Two Levels of (Agile) Planning

Almost all firms that I work with have at least two levels of planning.  I call them “high level” and “team level.”  High Level At the high level, project or product ideas come in.  Someone has to prioritize these opportunities initially, to see which ones make the cut.  Often this is formally done once a […]

Something Unexpected

What do we do when something unexpected happens? “The readiness is all,” said Hamlet. So we must be ready.  Ready to meet that new thing, that innovation, that crazy idea, that new person…more than half-way. Yes, we may be skeptical. Yes, as Polonius says (careful grandmotherly type that he may be)…we must try our friends […]

3 Methods to increase Business Value

Yesterday I enjoyed talking to Southern Fried Agile, the local one-day agile conference in Charlotte.  My topic was: Three Steps Toward Greater Business Value. I was pleased to see many participants wanted to discuss this subject. So much so, that the organizers decided to run the session twice. I am happy this is considered an […]

Agile Release Planning is not about the Plan

Here is one key observation about release planning from the past week and a half. I have been working in France.  I have worked with 3 different companies, and a bunch of great people. In the third class, we did a 2-day workshop.  The Workshop was mainly about agile release planning, using the real work […]

Choosing a Scrum course/trainer

This is a question I get from time to time: How should I choose between one course/trainer and another? This is an important question and deserves some thought.  It does not deserve, in my opinion, a simple answer, as one might get from Zagat’s about a restaurant. The choice is different than choosing yet another […]

The Team and the Implementer Role

There has been, in several places, some good discussion about the roles in Scrum.  And often the discussion turns (explicitly or implicitly) to ‘what is the Team and what does it mean?’ The Team The full team is what is most important.  Product Owner (PO), ScrumMaster (SM), and Implementers.  Together.  About 7 in total. Ideally […]

The PO – The Team – The Daily Scrum

I have some different views on this topic, and wanted to share them. Your comments are of course welcome. I am NOT asking what is or should be in the Scrum Guide. Or whichever ‘scrum bible’ you use. (In general, I prefer the Scrum Guide.) I am sharing my thoughts and experiences, together, taught me.  […]

Refactoring the Release Plan

At the end of the last post, I had completed the initial release plan. What were the key outcomes? [This is one in a series of posts about release planning. Search (see right) on Release Planning to find many others.] We had a product backlog.  The plan had some sort of scope, date and budget.  […]

Release Planning: Completing the Plan

[This post is one of a series on Release Planning. The series starts here.] As discussed in the previous post on Release Planning, the user stories are now ordered. Now we must complete the Release Plan. So, we must make the trade-off between scope and date. There are three ways to do this: 1. Fixed […]

Self-organization of the Team

We have this idea in Agile, that the Team should self-organize.  This is an important idea. And, more, an important action of the Team. In Agile, self-organization is contrasted with command-and-control. We think self-organization is an important thing to study, both in general and in your Team. It seems simple, but like almost anything, to […]