Category: Agile
-
An Agile Alternative to “Fixing”
One of my go-to definitions of Agile is working in a way of safely making progress and moving forward with imperfect information. In the journey to becoming Agile, organizations face many obstacles. Whatever their goals, there are a lot of organizational, cultural and technical challenges and constraints that teams and organizations face. When faced with…
-
Where Are The Problems?
When I first started coaching teams, I aimed to teach people the techniques and methods they could use to manage their work better. Recently, I’ve adopted a different approach that actually leaves techniques for last and instead starts with problems and needs. I was thinking about my initial approach and how it’s changed over the…
-
Rethinking Retrospectives
I sometimes get asked by managers if they should add the action items created in their team retrospective meetings to their kanban boards. More explicit management of retrospective outputs happens when managers start getting unsatisfied with their teams’ progress at improving their metrics, shortening their lead times, or meeting their commitments. They believe by visualizing…
-
Running, Falling, and the Core of Agile
How do you run? Years ago, when I worked as CrossFit Coach, I frequently attended workshops to improve in particular areas, including Olympic weightlifting and Strongman. One workshop I attended was called CrossFit Endurance, which taught the Pose Method of running. I’ve been thinking about how the lesson I learned from that workshop relates to how Agile teams…
-
How I Use Scrum to Teach Agility
As part of my job doing Agile Coaching, I occasionally have to give training to groups of people, and part of that training sometimes requires that I cover the Scrum framework. But because I like coaching people and teams on agility and not frameworks, teaching Scrum is something I’m always conflicted about. But the last time…
-
Revisiting the Guidance on Cross-functional Teams
Like most things with Agile, the idea that teams should be “cross-functional” gets shared almost like an eternal truth, but it’s an old idea that deserves a deeper look. I will explore different perspectives on cross-functional teams and the Three Amigos model, what benefits they’re supposed to provide, and their gaps. I will also review…
Flow Focused 