Wow!  I have read a LOT in the last six months!  I guess that is one of the advantages of being on the road for about six months.

1. Understanding A3 Thinking – excellent description of how to use and create an A3: a Lean tool for executing Plan-Do-Check-Act (the Deming cycle).  This is the definitive source on A3, Henrik Kniberg has an Agile example and template on his site.
2. Getting the Right Things Done – good description of the concept of True North, developing strategy from True North and the respectful nature of Lean, the rest is kinda dull.
3. Pedagogy of the Oppressed – unique perspective on the characteristics of oppression, the oppressed and the oppressors; liberation for both the oppressed and the oppressors originates when the oppressed become fully engaged in the human dialogue of being, not simply exchanging roles with the oppressors.  Interesting connections to corporate life in the 21st century.
4. Project Retrospectives – discussion on the importance of making a deep-dive examination of a software project when it finally is complete with detailed exercises and agenda.  This is great book if you want to know more about retrospectives.
5. More Secrets of Consulting – just brilliant!  If you liked the first book, this one has so many practical gems for the consultant.  The only tedious parts of this book are the references to his other books.  My favorite tool: the Wishing Wand.
6. The Future of Management – this book was a favorite of the CEO at my last client.  There are many Scrum concepts in the case studies provided.  Too bad that many of the principles of self-organization and empowerment supported by the executives never filtered down to the teams
7. Coaching Agile Teams – WOW!  This is an awesome book, deep and rich with many profound insights on the various roles of an Agile coach.  In addition, Lyssa provides practical tools to improve both the coach and the individual.  This is definitely a book to return to again and again.
8. Training From the Back of the Room – this is my favorite book from the last six months since it has had the most impact on my personal performance.  It has changed my perspective on how to train adults with its sound theory of education and myriad of exercises which bolster learning.  Share this book with anyone who trains adults (thanks to “Agile Bob” Hartman for tweeting this book title!)
9. Practices for Scaling Lean & Agile Development – comprehensive companion book to Scaling Lean & Agile Development (which is very good on Lean and Scrum).  This book is full of good stuff, but just too long.  Unless you are a guru (or wanna be), stick with the first book.
10. Succeeding with Agile – Mike Cohn has put out another great book based on his years of practical experience with Scrum.  This book is also pretty long, but not tedious.  A great read if you have some experience with Scrum, but want to improve the overall experience, apply targeted improvements or figure out how to expand the reach of Scrum in your organization – it covers it all.
11. The Back of the Napkin – provides a framework on how to apply visual thinking tools to explain and sell ideas.  Since most of the work I do is conceptual, being able to draw a powerful picture is a useful skill.  A nice addition to my consultant toolkit and I look forward to sharing it with others (I didn’t find the companion book that useful, so skip it).
12. Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series (not pictured) – these books were consistently entertaining, surreal and light; most were less than 200 pages.  The pace slows down around book 3 (Life, the Universe and Everything), but delightful nonetheless.  I cannot believe I just discovered them in my mid-30′s!

Believe it or not, there are a few books I did not get a chance to read.  I guess these will have to wait until after vacation.

• Leading Out Loud – about finding your authentic voice in business.  I bought this to get some ideas about leadership and self-organizing teams.
• Hope is Not a Strategy – I need to understand the sales process better and improve my ability to sell.  This looked interesting.

Passing on some good summer reading.

1. Core of Agile and Scrum – essential principles of Agile and Scrum that transcend the software development.
2. Three Legs to an Agile Transition – George Dinwiddie looks at how teamwork, visible progress and continuous improvement are key to change organizational culture.
3. Why Multiple Product Owners is a Bad Idea – read the article to find out how having multiple people setting priorities short circuits the role.
4. Nobody Can Do Agile – Simon Bennett explains why Agile is about thinking, not doing.
5. Agile Requires Cross-Functional Teams – Johanna Rothman discusses why cross-functional teams are essential for Scrum and other Agile processes.
6. Sir, Please Step Away From the Team – common the changes in management style for managers when Agile teams start in your organization.
7. Story Time! The hidden Scrum meeting – ever wonder when the requirements and the analysis happens on a Scrum Team?
8. How Does a PM and SM Coexisit? – a reader asks Michelle Sliger how the role of the project manager changes with the introduction of ScrumMasters.
9. Truly Agile CMMI – a short blog and video about a company that gets both Agile and CMMI.
10. Millennials and Scrum, Made for Each Other – Lyssa Adkins talks about how the Scrum values and principles align with a new cohort entering  the workforce.

New stuff to read and learn before the holiday

1. The Zen of Scrum – Jurgen Appelo provides a 70-minute video overview of Scrum, roles and philosophy.
2. The Difference Between Waterfall, Iterative Waterfall, Scrum & Lean (in pictures) – Visual representations of these various processes.
3. Company Culture Affects Your Code – A short examination of influence of Conway’s Law and culture on your software projects.
4. Explosion of Agile Practices – A list of 50 or so common practices used on Agile teams.
5. My Progression Toward Kanban – Brian Doll provides a good overview of Lean software development techniques and his personal journey there.
6. Post Agile Companies – Cory Foy looks at three Agile organizations and explains why understanding the Agile principles and values is more important than doing the Agile practices.
7. How Great Leaders Inspire Action – Simon Sinek describes a simple model to inspire others in this 18-minute video from TED.
8. Iterative and Incremental Development – Explanation of the difference between incremental vs. iterative software development (IID) and the history of IID.
9. Why Estimate Twice? – Good overview on the common practice of estimating the size of features, while estimating the duration of tasks.

A colleague of mine, Deb Hartman Preuss (@deborahh), tweeted “I have a strange job: getting things to happen in other people’s minds, bodies, hearts. Kind of like the faith healer who doesn’t touch you.” and it struck a chord with me.  A lot of what I do as consultant is help open people’s minds to new ideas and look at their actions, which is why I use a lot of games and simulations.  In my experience, games and simulations help people get into a safe space where they can reflect on their behaviors and understand why they might want to change.

One of my favorite games to help people understand the corrosive effect of push systems and working in silos is the “Invitation Game” created by Chris Sims at the Agile Learning Labs.  In this game, participants are asked to make three invitations to a party with six steps to complete (see below).  The game is played in two rounds and they are timed.

1. Fold the paper in half
2. Put a smiley face on the front
3. Write “You’re invited!” on the inside
4. Add your signature
5. Put a sticker\stamp on the back
6. Deliver the invitation

In the first round, individuals are teamed in groups of six and each person is given one step to do.  When they complete ALL their work, they hand-off their eighteen unfinished invitations to the next station; i.e. after folding all 18 sheets of paper, the next person makes 18 smiley faces and then passes along to the third person on the team.  Normally, the completed invitations look something like this – all look the same and are sloppy.

In addition, as an observer what you see is a lot of waiting around – due to the constraints of the game only one person can work on the invitations at a time and all the rest are waiting for their handoff – and not a lot of value being generated until the very end.  Another interesting observation is what inactive participants are doing while the active person is doing their task.  Sometimes they are giving helpful, unsolicited advice to the active person on how to do their job.  Things such as “Hurry up”, “You can fold six of them at a time”, “You don’t need such fancy face”, etc., etc.  Sometimes the inactive people are just waiting around with nothing to do or talking to another inactive participant.  If you ask the participants about the experience, they normally say it was stressful and they felt a lot of pressure.  The term “fun” is not mentioned at all.  IME, teams usually deliver their invitations somewhere between 12 to 15 minutes.

In the second round, we change the rules of the game a bit.  Each person is responsible for making three invitations, they have to make a complete invitation and deliver it before moving on to the next one.  We also time when the first invitation is delivered as well as the when the last one is delivered.  Here are the typical results from the second round.

What you see here is a really interesting and creative stack of invitations.  During the entire game people are relaxed and enjoying themselves.  You also see individuals looking at other people’s work for inspiration and drawing on new ideas.  People experiment more.  Many times, while waiting for the entire team to finish other team members will start additional invitations and deliver extra value to the customer.  Finally, if you look at the statistics, i.e. the timings, you see the second round really shine.  The customer gets value within the first two minutes and all the invitations for all teams in delivered 8 to 10 minutes – a productivity increase of nearly 50%!

When both rounds are complete, I lay out all the invitations on the table and ask the participants which invitations a customer would want.  The answer is always the same, the invitations from the second round.  The second round invitations are just so much more interesting and creative than the first.  In addition, by delivering the items one-at-time when completed, the customer gets more opportunity to provide feedback to the team on what they really want (or don’t want) in their invitations.  If the customer finds an interesting variation – they can sell it right away, show it to their stakeholders and\or ask the team to make more (“I need more invitations with stickers of ponies.”).

I also ask which round is more like everyday work and the answer is again very predictable – the first round.  In the first round of typical batch\handoff work, the customer is obligated to accept the invitations delivered even if they are sloppy, low quality and don’t meet their needs.  What would their management and stakeholders say if the customer asked for the resources (12 to 15 minutes) to make another batch of crappy invitations?  They already spent 12 to 15 minutes of six people’s time.  They can’t go back and ask for another set.  In the batch\handoff work, there is so much waste of time where people sit around doing nothing.  Fortunately, people display a great degree of ingenuity and find something to occupy their time – criticizing and interfering with the work of the people who come after them.  A very typical behavior in most organizations.

Some new links to share and idea to learn.

1. What Does an Agile Coach Do? – Considering an Agile\Scrum Pilot?  Don Gray talks about what you might expect from your new Agile Coach.
2. Should the ScrumMaster Also Be a Member of the Team? – Clinton Keith provides his perspective to a common question\scenario many Scrum teams face when starting out (with good dialogue in the comments).
3. Pathologies of the Daily Scrum – Experience report from a session at Agile Ottawa identifying ways daily standup meetings breakdown and some suggestions to improve your daily meetings.
4. Institutionalized Agility – Rob Myers discusses some of the common obstacles when your organization decides to “go Agile”.
5. Balancing Agile – Special guest poster, Alan Shalloway, talks about the role of management in an Agile process.
6. Do You Need Iteration Zero: A Case Study – Jim Shore examines a common practice when starting up new Agile teams and critically evaluates how necessary it is today.
7. Why Your Agile Project Cannot Be a Success – List of 32 items that increase the risk of failure for your Agile project and point to signs that you do not understand Agile.
8. The Dangers of Agile Development – Jeff Anderson takes a humorous look at some of the real risks posed by Agile projects.
9. Making Change Stick – Steve Denning looks at the ten practices\principles to understand when leading a change effort.
10. The Myth of Utilization – If your computer slows down at 100% utilization, then why do we ask our team members to do the same?

Sorry for the long delay – I’ve been swamped.  Now back to the great links.

1. Large-Scale Agile - Jim Shore talks about the seven factors to consider when trying to make Agile large.
2. What is the One Thing You Can Do to be More Agile? – various vendors at the Agile 2009 conference provide their answer to this question during this five-minute video.
3. Intro to Scrum Video – Bob Hartman and Arif Gangji provide an eight-minute video overview of Scrum.
4. In Praise of Middle Management – this article explains how leadership from middle managers is essential for driving change brought on by Scrum.
5. The Role of Test Manager in an Agile Organization – Johanna Rothman talks about how Agile transforms the role of Test Manager from one that schedules resources to that of coaching, removing obstacles and building organizational capacity.
6. 78 Things I have Learned in 6 Years of Agile Coaching – Jean Tabaka shares her accumulated wisdom about Agile and change.
7. Top 10 Questions When Using Agile for Hardware Projects – In this interview, Larry Maccherone discusses how Agile is applied on software-hardware projects.
8. You’re Just Going to Fail, So Don’t Bother – Scott Downey, Scrum Coach at myspace, discusses why Scrum is so difficult for many organizations and identifies the six hard truths you eventually confront when using Scrum.
9. Agile Roots – A Personal History – Jim Highsmith, a signatory of the Agile Manifesto, discusses the origins of the Agile movement.
10. The Wrong Lessons from Toyota’s Recalls – and the Truth - Jeffery Liker gives his take on the Toyota recalls and what they say about Toyota’s highly touted manufacturing process.

I recently encountered what I call a Scrum microteam – just two Team members, a Product Owner and a ScrumMaster.  Out-of-the-book Scrum provides guidance that Teams should be 6±2 people, not including the ScrumMaster and Product Owner.  I have been intrigued by such a small Team (glad they are filling all the roles) and these are my thoughts why Scrum suggests 4 to 8 people after understanding the forces which created this Team.

• Overhead – Scrum impose a fair amount of overhead on Teams – planning meetings, reviews, retrospectives and daily stand-ups.  I like all the pieces of Scrum and consider them essential.  Yet, I am not convinced it is worth the effort for just two people.  Could a good project manager be sufficient?
• Work-In-Progress of one – This might seem like a benefit, but I believe it actually increases the risk the business will get nothing of value at the end of the Sprint.  When you have microteams, you can only effectively work one story at a time.  Any delay, change in scope or discovery of emergent tasks, puts the Sprint Goal at risk.  Further subdividing the story into smaller (technical) pieces just atomizes the work, not the risk.
• Missing cross-functional skill set – with a team of 2 to 3 people, you typically have only one functional area represented, usually programmers.  Since Scrum is framework for cross-functional teams, why use the process if you are not meeting one of the preconditions?
• Handoffs within the Sprint – suppose you are lucky enough in your microteam to avoid all programmers – your Team has a software developer and a graphic designer – now you have the problem that their skill sets do not overlap.  When skill sets do not overlap, that creates handoffs, handoffs are a form of waste and the whole point of cross-functional teams is to eliminate handoffs.
• Narrow Definition of Done -  when the Team is so small, they must reach out to the rest of the organization in order to get anything really done.  This is a problem on any team, but when the Team is so small, the Definition of Done only includes things within the skill set of the individual members.  The amount of undone work is significant on a microteam. Entire Sprints can be dedicated to making sure this work is done and not delivering additional value to the organization.
• Limited impact – if your microteam is a pilot effort of Scrum for a larger organization, then the impact of Scrum will be quite limited.  Small teams work on small problems that are not that important to the organization.  There will be strong inertia to adapt Scrum rather than fix the underlying obstacles and dysfunctions – why change your organization to make life better for just two people working on a pilot?

Excellent links for everyone to share.

1. Pollyanna Pixton on Agile Leadership – a 30-minute video talking about the factors corporate leaders can influence which support Agile teams.
2. How I Learned to Program Manage an Agile Team After 6 Years of Waterfall – Sara Ford describes in brutal candor her experience becoming an Agile PM while working on CodePlex at Microsoft.
3. Explaining Agile – Mike Cottmeyer neatly summarizes his understanding of Agile.
4. How to Compare Elephant Herds - Dave Nicolette finally (?) explains why comparing teams through velocity is meaningless.
5. What Does a ScrumMaster Do? – for those of  you who are curious and wanted to know.
6. Replacing the Iron Triangle of Project Management? – short discussion on reevaluating a well-accepted PM paradigm.
7. Adopting Agile Development – the Role of the CIO – how senior leaders in your organization can help promote Agile adoption.
8. Moving Beyond Scrum – a look at some reasons why one might want to take the next step.
9. Tragic Mistakes When Adopting Test-Driven Development (TDD) - Scott Ambler discussing some pitfalls & obstacles companies encounter when they begin the process of using TDD.
10. Comparison of Open Agile with Scrum – introduction of a domain-independent framework for delivering value while using Agile principles via a compare-and-contrast with Scrum

Continuing with links to the best of the blogs since last week.

1. Three things I wish I knew before jumping – PMP and Certified ScrumMaster, Pat Guariglia, shares some lessons learned after his first Scrum pilot project in 2007.
2. Mike Cottmeyer on the Agile PMP – InfoQ has a 78-minute video from Mike Cottmeyer’s Agile 2009 talk on how Agile’s approach to managing cost and time reduces project risk rather than the traditional approach of managing scope.
3. Determining how Agile you are comparatively – discussion on the Comparative Agility assessment for teams looking to understand how Agile they are doing in seven areas: teamwork, requirements, planning, technical practices, quality, culture and knowledge creation.
4. Demystifying the Product Owner role – Roman Pichler provides some truth about the Product Owner role and clears away some myths.
5. Self-discipline & self-organization – Cutter Consortium Fellow, Jim Highsmith, emphasizes the need for discipline and excellence on Agile teams.
6. Eight reasons why the estimates are low – some common reasons why software estimates are often too small.
7. How pair programming really works – the IEEE publishes an article sharing four mechanisms that can improve pair programming.