There is an exercise that I like to do in my ScrumMaster course to answer a frequently asked question: Where does the Project Manager fit in Scrum? Project Manager is not one of the Scrum roles so there is some
Agile in a COBOL World
Can Agile work for mainframe projects? A recent coaching client is a small company that wanted to transition their entire development department to Agile. It was an easy sell to the applications people, harder to the maintenance people (until I
The Value of an Agile Coach
Agile software development is a big change for many organizations. The most typical pattern is to start with one or two small projects and then build on success with more projects. In time, a wider change in organizational process and
Implementing the Definition of Done
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
Leave Some Space Between the Notes
Trust your subconscious mind to be a smart partner. If you get stuck, don’t keep slamming against the dam. Do something else for a while. Then consult someone else. Do some lateral thinking. Get outside the box. Maybe do no thinking at all. And even when things are going well, give your brain a break. Leave some space between the notes.
Agile Coach Competencies
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