Archives

The Team is primary

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)

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

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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Why I prefer ScrumBan to Kanban

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

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

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ROI for Scrum Training

Does Scrum Training give a good ROI? Well, of course, that depends. Mainly, whether the Team (the full Team) takes an aggressive attitude toward improvement.  So, as you could guess, we train the attendees that a key job is to get continuously better.  We set the expectation of doubling velocity in the first year. Let’s […]

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Public Impediment List: “We don’t want to see the bad news.”

The Scrum Guide does not mention it, but I strongly advocate a public impediment list. The simple idea is: visual management, and single piece flow off the ‘top’ of the list.  That is: Make the team’s impediments visible and visual.  Prioritize them. And then actively work them each day.  With at least one meaningful impediment […]

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Intermediate CSPO Course

Scrum is, in a way, simple. But I think that, for many reasons, doing Scrum well requires continuous study. For one thing, we need to do the practices in harmony with the values and principles behind lean-agile-scrum.  Also, we are always forgetting the values and principles. But there is more to it than that. You […]

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Special Offers: Today thru Sunday

Today thru Sunday, for that limited time, we have a special promotion on this course. Intermediate CSPO + Workshop in Charlotte, May 21-23. 10% off to members of the local Agile or PMI groups. (Or those who join today.) Details are here or here. Today thru Tuesday, for that limited time, we have a special […]

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Empirical Process Control

Empirical Process Modeling Ken Schwaber and others talk of Empirical Process Control ideas as being key to understanding Scrum.  I think this is good sense. Mr. Schwaber got these ideas from Babtunde Ogunnaike and W. Harmon Ray, who wrote the process bible: Process Dynamics, Modeling and Control.  A big ole book, mainly about chemical processes. We […]

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