A few weeks ago we considered the Agile Manifesto from a lean perspective. We saw that it is possible to map the 12 agile principles to the 7 canonical “Lean Wastes” in terms of a mitigation approach.

This blog gives a Lean perspective on the Agile Manifesto.

“A good review from the critics is just another stay of execution” -- Dustin Hoffman

Scrum provides numerous opportunities for teams to inspect and adapt their progress, including on a daily basis.

A few months ago we looked at how teams can optimize flow across the Sprint boundary, a technique which is founded on their ability to make limited and sustainable commitments.

A couple of years ago I blogged on Innovation Accounting in Scrum, and the bringing of empiricism to Product Ownership. On Tuesday I gave a presentation on this topic to the Agile Northants UK meetup. There was a pretty good Q&A afterwards.

Hearing a senior executive announce "We're committed to becoming agile!" is not the bombshell moment it used to be. It no longer indicates a personal revelation or board-room epiphany.

The Scrum Guide is markedly ambitious in the standard of professionalism it demands of a team. Development Team members must be self-organizing and cross-functional, to the point that they will repeatedly and sustainably create a valuable product increment...

Scrum stands on the three legs of transparency, inspection, and adaptation. Of these, transparency can arguably be said to come first. Unless a situation is made clear it cannot be inspected, and any consequent adaptation arising therefrom is likely to prove futile.

“The important thing is to remember what most impressed you and to put it on canvas as fast as possible.” - Pierre Bonnard

A couple of weeks ago we looked at Monte Carlo analysis. We saw how this technique can be used to forecast Sprint capacity, and to anticipate the likely completion schedule for a given backlog of work.

I remember being told, many years ago when I started university, that Information Technology is a numerate discipline.

Agile coaching is a journey into irony. One of the chief discoveries you can make on this voyage is that the more experienced you become, the worse at the job others often think you get.

Why are there so many meetings?" is a complaint a Scrum Master often hears, especially from team members who are new to agile practice. It's the refrain of those in an organization which is more likely to be doing agile rather than being agile.

I remember going on a PRINCE2 course a few years ago, and trying to determine how this celebrated stage-gated framework might be applied to an agile mode of delivery. I was employed in the UK public sector at the time, and I had come to know how instrumental "PRINCE2 compliance" can be to the striking of a defensive organizational posture. When all eventually fails you must be able to show that you followed appropriate procedure.

“Most executives, many scientists, and almost all business school graduates believe that if you analyze data, this will give you new ideas. Unfortunately, this belief is totally wrong.

"The most important metrics are: did we execute the way in which we said we would, and did we deliver the value to the business that we had promised?" - Jamie S. Miller

"That's the problem with so many organizations around entrepreneurship. They're driven by metrics that don't matter." - Brad Feld

"See it all. See it fairly. Be truthful, be sensible and be careful with language" - Henry Grunwald

"To ensure continuous improvement, [the Sprint Backlog] includes at least one high priority process improvement identified in the previous Retrospective meeting." - The Scrum Guide, November 2017 That old familiar feeling

"Perfection has to do with the end product, but excellence has to do with the process." - Jerry Moran

"That's the thing about zombies. They don't adapt and they don't think." - Max Brooks One of the earliest challenges I ever had to resolve, as a Scrum Master, was the proper disposal of the dead.

"It's weird when you get roles that coincide with your life" - Lily James

“The secret of success is to be ready when your opportunity comes” - Benjamin Disraeli  

Congratulations! You replied to the job advert for an agile position, and you’ve got an interview. Genuinely keen to work in an agile way, you know that the organization must have picked up on your credentials.

“Scrum begins with Done”. The assertion might seem counter-intuitive, as though we must start by defining the end.

“Do not accustom yourself to consider debt only as an inconvenience; you will find it a calamity” - Samuel Johnson

"Few ideas work on the first try. Iteration is key to innovation.” - Sebastian Thrun

"There are no shortcuts when it comes to getting out of debt" - Dave Ramsey

As I get older, I'm turning into one of those annoying nostalgic-types who reminisces too much. Things were better back in the day, son. We had standards see, and there was less of this "dumbing-down". Yip.

"Gross ignorance is 144 times worse than ordinary ignorance" - Bennett Cerf

As an agile coach, I find that organizations often have a narrow and constrained view of where agility ought to be practiced.

If someone asked you “what is the role of the Project Management Office in an agile organization”, what would you say to them?

In this introductory-level article we look at the mechanics of a Sprint, and at how team members are expected to collaborate in order to produce a release-quality increment.