Blog Post
How Does Scrum Promote Self-Organization?
December 12, 2016
What Is Self-Organization?
“Knowledge workers have to manage themselves. They have to have autonomy,” says Peter Drucker.
Blog Post
Agile is a verb, not a noun
December 7, 2016
Are we there yet? It’s becoming like nails-on-a-chalkboard to hear phrases like “We’re going Agile” or “We’re doing this because it’s agile.” People are putting everything they can under the Agile umbrella, right down to clea
Blog Post
The Three Pillars of Empiricism (Scrum)
December 4, 2016
Empiricism means working in a fact-based, experience-based, and evidence-based manner.
Blog Post
AGILE OR SABOTAGILE: HELP YOUR MANAGEMENT UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENCE
November 30, 2016
EMBARRASSING CONFESSION
Blog Post
What Are some commonly observed Scrum Myths, Mysteries, and Misconceptions?
November 28, 2016
I am listing out some commonly observed Scrum Myths, Mysteries, and Misconceptions from my experience.
Blog Post
6 KINDS OF AGILE COACHES - WHICH ARE YOU HIRING (OR APPLYING) FOR?
November 18, 2016
UNFLATTERING WISDOM OF HIND SIGHT
Blog Post
80 SHADES OF GREY - 10 TIPS TO NAVIGATE AMBIGUITIES OF SCRUM & PREPARE FOR THE SCRUM.ORG PSM-1 ASSESSMENT
November 10, 2016
SCRUM IS NOT THE END. IT IS A MEANS TO THE END…
The end goal of empirically building strong, self-organizing Scrum Teams to help your business…
Blog Post
4 reasons your agile implementation isn't working
November 8, 2016
I see four common reasons an agile implementation doesn't get the benefits hoped for. These reasons include a failure to limit risk, long end-to-end delivery lead times, consistent cost-overruns, and no one knows why you do what you do.
Blog Post
11 Ideas to Spice up Your Retrospective
November 4, 2016
This week I got a question from a colleague about the Scrum Retrospective. She's Scrum Master of a team that for sure has room for improvement.
Blog Post
The Product Owner as Steward
October 31, 2016
In the Professional Scrum Product Owner course, we teach that high performing Product Owners are entrepreneurial. They not only act with the business in mind, they have the authority to make important decisions. What should we do now versus later?
Blog Post
Whats your leader Persona?
October 24, 2016
You hear a lot in Agile circles these days about the ‘declining need for managers.’ We may not need the managers of yesterday but, make no mistake, we certainly need the leaders of tomorrow.
Blog Post
Daily Scrum Drama
October 24, 2016
The Daily Scrum, or most of the time referred to as the "stand up." Probably the most well-known event when we talk about Scrum.
Blog Post
Freeze The Pond Versus Take The Hill Two Metaphors For Enterprise Agile Change
October 20, 2016
Organizations who don’t understand why they want to become Agile also often take the wrong path to get there. Agility requires empowering teams and helping them make decisions on their own, learning from their experiences as they go. They must organize themselves, yet they often have Agile practices forced upon them.
Blog Post
They thought it was overkill The Nexus Daily Scrum
September 30, 2016
I’m currently helping a small software shop within a government organization where multiple Scrum Teams are serving the same cause. They are building one product that has several sub-systems, which sometimes need to be integrated.
Blog Post
The 8 Stances of a Scrum Master
September 20, 2016
According to the Scrum Guide, the Scrum Master is responsible for ensuring Scrum is understood and enacted. Scrum Masters do this by ensuring that the Scrum Team adheres to Scrum theory, practices, and rules.
Blog Post
What DevOps Taught Me About Agile
September 15, 2016
I’ve spent a lot of time looking at how organizations are using DevOps to improve their software delivery cycle time, their ability to innovate, and their ability to improve quality.
Blog Post
Consider this before hiring an Agile Coach
September 14, 2016
This summer, during the Olympics, the Euro Soccer Championships and the Tour the France, while cheering in front of the tv, I noticed something in the way teams perform. And it worried me.
Blog Post
5 Beliefs That Predict Enterprise Agile Success
September 9, 2016
Agile approaches, including Scrum, are empirical approaches to delivering software and business value.
Blog Post
Why isn't the Definition of Ready described in the Scrum Guide?
September 5, 2016
On July 7th the Scrum community gathered in Amsterdam (The Netherlands) for the 5th edition of Scrum Day Europe. This year's theme was 'the next iteration'.
Blog Post
Sprint Review is not a phase gate
September 1, 2016
Throughout the Agile Alliance 2016 conference, I was struck by a recurring feeling that many people don’t understand what the Sprint Review is.
Blog Post
Trying Agile? Dont let culture eat discipline for breakfast
August 29, 2016
More and more large companies in traditional industries are singing the Agile song. I have noticed, though, that there seems to be a general misconception that Agile is onlyabout creating happy teams.
Blog Post
From 50% Agile Coach to 100% Scrum Master
August 20, 2016
Today I changed my Twitter and LinkedIn profile. I removed Agile Coach and replaced it with Scrum Master. 100% Scrum Master.
Blog Post
Why I joined Scrum.org
August 17, 2016
I’ve been working in software for a long time, and for most of that time I’ve been trying to find better ways of delivering working software.
Blog Post
What Does This Retweet Tell Us About Agile and Scrum?
August 8, 2016
If this post resonates with you, please consider spreading the message so we can educate and inspire others.
Blog Post
Is it Time to Evolve Beyond the Agile Manifesto?
July 30, 2016
If this post resonates with you, please consider spreading the message so we can educate and inspire the entire professional world together.
Blog Post
Why the Dutch should be Scaled Agile Rockstars!
July 28, 2016
What really makes a transformation of your organization successful? Which elements should be in place? Which complicated framework for scaling agile should I choose?
Blog Post
Agile Adoption Canvas
July 27, 2016
In this little blog I want to share a simple canvas that I use to kick-off agile adoption and answer the following questions:
Blog Post
Introducing the new PSM assessment family
July 26, 2016
Today we re-structure our Professional Scrum Master assessment (PSM) and certification products changing the focus of PSM II and introducing PSM III.
Blog Post
Scrum Day Europe 2016
July 25, 2016
During the 5th edition of Scrum Day Europe, Laurens and I facilitated a workshop on how to “Add Visual Flavor to Your Organization Transformation with Videoscribe.”
Blog Post
Common Mistakes when Scaling Scrum
July 19, 2016
These days scaling Scrum is a hot topic. How can I use Scrum to deliver a big product with multiple teams? The most common approach I see at my customers is scaling Scrum by adding more Scrum teams with a Product Owner and Scrum Master per team.
Blog Post
The 3 Things Scrum Teams Get Wrong
July 13, 2016
If you’ve learned Scrum and tried to implement it in any large organization you’ve likely run into a few issues. Getting dedicated people on your team is hard. Building cross-functional teams is really hard.
Blog Post
Scrum Values added to Scrum Guide, so what?
July 9, 2016
This week, co-creators of Scrum, Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland, released a new version of the Scrum Guide
Blog Post
Three Simple Steps to Make Distributed Teams Work
July 8, 2016
As Agility in Mind launch our new training course designed to help distributed teams work effectively, we share our experiences on the
Blog Post
Are carrots and sticks allowed on Daily Scrum?
July 7, 2016
Recently I came across a post by Mike Cohn “Incentives and Deterrents for Starting Daily Scrum on Time”, on Linkedin
Blog Post
Updates to the Scrum Guide: The 5 Scrum values take center stage
July 6, 2016
Today Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland, the creators of Scrum delivered a webinar on their latest update to the Scrum Guide. The update was a simple one, adding the 5 values of Scrum to the Guide.
Blog Post
5 Challenges Creating a Done Increment
July 5, 2016
The purpose of Scrum is to create a potentially shippable Increment by the end of a Sprint. This is so important that people now use many terms to describe this Scrum artifact. Working. Releasable.
Blog Post
Evolution of the Scrum Master
June 29, 2016
In my last post, I explained the pattern of the evolution of the Product Owner. This blog is about the evolution pattern of a Scrum Master.
Blog Post
Evolution of the Product Owner
June 17, 2016
What is a good Product Owner and am I the right person to fill in this role?
If you have ever struggled with this question, you should probably keep reading.
Blog Post
What Students Say About The Professional Scrum Developer Class (PSD.NET)
June 8, 2016
Interview after the 3 day training with 3 students, asking them 3 questions:
1. "Why did you take this class?"
2. "What was your personal highlight of the class?"
3. "What will you do differently on Monday?"
Blog Post
Scrum is the transport not the destination
May 27, 2016
Working with a range of people, it is interesting to observe how many are aiming to “Do Scrum” or “Get Agile”. The issue with this thinking is that people are focusing on the transport, not the destination.
Blog Post
Use Waterfall to be agile
May 26, 2016
I'm sure you've heard of Waterfall, ever heard of Water-Scrum-Fall? Ever heard someone in a product development group tell you “they use a hybrid-agile approach”? There’s a million ways people continue using a traditional, phase gated, software development lifecycle approach and marry it with an agile framework or methodology.
Blog Post
Use the Right Tool for the Job
May 17, 2016
When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail!
Huh? I don’t know; it’s something my father always said.
Blog Post
The Most Powerful Word in the Workplace
May 11, 2016
As we approach the mid-year point in our jobs, I often find that knowledge workplaces have a tendency to slow down a bit and lose some steam - even the ones that leverage Scrum.
Blog Post
15 things a Professional Scrum Product Owner (PSPO) actually does
May 5, 2016
Fifteen crucial responsibilities of an entrepreneurial Product owner. Maximize value & Optimizer, The Product Vision, Value, and Validation, Return of Investment, Reducing the Total Cost of Ownership, Stakeholder Engagement and Collaboration, Business Agility.
Blog Post
Good Product Owners Delete Product Backlog Items
April 22, 2016
At a recent course, one of my attendees talked about his use of a "to delete" status for items in his Product Backlog. Where items had been in his Product Backlog for more than 3 months he tagged them as "to delete".