Simon Reindl

The role of an agile leader is to create and foster an environment where empiricism thrives to support the delivery of value. Evidence Based Management supports this, by providing a framework to link goals and objective measures to provide insights in to how effectively the organisation is working.

In the 2020 Version of the Scrum Guide, the commitments were introduced for each artifact. These then became an element of Scrum; in that they need to be used to gain the maximum value that the Scrum Framework offers. They were always part of a Professional Scrum approach, now there is a clear connection of these commitments to the artifacts. They increase transparency, and the focussed delivery of Value. Each of the commitments now clearly support and sustain an artifact.

"Becoming Agile" has been the focus of many organisations for a number of years. 2020 has created a new sense of urgency with a number of factors creating increasing demand for quicker responses.

The traditional approach of RFI – RFP – Review – LOI is neither lean or agile. The Lean Agile Procurement approach reduces the sourcing cycle time to days, with collaborative clarification of the product with prospective partners while reducing the risk of a poor partner and company evaluation.

The purpose of Scrum is to create a potentially releasable Done Product Increment, in order to realize business value. Many teams struggle in improving their Definition of Done. The technique described here allows for greater transparency on what the Definition of Done is, and what the next steps are.

Working with the Professional Scrum Trainer community, and particularly with Ken Schwaber as one of the Professional Scrum Master Stewards has been a very rewarding learning journey.

There is often confusion when organisations transition to an agile way of working, particularly with the mapping of roles. This blog explores the role of Project Managers in Scrum.

Work is complex, and to honour the empirical approach is harder. It requires trust, in order to be transparent. To enable the responsiveness that agile promises there needs to be discipline and rigour.

Exploring the accountabilities in a Scrum Team through a Longship metaphor.

​ Table Manners There is a striking similarity between good table manners and good agile behaviours - "agile table manners". It is even more clear when viewed through the lens of the Scrum values: Focus, Respect, Openness, Courage and Commitment. The intent of manners is to help it be as safe and pleasant to be with our fellow mankind. Many of them stem from safety and hygiene, and others from a desire not to offend. These simple rules act as a guide to encourage each meal to be as joyful as possible. The same can be said of working within an agile mindset. A host always ensures plenty ​A good host will always ensure that there is enough to feed everyone, and there is a healthy variety. In some cultures, it is important to leave a little food on your plate to let the host know you are well fed. In Scrum it is critical for the Product Owner to ensure that there is a healthy backlog, of well refined work for the Development Team to select from. This should be refined with the Development Team as well as other experts as necessary. In Kanban this may be a specific board before the Development board, to shape the understanding of the work. If there is not enough well understood work, then the team will either be idle (going hungry), or take on poorly understood work (and choke). Don't overload your plate ​When you serve yourself, you shouldn't take more than you can eat. Be mindful that others will need to serve themselves, and that you can always go back for more. When teams are selecting work, select enough to be busy, and not so much as to leave any left over. Finishing a Sprint with undone work is the key sign that too much work was selected. There will be times when this happens through illness or other unexpected events - it should not be the norm. If all the work is finished, then the Development Team should always talk to the Product Owner about how to drive the most business value from the time remaining. In Kanban, the teams should be reflecting on their WIP limits and monitoring flow through the entire process. The throughput should indicate how overloaded the team is. It is rude to offer someone what you have half eaten yourself ... just as it is disgusting to spit out chewed food and put it on your plate - Erasmus Finish your mouthful ​This is a huge one. In practice, so easy. Take a reasonable mouthful, chew it well, swallow. There are some key etiquette points around this: Don't talk with a mouthful (and spray your fellow diners) Don't shovel more food in with an existing mouthful (and risk choking) Don't spit out half eaten food, and take another mouthful in Don't take such a big mouthful that you can't chew it In our working day, how many times is there a partially done task? How many times do you start one task, put it down and then start another?​ This is the essence of context switching, and is an incredibly common waste. This is explored in ​this article by Jeff Atwood and ​this article by Matt Stine. There are tasks that are suited to checking with other tasks, or the bigger plan. At the "mouthful" size - the task should be finished. Use the​ pomodoro technique to break your day in to manageable chunks. Re-evaluate what you need to next after you complete each "mouthful". Don't force feed others ​You should only feed someone else by invitation! This is not to be attempted unless clear and unequivocal permission has been given! At best, it is messy, at worst it is dangerous. How often do you push another mouthful onto someone else? The agile frameworks are all pull based to enable better flow. When we push work we create bottlenecks and buffers. How do you feel when someone gives you tasks without talking to you about it first? This inhibits the ability for the team to self organise. Ben Day explores this in the ​this article. Assigning work out can impede the team developing the essential skills of self organisation. Summary ​Working together should be as joyful as possible, so behaving in a respectful way will help each interaction with someone else as fun as possible. If we thing of our work as "food for the mind", then surely we should use good table manners while eating our food. Good Eating!