The #DarkScrum Formula
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…
Category: Scrum
“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…
“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…
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…
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…
Making Info Visible for Better Decisions
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…
Why Most People Split Workflows Wrong
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…
Vertical Slices and Scale
Last week, I tweeted, Working in thin vertical slices is the keystone habit for agile software development. It enables so many other good practices. —…
New to Agile? Build trust to grow influence and impact
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…
Scrum as an agent of culture change
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…
Scrum as an agent of culture change part 2
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…
Early Agile Scaling at Adobe
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…
Viktor Frankl’s Meaning Triangle for Organizations
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…
Splitting Stories in Chinese (or, 用户故事切分招数)
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,…
Running Agile at Home
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 a ScrumMaster silence can be golden!
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.…
In defense of the Scrum Alliance
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…
I’m a Certified Scrum Trainer (CST) – so what?
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…
Agile antipattern: Sizing or estimating bug fixes
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…
New to agile? Remember a user story is more than a card!
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…