Whenever I explore a new field I like to get an overview of how things got to be the way they are – A short timeline of how we’ve arrived at the “state of the art”. What happened when, so that everything is what it is today? The following is my current state of knowledge… Continue reading A Brief History of Agile and Lean Events

It makes me sad when a PO presents a new story and the first thing out of a developer’s mouth is “It can’t be done!”*. A story is meant to be the basis of a discussion – “It can’t be done!” is harmful to this discussion. As long as there is no timeframe attached to… Continue reading “It can’t be done!” O RLY?

If you want to establish new ways to do things (i.e. processes), make sure that this new way is the easiest route for people to reach their goal. If the old way is easier, the new one won’t ever be adopted. Example: There is a new way to handle support, designed to let the developers… Continue reading Want Change? Make “your” way the easiest way

Behold, the 1-page cheat sheet for “Tribal Leadership”: Download as PDF or buy as a poster from Zazzle.com Don’t need a fancy PDF, just text is enough? — Summary of leveling up a tribe — A TRIBE is a naturally ocurring group of 20-150 people, e.g. a small company or a department ina large company.… Continue reading Tribal Leadership – The 1-Page Cheat Sheet

I vividly remember a situation in which I gave adjusting (i.e. negative) feedback applying everything I knew about communication – I-messages, stating observable behavior, outlining negative consequences of the behavior, actionable wish – and still not getting my message through. The recipient was just like “So what? What’s so bad about alienating the other teams?”… Continue reading The DISC Behavioral Model

Disclaimer: The material is not necessarily new, just relatively new to me. I come by most of these links on twitter. Hope there’s something new and worthwhile for you, even if you’re also on twitter. Reasoning: Good Agile Architecture (German) What would a software archaeologist think of your code? Reasoning: The 3 maturity stages of… Continue reading Assorted Links – January 2012

It might seem trivial, but one of the key learnings from my time as a scrum master is that people long to be heard. Being understood by someone else, validates the speaker. Listening says “I care. I take time and pay attention to you. You are important! Your take on things is valuable.”

You know that saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover”? Well, I usually do jugde a book by its cover and I’d never have bought “Systemisches KONSENSIEREN” (“Systemic CONSENSUS”)! When a colleague dropped it on desk, I made fun of it – its whole appearance is “touchy-feely” in a bad way and, come on,… Continue reading Systemic Consensus

Like there’s Scrum and ScrumBut, most “brainstorming” sessions I ever took part in were BrainstormingBut sessions, instead of true brainstorming. They didn’t adhere to the key rules of a true brainstorming, namely: Defer judgement Aim for quantity Up until I was well into my 20s, every “brainstorming” I had ever participated in, had violated at… Continue reading Brainstorming vs. BrainstormingBut

UPDATE 2013: There’s a condensed, infographic-y version here If you’re new to the agile world, what are behaviors to look for? In the chart you find examples of what I deem “agile” and “not quite so agile” behavior. These are, of course, completely subjective! Also I think there are rather too many scales. What would… Continue reading What is this “Agile Mindset” anyway?