Professional Scrum teams build software that works
I am always surprised at the number of teams that release undone work to production. I understand that one may need a few sprints, or many if you inherited something nasty, to pay back that debt, but if it’s more then you are not a Professional Scrum Team . The sheer amount of software that I have that is buggy, slow, or just not finished makes me think that there are few professional Scrum Teams out there!
The Sprint Goal is a commitment for the Sprint Backlog
In the 2020 Scrum Guide Ken and Jeff augmented the idea of the Sprint Goal . The Sprint Goal is a commitment to ensure transparency and focus against progress during a Sprint.
Release planning and predictable delivery
Many organisations wrestle with the seeming incompatibility between agile and release management, and they struggle with release planning and predictable delivery. Updated to reflect the 2020 Scrum Guide!
The Product Goal is a commitment for the Product Backlog
In the 2020 Scrum Guide Ken and Jeff introduces the idea of the Product Goal . The Product Goal is a commitment to ensure transparency and focus against progress.
Update to the Scrum Guide on the 25th Anniversary of the Scrum Framework
It has been 25 years since Scrum was first created by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland and it has gone through many revisions. The last major revision was in 2017 and this update represents a simplification for 2020.
Online is the new co-located
In light of the new normal and the last 20 years of technological progress, we need to re-define co-location as we no longer need to be in the same room as each other to get the 80% of communication that is non-verbal . If we are participating in an online event, we should try our best to keep our cameras on so that we can all read those non-verbal queues.
The fallacy of the rejected backlog item
There is a frustrating misunderstanding of reality when one thinks that the Product Owner can reject a single story at the Sprint Review. This is the fallacy of the rejected backlog item and the misguided belief that this backlog item can just be left out of this delivery. That backlog item that was chosen by the Development Team at the Sprint Planning event to help them achieve the Sprint Goal. The Sprint Goal that created focus and has the entire Development Team working in the same area of the codebase.
Evolution not Transformation: This is the Inevitability of change
There is no such thing as an Agile Transformation, Digital Transformation, DevOps Transformation, or any of the Whatever Transformation that you can think of or have been sold. You can’t buy agility, and you certainly can’t install it. There is no end state, no optimal outcome, No best practices. We are no longer factory workers .
Luddites have no place in the modern organisation
In our Professional Agile Leadership training , we talk about changing your organisations hiring practices to hire more of the right sort of people to create the company that you want, not the company that you have. Hire the right people also implies that you will have to, within your cultural constraints, de-hire the wrong people.
Many organisations are lured to SAFe by the song of the Sirens
These Sirens take advantage of the lack of understanding of what business agility is trying to change and lures unsuspecting C-suite executives into parting with their cash for what is effectively someone else’s business process. They are changing their entire organisation, not because of a business challenge, but because they are told to.
