Agile
6 Ways to Tell if You’ve Hired a Scrum Master or a Scum Master
Technology is changing the way we live our lives at such a fast pace. In order to keep up with the demand companies are challenged to find innovative, disruptive, nimble ways to consistently deliver value through frequent delivery of quality software. Many information technology departments turn to Agile Software Development to meet the rapidly evolving…
Read More5 Non-Glamorous Things Every Great Scrum Master Must Do
When it comes to leadership everyone has an opinion about what it takes to do it well. No matter the flavor, leadership has its privileges, perks and is arguably a tough and thankless job; somebody has to do it. Effective leaders pull from many experiences, qualities, skills, and traits to consistently motivate and inspire their…
Read MoreGarbage In, Garbage Out: Why Bad User Stories are Bad for Business.
This time five years ago, I weighed as much as an adult male giant panda. Two years after I gave birth to the very active and delightfully inquisitive Dylan, I couldn’t even fit into my maternity clothes. I was tired. I was unfocused. I was not happy. And I was obese. Something had to change. …
Read MoreWhat’s a manager’s role on a Scrum team?
Did you know the word “Manager” does not show up once in the Scrum Guide? If I were a manager in a fortune 500 organization with a mortgage and two kids in college, I’d be concerned for my job. In this blog post, I’ll explain how it’s possible for managers to work with Scrum teams…
Read More5 things people get wrong with user stories
When user stories are used well, they are a fantastic tool. When they are used poorly, they are a horribly burdensome micromanagement tool. Here are 5 things I commonly see people get wrong with user stories. 1. Prescribing solutions in user stories Have you ever seen a user story like this? As a user I…
Read MoreBeing nice isn’t always nice
I recently performed an organizational agile assessment and learned a great deal about how they served their customer’s technology needs. We investigated their technical practices, processes to develop and release, but also dug deep into how the people worked together from the people side of things. What we discovered was fascinating. Everyone in the technology…
Read MoreYour Agile adoption needs to be agile
Agile adoptions stall for a number of reasons. On the surface, it may seem that there is a cultural mismatch, that people don’t like change, or that people just don’t have time available. Although those things must be addressed for change to take root, we have found that it’s often the process for getting people…
Read More6 Questions to ask before hiring your next agile coach
It’s safe to say Agile software delivery is here for good. With so many agile coaches in Chicago, where I live and out there in general, it’s helpful to understand the differences between them so you can make an informed decision when hiring one for a full-time role or a consulting engagement. What follows will…
Read MoreUse Scrum to manage your employees
If you’re new to Scrum and want to get the most out of a team of under-performers, you should try Scrum!! Used a certain way it can be the best form of 21st century micromanagement. Don’t worry about your teams resisting the push of Scrum. If you simply make the use of Scrum a company…
Read MoreLead Time vs Cycle Time: A Bedtime Story about Beer and Mustangs
My friend John is a delivery lead at a local Chicago software firm. He’s trying to get the hang of using metrics to help improve the performance of software development in his organization. He was originally looking at lead time and cycle time but was really confused after some internet research. It seems many people…
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