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To build a quality product we need to let go of the outdated 20th century idea that quality can be achieved through inspection alone, i.e. testing.  Instead, let us focus on constructing a framework that produces quality outcomes from the beginning and the two Lean concepts...

“Domo agriato, Mr. Roboto.” So what does a 1983 song by the Styx have to do with Scrum?  Not much, but they both have a bit of Japanese in them and I figured this would be a good time to offer a deeper explanation of some powerful concepts from Lean Thinking you can...

What do you think about putting rules around management’s behavior when learning how to do Scrum?  In the previous installments (Part 1 and Part 2), I shared with you Michael James’s nine constraints he places around Scrum Teams to encourage them to self-organize into...

In this conclusion of the nine success factors for Scrum, we are going to continue where we left off on our last article and discuss the remaining constraints from Michael James. Full time participation – in order to achieve the higher levels of productivity and quality...

Would you like to avoid the same trap many companies fall into when beginning with Scrum?  Last week, I got a call from a new client and it became apparent they found themselves in the same swamp like many others after a few months of doing Scrum.  The call went something like...

Today I am going to share with you a engaging , interactive and brief exercise I use to teach Scrum in the first twenty minutes of my Certified ScrumMaster or a basic one-day Intro to Scrum class.  The game is called Buy a Framework and is based on the classic Innovatio...

Last week, I was teaching a Certified ScrumMaster class in Irvine and I had one participant who just hated Scrum.  I mean he really hated it and really hated being in the class.  From his perspective, all of Scrum seemed too heavy, not applicable to the work he does and was just...

Let’s start this entry with a real life example – I was once teaching a Certified Product Owner course and I gave the participants instructions to brainstorm, as a group for ten minutes, to create at least a dozen features they would like to see in their product. About...

This month, I had the opportunity to interview Jeffry Hesse, Senior Product Manager, Engagement And Identity Platforms at National Geographic.  One of the first things that you will notice is that Jeffry is a Star Trek: TNG fan and soon after that you will learn he is a...

In my last post, I described the process of lift-off in Scrum based on my experience working with clients and teams in different organizations and with different types of products.  Now I want to describe what are the steps to follow now that the roadmap has been reviewed and...