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 … Continue reading Rethinking Retrospectives →

Why Work Waits

One of the most common challenges I face when coaching teams is getting their work unstuck and flowing. When I start working with teams, they always seem to be dealing with the same problems: It's difficult for them to get anything done They have cards over a year old on their Jira board. They spend … Continue reading Why Work Waits →

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 … Continue reading Running, Falling, and the Core of Agile →

My Agile Sketching Experiment

Between September and October of 2022, because the COVID pandemic put my contracts on hold for a few months, I set a personal challenge to create and share 100 agile-related sketches on Twitter. In October 2020, after posting an average of four drawings a day, I completed that challenge. Because I no longer use Twitter, … Continue reading My Agile Sketching Experiment →

Turn Jira’s Control Chart Into a Lead Time Scatterplot

In an earlier post, Quick Jira Control Chart Aging WIP Hack, I walked through the process of using Jira's control chart report to get a view of a team's aging work in progress. Aging work in progress is a simple and effective tool to help manage a team's work. Soon after publishing that article, I … Continue reading Turn Jira’s Control Chart Into a Lead Time Scatterplot →