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Blog Post

🇺🇸 Five Questions for a Sprint Goal!

May 6, 2019
A Sprint Goal is an objective set for the Sprint that can be met through the implementation of Product Backlog (cit. Scrum Guide). Have you clearly defined a Sprint Goal at the end of your Sprint Planning? Is this Sprint Goal understandable and transparent to everyone? Is it defined in a way that provides guidance and flexibility to the Development Team? The aim of this article is to raise awareness on the importance of having a Sprint Goal defined and to provide some suggestions on how to create one.
Blog Post

4 Paradoxes in Agile (and Life)

May 6, 2019
A paradox is something that is seemlingly absurd but really true. When I experience complexity and uncertainty, I find comfort and power in paradox. It opens up creativity, possibility, and collaboration. Let's take a look at 4 paradoxes we need to navigate in the agile world and beyond.
Blog Post

Presentation: Innovation Accounting in Scrum

May 4, 2019
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.
Blog Post

The Flying Scrum Doctor

April 28, 2019
In your organization, some problems seem to recur, they are difficult to fix using the tools, tricks and practices you developed over the years as a manager. Maybe this problem is different and the perspective of an expert-outsider might help?
Blog Post

The Scrum Master is a Full-Time Role?

April 24, 2019
Ever wonder what a Scrum Master does all day? If you’re new to the role of a Scrum Master, you might think you have to facilitate all the events, take notes and schedule outlook meetings. Turns out you don’t have to do any of that!
Blog Post

Leadership is the Connective Tissue

April 23, 2019
Leadership means having the responsibility to enable an environment that harnesses the full intellectual talent of an organization. We hire a bunch of top diverse talent but limit them by unintentionally having them work only within their part or silo of a large organization.
Blog Post

The Kanban Perspective on Teams

April 16, 2019
The comparison between Kanban and Scrum obviously comes up often when we're talking to teams, especially in the context of Professional Scrum with Kanban. While they are more similar than many practitioners realize, one key difference is the perspective on Teams. 
Blog Post

Designing a Team Culture

April 13, 2019
Teams are becoming the fundamental organizational entity, individual responsibility is being replaced by that of the team. But responsibility does not come about all by itself.
Blog Post

Build trust with Scrum

April 10, 2019
From my experience, nothing is more important for Teamwork than trust. If having the secondary importance, it’s TRUST as well. You can't build a good team while they lack of trust.
Blog Post

The Invisible Taxes Organizations Pay

April 8, 2019
Organizations are always on the lookout to cut costs and scale back when they have unfavorable reporting periods. Hiring freezes, and cutbacks in training and traveling tend to be popular and convenient.
Blog Post

Where Does the Efficiency and Speed from Agile Come From?

April 2, 2019
Many large legacy organizations are moving toward agile delivery methods in hopes of releasing faster to market. Based on my experiences, they look at it solely from a production view of getting software released faster and more often. This view has them believing this will result in getting more features released.
Blog Post

A Scrum Master Works on Three Levels

April 2, 2019
Through my professional experience, while serving my customers, working with Scrum Teams and training people in Professional Scrum, I have observed that some Scrum Masters only work to serve the Development Team and the Product Owner.
Blog Post

The Agile Values in Practice

April 1, 2019
One of the most important things we can do to help individuals and teams improve is coach them to embrace the agile mindset. The Manifesto for Agile Software Development provides values and principles to help guide teams in navigating the complexities of product delivery.
Blog Post

Scrum Master Tips - Mind your "Say:Do" ratio

March 28, 2019
A common phrase that I use in my classes is that Scrum is like the poker game Texas Hold’em; it only takes a few minutes to learn but a lifetime to master.  The “few minutes” may be a bit of a stretch but my students get the point. 
Blog Post

Leadership — Succession Planning and Philanthropy

March 26, 2019
I have been fortunate enough to have a successful career as a change agent. I leverage my experience of navigating the world with Cerebral Palsy — a world that was not yet ready to deal with a person with a disability — to help companies deal with their disability: their inability to change from the status quo.
Blog Post

WIP - Work in...What?

March 19, 2019
Scrum and Kanban are a great combination. With this insight more and more Scrum Teams become aware of terms and phrases used in Kanban. Like 'WIP'.
Blog Post

Getting to 85 - Agile Metrics with ActionableAgile Part 1

March 18, 2019
The topic of Agile Metrics inevitably comes up in many situations and conversations. For the Scrum practitioners these somehow are a subset of Velocity and Burn ups and downs. Now, there's a whole world out there, that operates with much reacher vocabulary of metrics. Professional Scrum With Kanban (PSK) by Scrum.org brings that world of fantastic Agile Metrics back to Scrum. In this series of posts I will review those metrics using great software - ActionableAgile, provided by fellow PST, Daniel Vacanti.
Blog Post

Take a Break

March 12, 2019
As leaders, we are connected 24/7. Being connected with our mobile devices has meant we’re always available all the time. We have the pressure to move faster. Do more with less time. To our benefit and also to our detriment, we end up doing it.
Blog Post

Let's Remove "Agile" from Agile Leadership

March 11, 2019
What exactly is “agile” or even an agile leader? This is one of the biggest problems our industry faces. Ask a room full of people to answer and you may get as many answers. Common ones include “it’s a mindset” or “it’s a software methodology” etc…