CHOW #315: Sprint Planning not completing in the timebox – what is the remedy?
The Challenge The Blackbird team is working on an Analytical Product alongside four other teams. They have a well-defined backlog and conduct detailed sprint planning, breaking stories into tasks and estimating effort. However, they often face uncertainty around some tasks and proceed without fully understanding all steps, leading to dissonance during execution and sometimes failing […]
How DEEP is your backlog?
A well-defined and continually evolving backlog is crucial for developing a rock-solid product that truly meets customer needs. DEEP is an acronym for backlog characteristics, that was coined by Roman Pichler around 2005/06. DEEP stands for: Looking at these characteristics helps one have a well refined backlog. (There are other ways to look at the […]
Agile Scaling: Leveraging Theory of Constraints
<image courtesy: generative AI> When I’m referring to agile scaling, I’m not talking about any particular Scaling Frameworks. When we help a few teams in an organization to implement agile practices in a pilot phase and extend those practices across the org, there are some unique challenges we face. Usually it is subjective influenced by […]
Transitioning Instruction Takers to Decision Makers
Taking over a new team as a scrum master is challenging, especially when the team has earlier worked in command and control mode and is used to taking instructions and working as instructed. Transitioning it to a state where it takes its own decisions and delivers, needs a good effort and systematic approach. This article […]
CHOW
Scenario: You are a new Agile Coach hired by a service company that has been struggling to transition from Waterfall to Agile methodologies. The Delivery Manager, “Waterfall Wix,” has been leading the team using traditional Waterfall practices for over 15 years. Despite training sessions and workshops on Agile, the team is still facing issues with […]
“Waterfall Wix: The Agile Implementation Roadblock”
Introduction: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-pattern): “An anti-pattern in software engineering, project management, and business processes is a common response to a recurring problem that is usually ineffective and risks being highly counterproductive.” Personas are fictional characters representing commonalities of a representative sample of a system. They draw a comprehensive picture of the […]
Navigating Career Paths as a Scrum Master
In recent times, I’ve received numerous inquiries from Scrum Masters about potential career paths. This concern is highly relevant given the current uncertainties surrounding agile roles, with some companies even reducing the number of dedicated agile positions. Many organizations are now prioritizing roles that contribute directly to product development or business operations, moving away from […]
Re-wiring for Agility
Introduction “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” – an often-quoted one-liner from Albert Einstein. It always made sense to me logically, yet I found myself caught in this insanity loop. When I reflected on my behaviour, I found a few reasons why I do things the same […]
DevOps Primer
Primer giving a quick and condensed view of DevOps Principles, Values, Tools and Practices.
Why only Rugby?
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA Scrum as an Agile approach is now center-stage worldwide, a goliath occupying a staggering 66% of all agile adoptions. The distant second is Scrumban, a mere 9% and the third at 5% tied between Scrum/XP Hybrid and the hugely under-leveraged Kanban. See diagram below. But […]
