Featured Resources
The Humanizing Work Guide to Splitting User Stories
The definitive source for how to split features and user stories well. Consolidated and updated from almost 15 years of Richard and Peter’s writing and teaching on the topic.
Agile CPG Innovation: Pharmavite case study
Agile applies well beyond software development. This case study describes how an Agile way of working transformed innovation for a leading vitamin and supplement company.
Book: Behavior-Driven Development with Cucumber
Learn how your software team can collaborate more effectively to build higher-quality products in a fast, human-friendly way. Many people think of BDD as a software testing approach. Richard’s book shows how BDD is really a whole-team collaboration practice, with automated tests as a nice side-effect.
The Three Jobs of Agile Management
Management doesn’t go away in an agile organization, but they do refocus. Learn about the three jobs of agile management, the two lenses on each job, and the focus areas for growth.
Product Ownership & Backlog Management
- The Humanizing Work Guide to Splitting User Stories
- Three Categories of Infrastructure Work (and why you don’t need it all right now)
- Growing DONE—How to Make the Definition of Done Work for Your Team
- MMFs: What they are and why they matter
- Prioritization Heuristics
Agile Fundamentals
- Why Scrum works when it works
- Effective Sprint Planning
- How To Have a More Effective Daily Scrum Tomorrow
- Effective Sprint Reviews
- Two Key Moves for Better Sprint Retrospectives
- How to Give a Great Sprint Demo
- Why Longer Sprints Probably Won’t Help
- What You Need to Know About Cynefin
- The Magic of 1-Day Sprints
- HW Show S2E5: How tools like XP & Scrum create effective teams
- Ask Humanizing Work: Long-running Stories
- Org Structure, Software Architecture, and Cross-functional Teams
- Functional Managers in Agile
- We’re agile, so what do managers even do now?
Leadership & Management
- Turn The Ship Around – A View Into Agile Leadership
- Functional Managers in Agile
- We’re agile, so what do managers even do now?
Teams
- The Magic of 1-Day Sprints
- HW Show S2E1: Most Great Work Happens in Teams
- HW Show S2E2: Jazz, Teams, and Work
- HW Show S2E3: What Kills Great Teams, and What Can You Do About It?
- HW Show S2E4: Adobe Audition Team Reunion – What makes a great team great?
- HW Show S2E5: How Tools Like Scrum and XP Help Create Real Teams
Facilitation
- 80/20 Facilitation (or, all the study on facilitation most people need)
- Ask Humanizing Work: When the Observation Part of Focused Conversation Gets Boring
- Talking About Our Feelings—Potentially Awkward, Definitely Important
- Making Info Visible for Better Decisions
Agile Outside Work
- Lessons from 14 Years of Agile Homeschooling for Families Suddenly in the Middle of It
- How We Use Agile at Home
- Agile Homeschool
- Agile Homeschool Update
Training, Coaching & Skill Development
- On the Value of Product Owner Training
- Why a Prerequisite Course?
- Coaching Surgeons, Cyclists, and Software Teams
- Why Simulations in Training?
- Coaching Stereotypes & Realities
Key Ideas of the Week
- What to Focus On in 1-on-1s
- Unsplittable Stories—Myth or Reality?
- Are POs Responsible for Strategy?
- From Intuitive to Instructive in 3 Steps
- 3 Course Formats for Different Kinds of Learning
- A Sprint Review Is More Than a Demo, But It’s Not Less
- How Long Should Backlog Refinement Take?
- 5 Principles for Org & Team Structure
- No More Bad Meetings!
- Get to Done Every Day
- Team Habits for Reliable Results
- How to Keep Meetings On Track
View our Key Ideas of the Week archives here.
The Humanizing Work Show
- Four Trail Strategies to Transform a Bad Day at Work
- How to Make Your Process Fit Your Work
- How to Craft a Vision Statement That’s Not Just Corporate-Speak
- How to Tackle Your Business’s Biggest Risk with David J Bland
- How to Get Agile Team & Org Structure Right
- How to Get Useful Feedback on a Work-in-Progress
- Immunity to Change
- How an Incremental, Small Slice Approach Gives Real Progress
- 3 Tools to Resolve (Almost) Any Conflict
- What Leaders Need to Know About Leading Agile Teams
- What To Do When You’re Overcommitted and Feel Stuck
- Fix Your Meetings with DAVID
- Can We Train AI to Be a Business Coach?
- Alistair Cockburn on Use Cases & User Stories
- Cross-Functional Teams & Real-World Challenges
- Feature Hostage Negotiation
- How to Set the Right Goals for 2024
- When Your Team Inspects But Doesn’t Adapt
- Culture Signals for Everyone
- Finding the Right Style For Your Leadership Team: Lessons from Take6 and Greg Popovich
- Overcoming Burnout through Daily Purpose and Vision
- How Coaches Benefit from PO Skills
- The Business Case for Better Product Backlog Refinement
- Can Agile Even Work With This Business Model?
- How Has Our Thinking On Scrum Changed?
Check out all show episodes here.