Rethinking New Year’s Resolutions for 2018
“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…
Story Splitting in Hungarian (or, Hogyan daraboljuk a User Story-kat)
Thanks to Janos Facsko, Istvan Margetin, and Andrea Török of Sprint Consulting, my story splitting poster is now available in Hungarian.
Good Design, Part II: Code Smells
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…
Good Design
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.…
Stop settling. Collaborate instead of cooperate.
“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…
An Agile Lesson from the Movie “City Slickers”
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…
“Growing Your Facilitation Skills” Slides
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…
How TDD is More Than Simply Unit Testing
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…
Leading an Engaged Organization
“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.
Frequently Asked Questions about Agile Technical Skills
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…
How to Give Clear Instructions When Facilitating
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 intend to …, and …”
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…
Yet Another Meeting?! Ways to Recharge Your Daily Scrum
Let’s cut to the chase: No one likes meetings. A status meeting every day is enough to drive you crazy.
“We don’t expect a perfect Sprint. We expect a perfect effort.” – i.e. Commitment
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…
Technical Debt Isn’t Really a Metaphor
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…
Principle Based Agile/Scrum Adoption
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…
This Cognitive Bias kills our ability to thrive in complexity
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…
Time for Change – AgileScout.com Final Post!
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…
Getting to Know A4A: Tricia Broderick
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…
Ask A4A: Long-running Stories
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…