I remember thinking when I first started using Agile over fifteen years ago that you couldn’t use Agile for everything in an organisation. Five years later when I learnt of Kanban I began to rethink about whether that was true. I could see that it could be applied in a broader context outside of software …
Effective Executive Sponsors for Agile are a rare breed. In the VersionOne 11th Annual State of Agile Report 2017 the importance of Executive Sponsors is highlighted both to the success of scaling Agile and to mitigate challenges. This importance has grown dramatically over the last five years as Agile …
A North Korean Architect was commissioned to draw a futuristic version of North Korea with zero limits on both financial feasibility or even structural integrity. The result? In what seems straight out of a 1963 ‘The Jetsons’ episode, the architect seemed to produce drawing after drawing stuck in an era of decades past. Simplistic treehouses, ancient decor …
There are some great things about Scrum. Having a regular cadence for planning how to do work, working together to progress work and regularly reflecting and getting feedback both on how we work together and what was delivered are all great concepts. But I have come to a somewhat scary hypothesis that it isn’t the …
For those that have been on the Agile journey for a while this post will hopefully come as no surprise, but if you are fairly new on the journey I wanted to take the opportunity to clarify what I feel is a common misconception about Agile. In the early days of Agile we made it …
Recently reading Dan Pink’s Drive, I was mesmerised by a statement of leadership type classifications. I wondered whilst reading it if there was a way to short cut the interview process to get the right type of leader by asking the following question: We believe here at <Company X> that people fundamentally dislike work and …
I have been pondering lately what the purpose of a Scrum Master or Iteration Manager is. Many believe that it is a 100% full time role. Some are even concerned that there are formal positions springing up for this role. Here is my stance (and work in progress model) on the role: The purpose of …
When my team gets together as a group of coaches it is always an interesting few days. I say this in complete honesty. I find the conversations stimulating. I find the group passion contagious. But I know that some don’t find it that way. Sensing the frustration I asked a colleague what in particular they disliked. I …
For a while now I have been discombombulated. The cause of my confusion and desperation has been around the issue of management. I am not talking about Leadership. Leaders are people (whether in a position of hierarchy or not) that naturally foster an environment of collaboration, understanding and consensus. No, what I am talking about …
I have been pondering since reading Steve Denning’s on Fighting the Kool-Aid of Stock Based Compensation and Umair Haque’s Harvard Business Review’s The Economic Roots of your Life Crisis about perilous journey that we might be on. Take a step back for a moment and consider some cause and effect. When my parents worked it was …
Agile Forest 