Deviation From the Norm
It's obvious that the Agile movement is not producing the kind of transformative results that are entirely possible. If current approaches actually worked well, then by now, thousands of organizations would have reached a state of self-sustaining, "freestanding" agility. Clearly, that is not the case. Stories abound about typical failure patterns. Organizations that seem to start well eventually slide ...
Perfect Agile Coaching
Imagine if it was possible to for an organization to reach a state of self-sustaining, freestanding agility after just 5 coaching days. Just FIVE. What might that mean for the spread of agility throughout the world? I met Chris Rufer, Paul Green and Doug Kirkpatrick last May when I presented a session on Gaming Happiness At ...
May 21 Meeting: Live Scrum Exercise
Studying Scrum and DOING Scrum are very different. Studying is just the first step. There’s much more value to be extracted from doing. In this meeting, you will see what real Scrum looks like. You'll participate in a complete simulation, building a complex product. You won't have all the answers at the start of the game.... This meeting is an experiental ...
OFFICE HOURS concall for Q&A on The Culture Game Book
Starting in May 2013, you can get direct real-time answers to your questions about implementing the patterns and practices in THE CULTURE GAME book. Every week, you can now hop on a 'Office Hours' conference call where I will take questions, provide guidance, and help you use the book in a bigger way. Perhaps most importantly, you'll also hear directly ...
Safety, Engagement and Productivity
There's a Gallup poll out there that says disengaged workers are costing the US economy 300 BILLION DOLLARS per year. Now let's get clear on what is happening. Productivity is being lost. Productivity is correlated with engagement. Engagement is nil. Engagement is associated with a space where it is safe to say when you think, want, feel, etc. What we have here is ...
April 02 Meeting: Agile Coach DAMON POOLE on: PANNING FOR USER-STORY GOLD
Putting User Stories into business value order is a key tenet of Agile, but that’s just the first step. There’s much more value to be extracted from your user stories using specific story splitting techniques combined with reducing cycle time. By splitting user stories you can separate the gold from the dirt as well as reduce the cost of implementation. This ...
Agile Coaching and Sports
Question: why do sport teams employ coaches past training camp? Aren't the athletes professionals capable of their own learning? This is a question I received recently when I explained that 'embedded" or "integrated" coaching (where a Agile coach is present 5 days a week for 3 months or more) is probably a very bad idea. For those of you new to ...
March 05 2013 Meeting: Agile Coach Richard Kasperowski on Coaching with Open Space
Richard set a record when he facilitated a six-week-long Open Space with his software development team. This is unique: they are the only people in the world to have held Open Space for such a long time. They pushed the limits of Open Space Technology, discovering both what it's great at and its limitations. Richard will share the highlights of ...
Feb 05 2013 Meeting: Agile Coach Frank Saucier on: EFFECTIVE PRODUCT OWNERSHIP
Slides from this talk are available: Effective Product Ownership The Product Owner role is essential in Scrum. Get this right, and your product delights end-users and customers. Play this role ineffectively and you have a failed Scrum implementation. This month's meeting is about work with Product Owners and how to be effective in the role of Product ...
Agile Coaching: Core Values & Supporting Principles
The idea of hammering out a set of guiding Values and Principles for Agile Coaches is an idea whose time has come. Increasing reports of problems in Agile Coaching are tarnishing our profession and diluting our effectiveness as change agents. This is a very serious problem. A set of community-built, open-source Values and Principles is one solution we can all act ...
