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I lead from the heart, not from the brain. Which according to a Fastcompany article, which includes some great research conducted by the Institute of HeartMath,…

Agile has been all the rage in software development for many years now. Its popularity exists mostly among smaller teams that iterate quickly and release…

Are you a consultant, agile coach, or employee of a company? Lol. That’s all of you!  Here’s the hard truth: You are not as effective as…

During one of my CSM classes, I was discussing with a student that her company still has office hours and they are “required” to be…

You don’t “manage people.” You should be (leading) people and (managing) the work. Or said better, love on people and unblock them. — Agile Peter…

“As organizations (and societies) grow larger and more complex, the people at the top (whether managers or analysts) depend less and less on firsthand experience, more…

Sprint Planning Meetings for 2-week sprints should take 4 hours or less. However, the first one you ever do will be the worst 10-12 hours…

Be exceptionally useful. I understand specialization, but not at the cost of usefulness. The most successful people I know are exceptionally useful in a multitude…

Saying “Failing fast is ok” is not helping. People simply don’t want to fail. Instead, say “Learning fast is ok” and see how often people…

People who hustle are always to be respected. Whether it’s posted on social or not. Cheers to the quiet hustlers and the builders in the…

<Sarcasm mode on!> When faced with two different ways to implement something, good programmers will ask themselves “what would the customer want?” Then they will…

One of the hardest things to do in life is say “no.” To invitations, requests, and stuff everyone else is doing. Even harder is saying…

The purpose of adult education is to help them learn, not to teach them all you know and thus stop them from learning.” -Carl Rogers…

We are at our most innovative when we exchange ideas with people from diverse backgrounds—even those with whom we vehemently disagree.” — Survival of the…

When you change the way you think about product development you will change the way you want to do product development. Remember to focus on…

It is always easier to destroy a complex system than to selectively alter it. — Weinberg on Writing: The Fieldstone Method (page 416) by Gerald…

When was the last time you felt like you had everything completely under control? If you are like most people who attend my classes, you…

Knowledge, particularly self-knowledge, is freedom. Why is this so? When you know yourself, you can work and live 100% within your wheelhouse in ALL aspects…

Optimal Development Team size is small enough to remain nimble and large enough to complete significant work within a Sprint. Fewer than three Development Team…

Many people think Scrum is about getting things done faster. It isn’t. You get the right things done in the right order and you leave…

Juggling is an illusion. … In reality, the balls are being independently caught and thrown in rapid succession. … It is actually task switching. —…

Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast. –US Navy SEALs Your team is trying to go too fast. There, I said it. Deal with it.…

One of the most important things in life is to differentiate between what we can change and what we can’t. What we have influence over…

2020 will go down as the year that started the COVID-19 pandemic. There are many memes about 2020, but I think Match.com may have won…

A team’s success with Scrum depends on five values: commitment, courage, focus, openness and respect. — https://www.scrumalliance.org/about-scrum/values Is it possible five simple words will lead…

Scrum exposes your problems. Great teams fix their problems, mediocre teams say they can’t do anything about their problems. One improves, the other stays stuck…

team building: the action or process of causing a group of people to work together effectively as a team, especially by means of activities and…

Like all of you, I’m glad 2020 is in the rearview mirror! I’m very hopeful that 2021 will be far better overall than 2020. There…

Have you ever heard someone say, “It’s not my job!” How did that make you feel? A lot of you must feel strongly about this…

The Daily Scrum isn’t about status. It is about alignment. I’d prefer to call it the Daily Alignment to make that point crystal clear. —…

Do you know a team that is struggling? Maybe your team? So often, leaders focus on trying to help the team improve performance without actually…

My two-week trial of Ulysses ends tomorrow. I already know what I’ll be doing! Against all odds, Ulysses has successfully ingrained itself into my workflow.…

What do you do when the project you are working on has a lot of dependencies? I just spent some time looking for advice on…

I’ve read a lot of books about agile. None of them have said, “Be dumb.” None of them have said, “Be smart.” either, but they…

Well, that was easy! I downloaded Ulysses and figured it out enough to create a blog post later in the day. Super easy to use.…

I am writing this on January 3, 2021, basically the start of a new year. Like most people, at the beginning of a new year,…

How the Scrum Guide 2020 changes effect Scrum Trainers

New updated version to 4.2! – More pictures, links, and helpful tips to grow your online brand and master community!

Peter Saddington and KoroushAK interview around crypto, startups, and growth!

A full briefing on the history of management trends from 1910 with Taylorism to Agile in 2010! What will the trends be in the next 100 years?

We need great ideas, now. Venture Capital Funds need to do better.

The complete introduction to the Product Owner in Scrum! – A must read for any PO!

Tips on how to make effective decisions at a client as an agile coach

5 tips for handling multiple agile coaches at a client

5 tips for building relationships with your client quickly and effectively!

5 tips for great agile workshops for agile coaches, trainers, and facilitators!

7 tips for client engagement as an agile coach

6 tips for mentors – If you want to be a great agile coach, get a mentor!

The Guide on how to create a perfect agile workshop or training experience for your clients or company!

How do you handle resistance to change and people as an agile coach?

Understand that there are 3 levels to implementing change in any organization.

6 guidelines for understanding and bringing about change in your organization or your clients company!

What you say as an agile coach goes a long way. Understand that your words have meaning!

In a lot of ways I see any type of ‘coaching’ a calling. Seriously. “Coaches” seem to be popping up all of the place these…

Becoming an agile coach means learning to communicate effectively with your clients!

The agile coach leadership traits you need to have to be successful!

Setting and achieving goals as a change agent, agile coach, consultant, or facilitator!

Learn how to deal with conflict as an agile coach, consultant, or facilitator

Preparing your organization for Agile? Hear from the best.

The perfect ScrumMaster Job Description!

Top 10 Product Owner Qualities and Characteristics!

Top 10 Backlog tips for Product Owners!

Essential ScrumMaster Interview Questions

Top ScrumMaster and Product Owner questions from training!

Frequently asked questions about the career path for a Scrum Product Owner!

Frequently asked questions about the Product Owner for Management!

Frequently asked questions on ScrumMaster career paths!

Frequently asked questions about the ScrumMaster role for Management!

Know the history of Agile and you’ll understand why men and women are still uncovering better ways of building software!

Learning to code unlocks infinite opportunities for any child, student, or professional!

AUG. 10, 2020 – DENVER, CO – Richard Lawrence, Peter Green, and Angie Ham are leaving Agile For All to launch the Humanizing Work company. …

Virtual field trips are a great way for your student to see animals and nature!

You can see the world from your chair. It’s a good thing museums are going online!

Have your student go global and be prepared for a multi-lingual life!

Download and print all the printables you can!

If your student is going to consume, have them consume fun and learning at the same time!

For those that create music and images, grow that talent! For we are all artists in the end.

Get a full education for free! There are tons of courses out there! Find yours for your student!

Help your child love reading and writing!

(If you haven’t read or completed part 1 yet, click here: https://agileforall.com/the-password-strength-checker-design-kata-part-1/ ) So far… How often did you have to go back to an existing test…

Not so long ago, Agile classes such as Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) and Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) could only be delivered in a face-to-face, in-person…

What you need to know about Cynefin and the 4 types of problems you can encounter!

In two of my three technical courses (Essential Agile Engineering Skills and Essential Test-Driven Development), the first major topic I cover is refactoring, its role on an…

Min Kim and ICON cryptocurrency is the future of Korea!

Tip 4 – Use the Agile Management Canvas as a guide to Agile adoption or transformation.  After explaining the basics of the model (three jobs, two…

Readers! Subscribers! “Followers”! I hope you are all healthy and safe. What is “Technical Debt”? People are still debating over the one true meaning of…

Tip 3 – use the full Agile Management Canvas to see the larger system of management when trying to address challenges. If we take the…

Tip 2: Use the jobs and the two sides to identify areas that may be out of balance in your organization. As an example, I’ll…

Tip 1: Use the three jobs to clarify responsibilities in the organization. For example, the job of Creating Clarity has an overlap between the role…

I’ve discovered that the people who get the most out of training do these 5 things. Here are some key tips to maximize learning in a virtual environment.

How long should your sprints be? Generally, 1-2 weeks, with a preference towards a shorter sprint. But that’s not what I’m writing about today. I…

Season 3 of #VCHunting is complete! COVID-19 can’t stop the master-class in venture capital!

Being a VC is all about helping founders scale their company. If you’re a founder, prove it, nail it, and scale it! We’d love to help!

It’s been a whirlwind for many of us as we’ve adapted to the current work conditions – that’s equally true for us as Scrum Trainers…

Agile enthusiasts often say, “Hey, if we’re Agile, we don’t need managers because our team is self-organizing.” That may be true in a very limited…

I’m the ed-tech entrepreneur you need to know. I’m changing the homeschooling game with Colearn.Club!

I recently found yet another article (“Agile software development is dead. Deal with it.“) that proclaims the death of Agile. It seems like every month…

Bitcoin is magic and only getting stronger! If you’re in crypto as an entrepreneur, let us know!

I’m going to share an opinion about self-organization that might be a bit controversial.

Hey everybody, it’s Peter Green with Agile for All. All my product owners, my product managers, my entrepreneurs, my CEOs, my chief product folks, this…

I’m resisting with all of my might the urge to sing a Vanilla Ice song: Stop, collaborate, and listen. I guess I didn’t resist very…

My wife and I have homeschooled our boys for 14 years. Two started university this school year, returning home last week when their campus closed.…

Here are the top five retrospective mistakes we see in our coaching.

I recently found an interesting tweet from Maren Baermann about motivation.

Live a life of grit and meaning and you’ll always be on a grand adventure. Venture Capital is my next epic quest!

I want to create the most millionaires of color and I’m starting with funding 1000 diverse founders over the next 20 years. Are you one of the few?

I fund bootstrappers with radical transparency. Our SEAL model is exactly what venture needs!

I’m the VC rapper from Israel. We’re not afraid to take risks, just like our founders. If you’ve got the swag, I got your money!

I encourage my clients to find and focus on the core value of whatever they’re creating. What is it that doesn’t yet exist in the…

I’m a leading authority on B2B social business strategy and have built 250 communities. Love on people and you win!

I’m bringing all-star athletes and venture capital together! Let’s find your unfair advantage!

Cleo Capital | Early Stage Fund Twitter – @sarahkunst | 21,000 followers Medium Blog | Instagram | LinkedIn | Wikipedia Relates everything to her love…

We back college dropouts and those who choose a non-tracked educational route. We fund grit. Do you have it?

Season 2 of #VCHunted has wrapped! Pivots, learning, and dedication!

Peter Saddington User Manual

As a trainer, I am frequently asked, “What is the difference between Scrum and Waterfall methodology”? Let’s break down these two different methodologies so you…

What is Agile methodology? Well, Agile is not exactly a methodology. Technically, Agile is a set of values and principles. Agile can also be thought…

I built our venture firm based on what I know first-time founders need most. Self-inquiry is the beginning of success.

I am the keyholder for Atlanta Startups as the #1 go-to entrepreneurial ecosystem builder. Know me, know Atlanta and beyond!

I’m living proof of how someone with no requisite experience can become a venture capitalist. Let me tell you how!

This course rocks. And I’ll tell you why (read on!). Agile For All is returning the Advanced CSM course offering in Ann Arbor, Michigan on…

Working in small increments of value—good user stories—is the key habit that makes the rest of Agile Software Development work. But people everywhere struggle to…

Agile For All has a new course offering that is gaining momentum. I get to be the lucky one to share a little information!! On…

I represent the Caribbean future of early-stage startups. Access to me is access to the future for Jamaica and beyond!

AI is the future of work. I’m a student of people and entrepreneurs. Teach me what you know, I’m all ears.

I know what you don’t. Let us take a look at your data and tell you a story. Stay awhile and listen.

I understand the VC game better than most. Follow my advice and you’ll become empowered and unleashed!

I’m pro-bitcoin and pro-villain. Can Peter’s race car beat my Tesla?

Purpose-driven action. I’m the millennial VC. You should know me.

Nope, I haven’t forgotten that my next newsletter was going to be in response to a comment on the last newsletter. But I’ve discovered the…

From immigrant to venture capitalist. I’m showing those like me the way to success! Lead by serving!

If you’re an expansion-stage B2B company, we have your back. PLG baby all the way!

Top venture capital newsletters for 2020 and beyond! Subscribe and read your face off!

The Top 50 Venture Capital Podcasts for VCs, founders, startup entrepreneurs, and the tech-curious!

We’re engineers who seed bold engineers. Are you a technical founder who needs a technical Yoda?

I’m bringing the sexy back to B2B startups at my accelerator. Join the B2B revolution!

#ProofofVC is the decentralized and transparent framework of venture media.

We’ve hunted and we’re learning, fast. I’m here to build venture media, join me.

I’m leading Singapore and beyond in venture. Show me your home screen, I’ll show you what it’s worth.

Decentralized finance is changing the venture game forever. HODL on!

Faith, family, work, fitness (in that order). That’s how God wins.

It’s time to establish and professionalize Venture Media. I’m here, now.

I seek to be part of the defining stories of our time. What’s the price you’re willing to pay for glory?

I run the best B2B accelerator in the world. Are you a billion dollar opportunity?

With 20 years of experience in B2B SaaS, we know how to win. Show us traction, we’ll handle the rest.

I’ve been involved in more successful Seattle software companies than anyone. Know what I know.

Humility is the key to success. You don’t know what you don’t know.

Venture capital is at an inflection point. It’s time to build.

Startup University is a thing. Ask me how I know.

I’m a mechanism to stop failure for my startups.

VC is broken. I’m here to fix it.

Teach everything you know.

Diversity is a game-winning strategy.

It’s time for big game hunting!

A client recently asked me if a unit test could test multiple objects. On the surface, you might suppose my immediate answer would be “No…

Industry leader, @Adobe, is known for its innovation in the creative industry, allowing creatives to do what they do best with the help of innovative…

Great models for building a strong and healthy team include regularly reviewing the work and how it’s being done to improve going forward, creating structures…

Trust is a key component in any healthy team. Business outcomes soar and individuals thrive when trust is at the team’s core. But what builds…

Think about it. When people are paying attention to what other people are doing in a more present and engaged way, it frees them up…

The third and final part in the Developer Essentials mini-series of posts about test driven development (TDD). Click here, if you missed Part 1 or…

Most meaningful work happens in teams so to further expand the Humanizing Work movement and conversation we are taking season 2 to focus on teams.…

My popular How to Split a User Story flowchart has already been translated to French, German, Spanish, Russian, Chinese and Hungarian. Thanks to work from…

Ron Jeffries coined the term #DarkScrum. #DarkScrum occurs when we focus on enforcing Scrum mechanics rather than reinforcing Agile Values and Principles. This results in…

From the Developer Essentials Newsletter: The intersection of Agile methods and technical software development. If you missed Part 1, review it here.

Why now? What conditions in the world make this the right time for a Humanizing Work movement? There are two key shifts that have happened…

Growth is one of the core things that motivates people in all aspects of their life. “Work that doesn’t provide opportunities for growth is dehumanizing.”…

An editor of Dr. Dobbs magazine once wrote to me—replying to my response to an article—“All the benefits [of Test-Driven Development] could be attained equally…

When you think about what motivates someone within their job or work it tends to go back to what their connection is to the purpose…

“This is why successful serial entrepreneurs, even after a big exit, go on to start something else, not because they need the money, but because…

This week, we launched the Humanizing Work Show. In episode 1, we summarize what we mean by Humanizing Work and where the phrase came from. Humanizing Work…

Participants in our courses are sometimes surprised to find out that they have work to do in advance of the course. Most of our live,…

Next year I’ll likely be teaching Essential Test-Driven Development to a team that includes about 50% COBOL programmers. I told the client I’d look for…

Occasionally, I’ve been asked to help design team rooms for a client.  They may have been planning to hire an ergonomic architect/designer in addition to…

Earlier this summer, an event that has defied naming was held for the sixth consecutive year. Agile For All’s advanced training event, Humanizing Work, took…

You’ve heard the old adage about the lumberjack who—in order to cut a tree in an hour—will take 45 minutes to sharpen the saw? This…

In our BDD course, we use a real example of an online library patron portal. Course participants are provided with a number of (often vague)…

I often get questions about testing “the user interface” or “the front end.” This comes up in all our technical Agile classes (Behavior Driven Development,…

We’ve seen how refactoring becomes the primary design activity on an Agile team. Diligent, confident refactoring is possible to the degree that the code is…

Scrum changes the way everyone in your company interacts and will likely influence your organizational structure. When an organization considers “moving to” Scrum, it’s easy…

Remember this?  

“This year,” says your friend (who’s never run a 5K), “I’m going to do a marathon.” “Yeah? How are you going to do that?” you…

Thanks to Janos Facsko, Istvan Margetin, and Andrea Török of Sprint Consulting, my story splitting poster is now available in Hungarian.

Last month we talked about good software design and introduced the notion of code smells. Code smells are names given to those instinctual thoughts you…

I’ve learned not to assume a team has experienced a variety of software design skills. Some are writing elegant functional-paradigm code in archaic, challenging languages.…

“We need you to help this team. They are struggling to deliver. But don’t worry; you’ll love this team. There is no conflict and they…

As an Agile trainer and coach, I have worked with hundreds of companies over the past 10 years. After reflecting back on my interactions with…

For those who were in my recent Agile Boulder or Agile Arizona sessions on “Growing Your Facilitation Skills,” here are the slides and handout to…

I was recently asked about the difference between unit-testing and Test-Driven Development (TDD). Specifically, why—if the end results are the same—would I recommend TDD over…

“Engagement doesn’t really matter in the workforce today” That’s not a real quote. I’ve never heard a leader say that. But something doesn’t add up.

What are the Agile Engineering Skills, Scrum Developer Practices, or Software Craftsmanship practices? These are three (of many) common names for a set of practices…

It’s a classic facilitation blunder: You start giving instructions for an activity, and as you’re talking, people begin the activity. You try to reel in…

I was co-training an Agile for Teams workshop with Rob Myers last week. This group had been trying to do Scrum, with some success.  Our…

Let’s cut to the chase:  No one likes meetings.  A status meeting every day is enough to drive you crazy.

As I train and coach Scrum across the country, I’m often struck with the power how certain words can create a sense of fear in…

Many years ago, Ward Cunningham posted an excellent video on YouTube regarding refactoring and “debt”. If you haven’t seen it, I have it for you, below. But…

I’m a pragmatist.  I need things to make sense. So, when something like principles are introduced to me, I start to ponder questions like… What…

Does this sound familiar? I was a Program Manager for over a decade, during which time I must have facilitated dozens of “project post-mortems”, a…

Dear World, This may be the most heartfelt post I’ve put down on this site in a long long while. I’ve sorry I’ve been gone…

Today, we’re getting to know Tricia Broderick, trainer, coach, and Agile For All’s resident conference junkie. You can find Tricia participating in and organizing Agile…

Hi Richard, My Scrum team has been working on a particular service for over a year. It’s been 20+ Sprints. I’m concerned about the deliverables…

Continuing our Getting to Know A4A series, we’re talking with “Agile Bob” Hartman, trainer, coach, and the venerable founder of Agile For All.

Today, our Getting to Know A4A series focuses on Richard Lawrence, agile trainer and coach and co-owner of Agile For All.

Our Getting to Know Agile For All series continues. This time, we talk with Peter Green.

Continuing our Getting to Know Agile For All series, today we’re introducing Peter Saddington. Peter is a trainer, coach, and consultant, and our lone team…

Agile For All has grown to 11 people now, but many of our readers and clients only know one or two of the team. So, over the next few weeks, we’ll be introducing each member of the team by having them answer some questions and share some photos that go beyond the official bio on the team page.

Today, we’re introducing Carol Conrad. Carol is a member of our operations team and handles many of the logistical details that make our classes run smoothly.

A key part of the ScrumMaster’s or Product Owner’s job is making information visible.* Whether that’s a product backlog, taskboard, cumulative flow diagram, or a…

Agile Organizations shift from a focus on predicting and controlling work to embracing complexity, using experiments and feedback loops to learn and grow. This post is…

Last week, I described how to do the observation step of Focused Conversation without having to talk about all the details. At this point, many…

Agile Organizations shift from a focus on short-term profits towards a focus on customer delight and achieving a shared purpose. This issue is the first…

The Focused Conversation method asks us to start with observations before assigning labels – good, bad, effective, worthwhile, motivating, etc. In real-life facilitation, it can…

Suppose you have a headache. A bad headache. “I’ll take Tylenol to make it go away,” you think. So, you grab the Tylenol bottle and…

As I’ve said before, working in thin vertical slices is the key habit in Agile software development. Many people struggle to find vertical slices, but…

Workflows are a very common element of software. But they can be hard to split well when you’re trying to work in small, vertical slices…

Here’s a short video about how my family uses an Agile approach for homeschool and chores:

Subscribe To The Welcoming Complexity Newsletter In this inaugural issue, we explain the newsletter’s title and provide a few thoughts on relevant Agile For All blog…

Last week, I tweeted, Working in thin vertical slices is the keystone habit for agile software development. It enables so many other good practices. —…

In response to my recent post on developing your skills in 2016, several people mentioned facilitation as a skill they want to grow. As with…

Humanizing Work 2016 is just 6 weeks away, and we want to help you prepare to have a great experience there. Beyond the basic info…

You’ve probably heard that it takes 10,000 hours to master something. That notion, popularized by Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers, isn’t quite accurate—Gladwell has…

Peter Drucker said, “Concentration is the key to economic results. No other principles of effectiveness is violated as constantly today as the basic principle of…

Note: This post is adapted from some posts that I originally created on Adobe’s blog while I was an employee there. I recently finished reading former…

Management and leadership in the 21st century need to be significantly different or businesses will be left behind. People recognize this and management is slowing…

Transforming the way you work to an Agile approach has implications for the relationship between software teams and their customers and stakeholders. But in many…

Peter Drucker invented most modern management practices. He was an in-demand coach to hundreds of top leaders in the world’s largest organizations. When he suggested that “culture…

In part one of this series, we defined culture. We also described why it is both critical and hard to work on. Finally, we left…

A few updates on 80/20 Product Ownership, my online course that teaches you how to slice your work at every level of detail to get…

Thanks to Hahn Ryu of D.CAMP, our video describing Frederic Laloux’s book Reinventing Organizations and its application for lean and agile adoption is now available…

Some people learn best by reading. Others prefer video. So, I’ve created a video of my blog post: The Future of Agile, Changing the World of…

Marshall Goldsmith is one of the world’s leading executive coaches. In his book Triggers, Goldsmith introduces a framework for change that he calls the “Wheel of…

Product Owners have it tough. They need to spend time and energy working to understand the needs of customers and users. They need to work…

Scaling agile is a hot topic these days. I’ve recently given a presentation at a few local user groups about the experience of scaling agile at…

Being Product Owner is hard. Actually, that’s not quite true. Anybody can make a list of things to build, call it a backlog, and bring…

Human capital is just one of an organization’s intangible assets. It is basically all of the competencies and commitment of the people within an organization…

I gave a presentation at the Scrum Gathering in Phoenix AZ about the historic context of Agile and Scrum, and where we are headed next.…

I had invested years of my life in a ground up, large-scale agile adoption. The early years of the adoption seemed to go at breakneck…

Thanks to everyone who attended my Mile High Agile 2015 session, “Resistance to Change Doesn’t Exist.” Here are the slides and handouts:

Some of the most significant messages people deliver to one another often come in just three words. When spoken or conveyed, those statements have the…

Faulty thinking is part of life. We’re not perfect, nor do we think perfectly. It is, however, helpful to identify faulty thinking in our own…

In case you missed the press release, Peter Green, Adobe Systems Agile Transformation Leader, will join our Agile For All team on March 16th. I am…

The guys over at Expert Table Tennis had a great idea. What would it take to become an expert? Dedication? Heart? Perseverance?

Take a moment to consider the last time you were in any sort of training environment. Were the tables set up “classroom style” so everyone…

There are moments where each one of us have wished for significant life change – this could be related to our current circumstances, our jobs,…

If you’ve taken part in any of our Scrum classes, then you know we highly value the power of face-to-face communication. The emergent power of…

Viktor Frankl was an incredible human being, having survived the Holocaust and establishing logotherapy, a type of psychotherapy. His book, Man’s Search for Meaning, details…

Innovation begins with the heart… a heart of leadership The Hay Group, a global management consulting firm, released their findings that identify which organizations have the…

Thanks to Bob Jiang for the translation (with feedback from Evelyn Tian and Daniel Teng). This poster is also available in English, French, German, Russian,…

Agile is merely a philosophy of how to change the way we think about delivering value. Powerful ideas have grown from the original philosophy, namely…

As we look at Agile in 2015, there is a lot of excitement, a lot of opportunity, and a lot of fun ahead of us.…

Every year, we put on a conference just for agile practitioners who’ve been in one of our classes. Check out this 90 second video to…

Last year, I wrote about how we use an agile approach for homeschool. Since then, we’ve refined our approach. This school year, we updated our…

I want to start this post by thanking Eric Englemann (yes, that is him above!), the CEO of one of our awesome clients, Geonetric. Almost…

As I was preparing for my Agile Denver session on Unscaling, which leaned heavily on the Cynefin Framework, I reread Liz Keogh’s excellent post, “Cynefin…

Update:  For our latest thinking on scaling and organizational agility see Scaling: Principles not Practices. For those who attended last night’s Agile Denver meetup, here are…

We’re often asked which day or days are best for scheduling the Sprint Planning, Review, and Retrospective meetings.

For those who attended my Mile High Agile 2014 session, Models for Support, here are the photos of the flip charts (with a little explanatory…

Two years ago, when Bob and I merged our companies into today’s Agile For All, we wrote out a vision statement for the company that…

In November, we asked our wives, Dawn Lawrence and Carol Hartman (whom many of you met at the conference), to plan a unique company Christmas…

The period from mid-December to early-January can be disruptive for an agile team. You’re used to working on a regular cadence, maybe in 2-week iterations.…

Last month’s Humanizing Work Conference was organized around one big hypothesis: that it was possible to do to a conference what we’d done to our…

“Yesterday, I was in Sprint Planning…” I hear it once, and I’m suspicious. By the time the third team member says this, it’s clear the…

My wife and I have been homeschooling our 3 boys since our oldest, who turns 13 tomorrow, started kindergarten. From the beginning, we’ve tried to…

Change on software projects is expensive; it leads to wasteful rework. Change is risk. We can deal with risk one of two ways. We can…

Thanks to Joserra Díaz for the translation (with feedback from Matin Alaimo and Alan Cyment).

Thanks to Alexander Lutsaevsky for the translation.

Thanks to Jean-Jacques Lévesque, my “How to Split a User Story” poster is now available in French.

As an organization transforms to an agile way of working, functional managers (e.g. a dev manager or a test manager) can feel lost. Many of…

Thanks to translation from Kai Simons, my “How to Split a User Story” flowchart is now available in German.

More than two years after I originally published it, “Patterns for Splitting User Stories” remains one of the most visited posts on my blog. Splitting…

Atul Gawande is a surgeon and author who has written some excellent books and New Yorker articles reflecting on the state of modern medicine. Recently,…

Have you ever had one of those days when you wondered if your ScrumMaster was on crack? Or maybe you’re the ScrumMaster and the you…

Have you ever been in a flamethrower war? I sincerely hope you have never been in one like the picture, but if you have been…

I love it when someone who was in one of my workshops sends me a message saying something from the workshop worked well for them.…

Most Ruby programmers know about Ruby’s interactive console, IRB. (If you don’t, stop right here, open up a command window and run irb. Type some…

The task board is a simple, yet powerful, tool for Scrum teams. As a coach, I can tell a lot about a team just by…

You may not realize this: Tables in Cucumber steps don’t have to have a header row. Sometimes it can work really well to use a…

Beginning just over two years ago, I worked with some great developers to create Cuke4Nuke as a way to bring Cucumber to .NET. Shortly after…

As a coach, I’m frequently told, “Our sprint length is too short. We want to change it from X to Y weeks.” The time box—the…

Regular expressions are a big part of what makes Cucumber tests both expressive in English and DRY on the automation side. To make the most…

The Ruby version of Cucumber isn’t just for Rails developers. If you have a .NET or Java web or service app, Ruby can be a…

User stories are typically written using a template like, “As a <role>, I want to <action> so that <value>.” My other story splitting patterns focus…

Almost 2 years ago, at the 2009 AA-FTT conference, I started Cuke4Nuke to bring Cucumber to the .NET world. Since then, thanks to some fantastic…

Update: This course has been postponed until June or July. If you’re interested in attending, let me know and I’ll notify you when registration opens…

Are you feeling the Christmas spirit yet?  I know not everyone celebrates Christmas, so if that isn’t the holiday for you, think about your equivalent,…

Last year around this time I wrote a blog entry “New to agile? Give thanks!”  That was written from the perspective of an agile team…

Have you ever felt really let down by someone you respect?  I guess the way the world is today we can all cite a long…

Focus your team on predictability, and productivity will come. Focus on productivity, and you’ll get neither productivity nor predictability.

Have you ever had the feeling someone REALLY didn’t get it?  I had that feeling recently when reading this article about the supposed weaknesses of…

Do you ever get so frustrated you feel like pulling your hair out?  I do (although that is NOT a picture of me to the…

Jon Archer wrote last week about how Cucumber makes knowledge of regular expressions important. He’s right: Regular expressions are the key to Cucumber’s flexibility. Well-crafted…

Is success or failure really a choice?  I don’t think it is at all.  Pretty much no one chooses to fail.  Unfortunately, we can’t just…

I’m excited to announce that Paul Rayner’s company, Virtual Genius, has joined The Agile Cooperative. Paul is the founder and president of the Denver chapter…

Have you ever been so focused on something that the rest of the world seemed to disappear for a while?  This can be great under…

This is a companion post to last year’s “I’m a Certified Scrum Coach (CSC) – so what?” post.  In that post I spoke about the…

Is the bug to the left a large bug or a small bug?  It looks HUGE to me!  Well, in reality it is probably between…

What’s wrong with the user story on the card?  It seems to have everything we need: a) short title, b) a size (in this case…

Have you ever been in a class or training session which is so boring you felt like you might fall asleep?  Or maybe you are…

you would have had an absolutely indescribably fantastic time!  And that’s just for starters.  To be honest, the phrase “that was so much fun it…

I’m making my Orlando Scrum Gathering presentation “Doing Scrum Isn’t the Same as LIVING Scrum” available as a PDF.  You don’t have to fill out…

In about 5 minutes I’m going to play the role of being a “doctor” at the Scrum Clinic which is part of the Orlando Scrum…

My friend, Arif Gangji, and I created this video to help his customers understand why his company uses Scrum as their software development framework. I…

Have you ever had a computer meltdown?  OK, so myIT infrastructure meltdown wasn’t as total as the picture to the left, but it still was…

Dear Diary, I completed day 1 of my 2-day Certified ScrumMaster course today and I’m feeling a little bit overwhelmed.  I didn’t have any idea…

Dear Diary, Tomorrow I am going in to speak to Henry about becoming a Certified Scrum Master.  I’ve done more reading about it and it…

I’m going to give you the punch line first: this is definitely the best agile book on the market today! If that is all you…

Ever see a trash can look like that?  I know I have – plenty of times.  I have 3 kids so I sometimes even see…

At a client today, we were doing some tricky automation with WatiN (against Telerik controls) in Cuke4Nuke. We wanted to dig into what WatiN was…

Dear Diary,   This is Nick.  I’ve never been much of a writer before, but I made myself a New Year resolution to try to keep…

I’m going to be spending a lot of time in 2010 writing blog entries.  Remember, I’ve committed to trying to write 4 blog entries per…

The theme of the blog this month is “Getting a Fresh Start.”  In order to get a fresh start it is important to know WHY…

Time for another chance to win a $25 Amazon gift certificate.  This month’s theme is “Getting a Fresh Start” so the question is going to…

Back on September 23, 2009, I posted a blog entry titled “New to agile? What does the ScrumMaster do anyway?” The response was amazing. It…

Gojko Adzic has a new blog post demonstrating the new table parameter support in Cuke4Nuke. Table parameters are an important part of Cucumber. They’re great…

This will be a monthly feature during 2010 and beyond.  I’m going to give you some blog posts, articles and popular items from right here…

The new year starts tonight.  I’m extremely excited because I have HUGE plans for this blog during 2010.  I don’t know if I can live…

This morning, I released version 0.3.0 of Cuke4Nuke. With this release, Cuke4Nuke supports almost everything you can do with Cucumber in Ruby or Java, making…

Was 2009 a good year or a bad year for you?  I have to admit it was a good year for Agile For All.  We…

Do you want to see several different ways agile and scrum burn-down charts can lie?  If so, you are in the right place! This month I…

That burndown chart looks sweet doesn’t it?  The team finished the iteration on time.  What could possibly be wrong.  Well, a lot actually.  Notice that…

This blog entry is being posted on Wednesday, December 23 at noon MST.  Why?  Because I don’t plan to be on my computer very much,…

Ever see a burndown chart like the one to the left?  I’ve been on a big burndown chart kick lately and when I saw this…