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At a recent Scrum.org Professional Scrum Master II class, I asked the group to write down some learnings from the class that may help other Scrum Masters. One statement that came up has stuck in my mind ever since: “Don’t be a comfortable Scrum Master.” – Unknown Scrum.org Professional Scrum Master II Attendee.

Many years ago, when I began working with clients on full-scale agile transformations (beyond the team-level or product perspective), I realized that organizations would benefit from a practice that help them experiment toward more agility. As a result, I crossed paths with the world of Kata.

A real life Agile transformation story! You can download the free eBook!

In Leslie Morse's first Scrum.org blog post she explores the intersection of professional coaching and agile coaching, and the opportunity we have as agilists to overcome the limitations of an industrialized mindset and create space for ushering in the future of work.

What I usually hear is “Scrum is great, but it doesn’t work in my organization, because...” and then follows a list of excuses why change is impossible or hard.

For many years, many of us have had strong opinions about the importance of having teams that are co-located.

The Agile Transformation Kata is for example such a practice that reinforces an agile mindset during an agile transformation, and through many reflection cycles allows to adapt to new emerging needs, like COVID-19.

The Scrum Team gathers around their team desk to hold the Daily Scrum.

One of the teams I worked with suggested dropping the Sprint Retrospective and the Sprint Review from the Sprint and only do them every other Sprint.  

This is quite a long read which you can download as the whitepaper "Systems Thinking in Organizational Coaching".

How do you change a system that is as complex as an organization? This is the quintessential question facing Scrum Masters, Product Owners and other drivers of change. In this post, we explore how the Liberating Structure ‘Panarchy’ offers a powerful perspective and allows you to put systems thinking into practice. And even though it is perhaps the most complicated of them all, Panarchy brings together all the promises of Liberating Structures: engage everyone and unleash change on every level. Its a great way to drive organizational change together in an organic way.

Fighting organizational impediments as a Product Owner? Combine powers and utilize the Product Owner and Scrum Master symbiosis. And create more focus at the same time.

Nearly every conversation I have with people who are trying to bring agility to their organizations eventually comes around to the challenge of changing the culture of the organization.

In football, the team that wins is the one that gets the ball in the other team’s goal most times. Not the one that runs the most.

In football, the team that wins is the one that gets the ball in the other team’s goal most times. Not the one that runs the most.

I believe there are three things you need to do regardless of the framework, methodology or program you are embracing with your organization.

Katas and patterns go hand in hand and so does the Agile Transformation Kata (ATK) harmonize very well with the organizational change patterns published for example by Mary Lynn Manns and Linda Rising in their book  More Fearless Change.

When working with a flow-based Kanban system there are a few statements that I would suggest most teams should bear in mind.

There are four key words in the first value of the Agile Manifesto: “Individuals and their interactions over processes and tools”

Imagine for a moment what frequently asked questions around agile transformations look like. Which questions do you hear most often as it seems agile transformation has been a hot topic lately?

I have my own biases,  having seen co-located teams work very well and having struggled with “dislocated” teams, I often recommend my clients to reconsider “dislocated” teams. 

Unclear language leads to incomplete transparency and ambiguity. The careful use of words like ‘bug’ will improve decision-making in your organization.

How effectively are you maximizing value when dependencies tell you what to do first? Dependencies impact the core of the role of Product Owner.

For executives and for change agents who deal with executives in large contexts ...

Overcome common transformation mistakes and enhance your agility.

An executive is a person who owns the strategy or sets the direction of travel or sets justifications for spending. This exec could be the Product Owner for a chunk of the organization.

I first met Sally,and then later Francis her husband, at a local user group - Agile in Leeds, where Sally delivered a fantastic 10 minute talk on how she implemented Scrum to help Francis with ADHD. 

Agility is the ability of an organization to adapt to new conditions and to change its direction. The modern service-based format of the production-based economy of the previous century renders the competence of companies to change even stronger than before.

Bottom line - WiP limits must be applied to improve flow of the delivery of value. It's a key lever to improve the performance of Professional Scrum Teams, and it's required by the Kanban Guide for Scrum.

Over the centuries, humans have managed to adapt to many situations and evolve to become what we are today. History shows that we have an innate ability to adapt and evolve. This remains valid as part of a change in business, such as the adoption of Scrum.

I have created a little exercise that I like to use to help focus the on things we can change, or at least situations to seek out or avoid, to help focus change efforts. The essence of it is summarized in a picture. I call this the agile affinity model, and the dimensions the key drivers of empiricism.

Last time I talked about the Ghana Police Service (GPS) I was talking about Professional Organisational Change and the approach the Inspector General of Polic

The Scrum framework thrives on empirical process control. The inspection of observable results gives us insights in what might be most valuable next, always acknowledging that the future is unwritten.

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.

Agile approaches, including Scrum, are empirical approaches to delivering software and business value.

If this post resonates with you, please consider spreading the message so we can educate and inspire others.

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.

Over the past 10 years I have worked with many organisations and helped them to use Scrum to create innovative and sometimes market leading Products. I have seen a lot of Scrum during this time, much of it done well, but some of it done badly.

Are you considered an authoritative "leader" in your organization? Do you spend your day at the top of the tower or in the trenches?

A lot of people talk about scaling Agile. It’s all the rage nowadays. Everyone wants to scale Agile. But what does that actually mean? What does it imply? What are the underlying assumptions?

There’s an old Wayne Gretzky quote that I love...

A pair of recent findings from the Standish Group confirm the astonishing success and cost savings of Agile approaches over waterfall.

This is the final post in a three part series. Please like, share,and/or comment.

This is the second post in a three part series. Please like, share and commentand I’ll be sure to update you when the next post in the series comes out.

Through my years of trial and error,  I have learned there is no one size fits all solution to transitioning organizations to agile...context is king!

VersionOne does an annual "State of Agile Development" survey and publishes the results for the cost of your email address.  Thanks VersionOne!