereignis Das Unbeschreibliche, hier ist‘s getan Das Ewig-Weibliche zieht uns hinan (For those drawn to this quote, see: https://rvgeiger.blogspot.com/2015/01/das-ewig-weiblich-zieht-uns-hinan-or.html)   So, what makes us want to accomplish more?  What will make your Team want to accomplish more? […]

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An Agile Approach to Requirements

Below is the first draft on this topic.  With a big need to be shorter.  I eventually wrote something shorter. *** An Agile Approach We propose that we discuss this for an hour. INTRODUCTORY THOUGHTS When we start working on a product, there are many unknowns, often including: What is the real problem? What is […]

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Agile Requirements Process

The following is a proposal I made to one client.  Might be useful for you. REQUIREMENTS DISCUSSION We propose a 1-hour discussion of the following practical suggestions. NEEDS (I am guessing; these are common.) we need an agile, adaptive solution part of the adaptation is to the specific people and situation of each Team we […]

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Postponing the Sprint Start?

Question: Can a PO postpone the start of a Sprint?  Does the PO have the power to do that? *** Answers: First, why would the PO want to do that? It is important to keep the Team and others (esp the Business Stakeholders) on a regular, consistent rhythm.  Do not let them get used to […]

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Webinar: What should an Agile Manager do?

Webinar: What should an Agile Manager do? Let’s discuss what our current thoughts are. We will propose 8 actions, a small set, of things a manager might start by doing. They are: Set a Goal Check your financial situation Resolve that you want lasting stable Teams Identify the Work for the Team Resolve that you […]

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