Tag: Agile Mindset
Are you a Scrum Master or an Agile Coach?
•
The distinction between the roles of a Scrum Master and an Agile Coach has intrigued me for a long time. What used to be a challenging interview question I encountered over five years ago has now evolved into a frequent inquiry from my mentees and students, highlighting its significance in…
Why Teams Shouldn’t Choose Between Scrum and Kanban
•
Between Scrum and Kanban. First: A Few Words on the Nature of Demand We’re launching a new product team; should we choose Scrum or Kanban? This question, in one form or another, has been haunting me for at least the last ten years. Most professionals working with teams frequently encounter…
From Manipulation to Sabotage: Recognizing and Addressing Toxicity
•
Dysfunctional (or toxic) employee behaviour poses a significant threat to productivity, organizational culture, and team effectiveness. This behaviour can take bizarre forms, ranging from manipulative negativity to outright discrediting of colleagues and evasion of professional responsibility. Such patterns create a detrimental working atmosphere. This leads to a decline in the…
What Should a Scrum Team Do with Undone Work Items at the End of a Sprint?
•
It seems that the Scrum Guide provides a clear answer to this question. All unfinished work at the end of a Sprint should be returned to the Product Backlog. It appears this could conclude the discussion. But why do I find myself repeatedly explaining to teams how to handle unfinished…
Embracing DORA Metrics
•
Embracing DORA Metrics Many companies have successfully integrated DevOps practices into their engineering processes. In these organizations, teams are accountable not only for software development but also for how these applications are deployed and maintained. This embodies the DevOps principle of “You build it — you own it.” Understanding DORA…
The Significance of the Sprint Goal in Scrum: Focusing on Value and Avoiding Pitfalls
•
In Scrum, the Sprint Goal plays a pivotal role in providing direction and purpose to the development team’s work during a sprint. It aligns the team’s efforts towards a specific objective and guides their decision-making and prioritization. While the importance of the Sprint Goal is widely recognized, there are instances…
An Optimal Sprint Length Selection as a Never Ending Story
•
Ah, the eternal question in the world of Scrum and other Agile methodologies – what should be the perfect duration for a sprint? You’d think with so many experienced teams out there, this question would have a clear-cut answer by now, but nope, it remains a mystery wrapped in an…
What’s Wrong With a Typical Agile Team Explanation
•
Many articles and training courses on Agile often use an image or video of a racing team’s pit stop as an example of effective teamwork. In a matter of seconds, a team of mechanics swiftly changes a race car tires. This procedure, known as a pit stop, seems to perfectly…
We Are Tired of Meetings
•
This is the second part of the story about the role of meetings in agile approaches. In the previous part, we mainly talked with management about value delivery and its prevalence over utilization. We discussed the importance of self-assessment by regularly asking the question, “Is the thing we are currently…
