Category

“The major problems of systems work [software development] are not so much technological as sociological” First published in 1987, Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister were some of the earliest people to think of software development primarily of a human challenge rather than a...

If your Scrum Team regularly cites “Better Communication”, “Improve Quality”, “Less Stress”, “More Teamwork”, etc., etc. as Retrospective Action Items, consider me completely unimpressed.  I like fixing those things, but as Action...

The title of this post is somewhat of a contradiction, but I am OK with contradicting myself from time-to-time.  On the Certified ScrumMaster’s LinkedIn group there was an interesting conversation about what should a Team do when they have finished all their work before the...

During my consultants retreat in October where we discussed Agile Chartering, I had a chance to collaborate deeply with a dear colleague and friend Deborah Hartmann Preuss, coaching for effectiveness + joy.  Deb and I first met way back in 2008 at the very first Agile Coach Camp...

Better teams create better outcomes.  Agile Chartering is a vehicle to start teams off for success. At the end of last October, I participated in a three-day international workshop in Itterswiller, France with thirteen other Agile consultants, trainers and coaches from the US,...

Last week, I was having a conversation with a ScrumMaster about teams and the Tuckman Model came up.  From the blank look on this person’s face, it was clear that they had never heard of the Tuckman Model before which is surprising since ScrumMasters should be knowledgable...

Whenever I ask people to draw a diagram or explain an idea in pictures, I always sense a hint of tension.  People take a deep breath and hold it tight.  How can we not compare our meager skills to a creative genius like Claude Monet or Andy Warhol?  Let me let you in on a little...

Ever work with a Team and the whole group wants to go in one direction, except for one person who digs in and refuses to budge?  This happened to me a few weeks back while teaching a Product Owner class and I was completely stumped.  I like to consider myself a pretty good...

….is usually not an approach that works.  However, how do you start the conversation when there is an issue with somebody’s code (or work performance) that needs to be addressed that still preserves the relationship? Earlier this week in the Certified ScrumMasters...

A while back, I made the claim in one of the Agile LinkedIn groups that writing use cases was one aspect of being a professional software developer.  That naturally received a bunch of push back from people who felt use cases were too heavyweight.  Many people claimed user...