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Limiting Work in Progress and Scrum

Sean recounts the story of how he learned the value of limiting work in progress and removing blockages to allow the flow of work in an IT server lab, and how the lessons he learnt are now applied on Scrum teams doing software development.

Sean McHugh
on Jul 05, 2011
Interview: William E. Perry - Author iTeams – Putting the “I” Back Into Team

In his book, iTeams – Putting the “I” Back Into Team, author William E. Perry demolishes the cliché - "There is no ‘I’ in team." As Perry explains, the phrase is nonsense because it is the individual differences in team members that make teams great. In this interview, Ben Linders explores with the author the motivations for writing the book as well as some of the key thoughts.

Ben Linders
on May 23, 2011
Agile at 10 – A State of Contradiction

Mike Beedle states that agile is in a state of contradiction, the agile of 10 years ago is now passé and we run the disk of diluting the real meaning of being agile through lip service implementations without focusing on quality. He echoes the call in the 10 Year Reunion meeting for a concerted focus on quality, and asks what an Agile Manifesto 2.0 should contain.

Mike Beedle
on May 03, 2011
Agile at the Office of Personnel Management

In its attempts to modernize retirement claims processing the Office of Personnel Management had several versions of this project cancelled. The most recent of which used "requirements, design, implement, and test cycles to develop the system. During the testing phases, serious issues became evident". In trying again the director said that they weren't going to repeat the mistakes of the past.

Richard Cheng
on Nov 30, 2010
Agile Goal Setting

It is well understood that too succeed in developing great applications or even great things in our lives we need goals. Goals that motivate and push us to go beyond the ordinary. However if we Google Agile Goal Setting there are few items that give much consideration to what these should look like or how to create them. Jurgen Appelo looks at what it takes to make great goals.

Jurgen Appelo
on Oct 26, 2010
Technical Debt a Perspective for Managers

Developers often talk about Technical Debt saying its slowing your projects down. What are they really saying? What measures can you take to reduce it before it cripples your projects?

Mark Levison
on Sep 27, 2010
Finding an Agile Employer

The rocky job market of the last couple years has left many people looking for work. Agile software development is appealing to many job seekers, but not all jobs are alike. If you want a job in Agile software development, using a framework like Scrum, you need a plan of action that spans all three phases of your job search: reseach/preparation, interviewing, and assessing your opportunities.

Angela Druckman
on Aug 31, 2010
Working with the Product Backlog

Roman Pichler discusses the product backlog along with techniques for effectively grooming it. Complicated applications of the product backlog are covered as well as how to handle nonfunctional requirements and how to scale a product backlog for large projects. This is a chapter excerpt from Roman's book: Agile Product Management with Scrum.

Roman Pichler
on Aug 04, 2010
Manager 2.0: The Role of the Manager in Scrum

Scrum defines just three roles, Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Team - not Manager. Pete Deemer explores the consequences for Managers, how the managerial role might be redefined (including a sample job description), and appointing the manager as Scrum Master.

Pete Deemer
on Jul 23, 2010
The Limits of Agile

The problems faced by teams that are attempting Agile in non-traditional settings aren't that Agile principles are inapplicable, nor that the feedback cycle is doomed to failure; but rather, outside of a certain Agile sweet-spot there are additional barriers and costs to applying Agile techniques. None of these obstacles prevents Agile in itself but each increases the cost of getting to Agile.

Alan Kelly
on Jul 19, 2010
Multitasking Gets You There Later

It's now well understood that multi-tasking on a personal level is bad and slows down the rate at which we work. One of the key challenges of new Agile/Scrum teams is the number of projects that they have on the go. Agile teaches us that a team should work on one project at a time or it will thrash. Roger Brown shows in depth why this happens.

Roger Brown
on Jun 29, 2010
Book Excerpt: Coaching Agile Teams by Lyssa Adkins

Very little in our education or experience properly prepares a ScrumMaster or project manager for the role of agile coach. This leaves most wondering, "What is my role in a self-organized team? How do I help the team yet stay hands-off?" This chapter, excerpted from the book Coaching Agile Teams, shows you how to activate the journey toward high performance in both provocative and practical ways.

Lyssa Adkins
on Jun 15, 2010

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