The issue of team size comes up very often in my interactions and online. People are very anxious about this detail and for good reason. The size of a team directly effects the culture and work they do, for good or bad. Documents Say… The Agile and Scrum literature, including training classes, recommend a team [...]
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Teams Over Projects
A team I have been working with recently had a crisis. The customer of their project had put everything on hold. In other words, the project was cancelled. The company had plenty of other work to be done so they were not worried about losing their jobs. The biggest worry for the team was breaking [...]
Limiting WIP: People, Organizations and Scrum
(It’s been a long time since I have posted. I’m back at it now!) I have seen a common thread all through my career. A problem experienced seemingly everywhere, at all levels, including with myself. This problem causes all sorts of dysfunctions and symtoms, from frustration and poor quality to wasted effort and missed deadlines. [...]
Agility Requires Clear Communication
The topic of communication has become a bit of an irritant lately. Certainly I’m not the best communicator in the world, so I work at it. I’m starting to wonder if many others have forgotten this key to productivity and enjoyment. I have many thoughts on this subject. Today I’ll address communication as an enterprise [...]
Deep CSM Workshop
Last week I had the opportunity to be co-trainer in a Certified ScrumMaster Workshop. Mike Vizdos was the Certified Scrum Trainer leading the session. It was a small class with just four attendees. And they were awesome attendees with major contributions to the discussion! I learned some interesting things that I’ll try to pass on [...]
Teamwork for real?
(I have much to say about the Certified ScrumMaster Workshop that just ended yesterday. This topic is burning my thoughts for some time now so it comes first!) Everyone “Does” Teamwork Recently I have been participating in the interview process for a technical position. The opening is on a customer engineering support team. Another of [...]
Remember Your Foundation
I had the opportunity to work with Mike Vizdos for a one-day Scrum coaching session. A team in Chandler, Arizona was interested in finding ways to improve, to get outside eyes to help them see what they might be missing. We and the team had a great day. I re-learned something important about working on [...]
What Does A Product Owner Do, Anyway?
A recent question in the scrumdevelopment group captured my imagination. I had to write a response before sleeping. Most of this post repeats my message in the group. I’ve tried to polish it a bit for posterity. The Questions The original post in the group asked some hard questions about the role of the Product [...]
“BDUF Scrum” – Don’t do it!
Finding the Theme I enjoy helping people with Scrum and Agile. The more I do it, the more I learn and enjoy it. Many of my recent in person and online encounters have had a similar flavor to them. I didn’t put my finger on it until this morning. In an online exchange people have [...]
Dynamic Scrum Team Leadership
The most popular post in this blog, by far, is “Scrum Teams Have a Team Lead.” The hits from Google indicate that many people are trying to figure out the role of team leader when applied to Scrum. I have had one comment on the post expressing a negative opinion of not having a single [...]
