In the dynamic world of Agile Project Management, adaptability isn’t just a virtue but a cornerstone that defines the essence of being Agile. As teams dive into the swirling currents of project deliverables, customer expectations, and market trends, the ability to morph strategies…
Read MoreStop scaling Agile
I get it. You have some Agile teams and things worked out not too bad. But now you have some big projects that must be done, you know, an enterprise project. Some Chief Whatever Officer decided that it was a good idea to stake the entire company on the successful implementation of a gigantic software solution. The Agile leaders (you’re probably one of them) decide it’s now a good idea (hint: it’s not) to “scale” Agile.
Read MoreAgile can never survive for long
Agile, of Agile Manifesto fame, can never survive on its own. It will forever fall victim to the forces of entropy that exist in all things throughout nature. To make matters worse, Agile succumbs to the will of authoritarian managers who lurk in the corridors of all organizations.
Read MoreStop using user stories to calculate project % complete
Managers need the ability to see how far along projects are within their organizations. Managers use this information to make strategic decisions about their companies. However, many managers forget (ignore?) the fundamental difference between Agile organizations and non-Agile organizations—work is about outcomes, not output. In this article I will address how measuring projects based on the percent of user stories completed is a terrible idea, and I will argue why this is bad for your sanity, and the sanity of your Agile teams.
Read MoreHow to run a team huddle
In a previous post I wrote about the value of hosting a team huddle. In this post I’ll walk you through a few ways to facilitate a huddle. I’m not going to bore you with a bunch of exposition. Let’s get to it.
Read MoreThe importance of team retrospectives
One of the core components of team adaptation theory is that for teams to increase their adaptability (read: agility), they must reflect on past activities. If you look at any high performing team you will notice they all have one thing in common. All high performing teams take time to reflect on past activities so they can find ways to improve. This shouldn’t come as a surprise. All high performing teams do it. If you look at high performing teams in sports, business, law enforcement, the military, etc., then you will find teams that perform some type of retrospective. Those teams may not call it a retrospective, but they still reflect to answer the same basic questions: What did we do? What have we learned? What should we do differently? Where can we improve? Sadly, many teams view retrospectives with disdain. People are rarely motivated to do the hard work that retrospectives demand. The result is a meeting that produces very little in the way of learning let alone strengthening a team’s adaptability.
Read MoreMeasuring Agile
One challenge of working with organizational leaders and Agile teams is leaders want to know when a team is considered agile. The question leaders want answered is, “How Agile is the team?”
This is not an easy question to answer on its surface. There are many variables that can affect a team’s level of agility. Below I outline a few variables that all organizations should consider when trying to assess a team’s agility level.
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