Agile Coach Journal

In my early Agile days, we did not have a formal Definition of Done. We went by feel. If we were happy with the implementation from a design standpoint, if the story did what the Product Owner asked for, if it was fast enough for the user and if we did “enough” testing, then it was done. Since then, experience has suggested the need to be more precise about the criteria for “done”. It helps us to get agreement from all interested parties. Read more…

This is an old post that got lost in a technology shuffle. I was reminded of it recently while reading Tom DeMarco’s great book Slack.

One of the things I do when I am not working is play guitar. I also study guitar, though I have made slow progress over the years. It is still fun. One of my favorite teachers is Ronnie Earle. I have an old VHS tape of his in which he shares his philosophy of playing. And he makes this statement that has stuck with me for years: ”Sometimes, you have to leave some space between the notes.”

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Last year I participated in a working group to develop the first version of the Certified Scrum Coach program at the Scrum Alliance. Early on, we wanted to identify the characteristics of a successful agile coach. Note that we purposely widened the scope beyond just Scrum and team coaching since no one on the group can practically limit their work in that way. While we all Scrum practioners, our coaching extends into other areas including engineering practices and organizational development.

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