Year: 2024
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Beyond Practices: Behaviours and Goals in Agile
Agile Coaches often work with teams and organizations deeply entrenched in the frameworks and practices that have become synonymous with Agile. One way Agile Coaches can help improve performance at these organizations is by introducing a different perspective about how those frameworks and practices, while once useful, might now be holding them back. The Practice…
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Achieving Agility Through Strong Mechanics
I watched a StarCraft stream last month, and the streamer, a popular StarCraft caster, said to his audience: “Strategies are easier to replicate than mechanics.” He expanded and explained how professional StarCraft players don’t need strategies to beat weaker players because their mechanics are so strong. I thought about how this idea could apply to…
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The Hidden Costs of Over-Collaboration
In the wake of Agile’s success and the benefits it offers organizations to help them achieve faster delivery, happier customers, and more engaged teams, “Collaboration” has become a buzzword. However, the way I see most teams practice collaboration is not in the sense of collaborating with customers; their focus is on the internal collaboration necessary…
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Avoiding Agile Must-Dos
I’ve worked with a few organizations so heavily focused on the operational aspects of Agile that they only thought of Agile as a set of practices teams had to follow and where doing good Agile meant completing projects successfully. At companies with that perspective, instead of describing qualities like adaptability and quickness, Agile becomes a…
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Making Progress Through Questions
An Agile Coach’s job is to help teams grow and enhance their effectiveness. Rather than push practices, give answers, or do the team’s work for them, coaches can help teams increase their effectiveness by paying attention to the quality of conversations and the flow of information in their work. Two ways Agile Coaches can improve…
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Starting Agile With Retrospectives and Continuous Improvement
As an Agile Coach, people occasionally ask me for help introducing agile to their teams. When asked these questions in the past, the approach I used to take was to dive deeper into the team’s intent and goals. Instead of pushing practices or tools, I would ask them what they were trying to achieve with…
Flow Focused 