Team Performance: Optimising Flow and Collaboration for Sustainable Delivery

Explores why real leadership means designing systems that enable team autonomy, flow, and accountability—rather than relying on command-and-control …

Measuring the time from work initiation to customer delivery, helping teams monitor workflow efficiency and improve value delivery.

Discover why “done” means live in production—not just code complete. Learn to deliver real value, close feedback loops, and drive outcomes that …

Explains why promoting code through multiple branches slows delivery, increases risk, and suggests GitHub Flow or Release Flow as simpler, safer …

Throughput is a delivery metric used to inspect how much work is completed per unit of time, enabling analysis of flow efficiency and system …

Tracking the time taken to complete a unit of work from start to finish.

NKD Agility helped SLB unify build and release processes across 90 teams in 13 countries, boosting team ownership, efficiency, and engineering …

Velocity measures how quickly teams turn ideas into value, using build, test, deploy, and feedback times—not just story points—to track real delivery …

A cross-border product team overcame misalignment and role confusion through immersive mentorship, boosting collaboration, engineering engagement, and …

Getting Started with the Definition of Done (DoD). Every team should define what is required, what criteria must be met, for a product increment to be …

Unlock your team's true potential—discover why a powerful definition of done drives real business impact, customer value, and lasting competitive …

The Scrum Master is an accountability in Scrum, responsible for enabling the effectiveness of the Scrum Team and fostering continuous improvement …

Explains how the Scrum Master is accountable for enabling effective product delivery, fostering team success, and ensuring each sprint produces a …

Excessive handoffs in software development create delays, reduce quality, and harm team morale. Learn how eliminating handoffs boosts agility, flow, …

Measuring individual cycle time overlooks team performance and system bottlenecks. Focus on lead time, throughput, and process efficiency to improve …

Explores Agile as a disciplined system of delivery, emphasizing engineering excellence, CI/CD, observability, and system design over mindset or …

Enhance forecasting in Agile and Scrum. Use empirical data to predict delivery timelines, manage risk, and optimise value delivery.

Tracking individual cycle time can harm team performance by encouraging task cherry-picking, reduced collaboration, and lower quality, without …

Explains how Scrum teams can strategically allow unfinished work to flow across Sprint boundaries, enhancing throughput, responsiveness, and …

Unreleased features create hidden costs and risks. Regular software delivery reduces failure rates, rework, and missed opportunities, ensuring real …

Explores Scrum Team effectiveness, emphasising that consistent delivery is essential and highlighting the Scrum Master's accountability for enabling …

Martin is in EST for 6 months and available for hands-on consulting in North America. This month’s spotlight: How tracking estimation accuracy is …

Delaying software releases increases failure risk. Frequent, small releases improve success rates, adaptability, and recovery, as shown by CHAOS …

Explains why true Scrum requires real team agency, not just self-management in name, and how lacking agency leads to ineffective, ritualistic Agile …

Explains how technical leaders can break down organisational silos and enforce better branching, team structures, and architecture to improve software …

Struggling with inconsistent delivery? Discover why a shared definition of done is key to predictable, high-quality results your teams—and …

Optimising how often software is deployed to enhance feedback loops and value delivery.

Frequent changes to the Definition of Done reduce team quality and predictability. Consistent, enforced standards are key to reliable delivery and …

Visualising workflows to identify inefficiencies and optimise value delivery.

Optimising the throughput of work across the value stream to improve speed and reduce bottlenecks.

Explains why a “Blocked” column in Azure DevOps hinders workflow, and suggests using tags and tracking to manage blocked work more effectively and …

Using hypothesis-driven approaches to test ideas and validate assumptions in agile workflows.

Explains the Scrum Master's role in ensuring team delivery by fostering agility, removing blockers, and being accountable for improving team …

Explains how Scrum reveals team dysfunctions by clarifying roles and accountability, highlighting its purpose to expose issues that hinder value …

Using data, metrics, and feedback to drive continuous improvement in teams and processes.

Stop paying the hidden costs of weak delivery. Discover how a strong, shared definition of done builds trust, quality, and real agility in your team.

Argues that the Scrum Master role requires proven mastery and real-world experience, not entry-level skills or certifications, and should be earned …

Scrum Masters are most effective when they combine leadership skills with technical, business, and organisational mastery to support teams, Product …

Applying software engineering principles to ensure scalable and reliable systems.

A **Shift-Left Strategy** brings testing, security, and compliance earlier in development, reducing defects, accelerating feedback, and improving …

Explains why staggered iterations harm software delivery, increasing technical debt, and recommends cross-functional teams, test-first, and working …

Professional Scrum Teams prioritise software quality, accountability, and continuous improvement, ensuring each release is reliable, defect-free, and …

Ensure software quality and reliability with Automated Testing. Detect issues early, reduce manual effort, and accelerate delivery.

Explores how empowering and engaging diverse software teams boosts motivation, collaboration, and product quality through trust, feedback, skills …

Scrum Masters with deep knowledge and competence enable teams to deliver better products, drive business outcomes, and foster real improvement in …

Explains how Kaizen’s continuous improvement principles enhance Scrum and Agile teams, with practical tips for retrospectives, workflow optimisation, …

Explains why Scrum Masters should not direct teams, emphasising self-organisation, shared responsibility, and the importance of team autonomy in Scrum …

Learn three key Agile strategies: define clear completion criteria, avoid overcommitting in Sprints, and prioritise backlog refinement for better team …

Explores how practical, real-world Scrum training at Great Calm improved team collaboration, alignment, and continuous improvement across the …

Incompetent Scrum Masters reduce team performance and ROI by lacking key skills. Learn how to measure their impact using innovation, usage, and …

Explains how a Scrum Master empowers Agile teams by bridging business, technical, and organisational needs to boost effectiveness, collaboration, and …

Explains why using blocked columns for stalled tasks on project boards harms workflow, and suggests better ways to highlight and address blocked work …

Explains how to create, apply, and improve a Definition of Done (DoD) in Scrum to ensure software quality, transparency, and consistent delivery of …

Explains why empowering teams to adapt their processes boosts agility, reduces waste, and fosters innovation, using real-world examples and practical …

Explores how practical use of Scrum fosters adaptability and resilience in teams, highlighting the value of flexibility over rigid rules in complex …

Explains why regular backlog refinement is essential in Scrum, how to make backlog items ready for Sprint Planning, and ways to measure effective …

Explores how empowering Agile teams to adapt their processes boosts flexibility, continuous improvement, collaboration, and maximises value and return …

Intensive five-day course for software developers covering Scrum, Visual Studio 2010, .NET, and Agile practices through hands-on team sprints and …

Improve clarity and readiness with Backlog Refinement. Ensure work is well-defined, prioritised, and ready for execution.

Explains how self-managing teams in Scrum need structure and leadership, clarifying the Scrum Master's role in maintaining clarity, alignment, and …