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Prerequisites for a X-Functional Team
I have a confession to make: I’m a huge football fan. Every Sunday you can find me glued to the TV watching the high drama we call the NFL play out like gladiators in a Roman coliseum. It’s a gorgeous...
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Culture Eats Impediments Too
I stumbled across Pawel Brodzinski’s blog on Software Project management. In “Why Kaizen Boards (Typically) Don’t Work” he talks about the importance of having the right culture that will support...
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Culture Club
Recently I’ve been challenged by the question, “Can you change culture?” I think this is pretty common for folks who work in large organizations. The question of culture and how it blocks...
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Failing Fast
“Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack, a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” -Leonard Cohen How’s that for a weird quote? I heard it the other day on the...
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If Everybody’s Happy, You’re Doing It Wrong
So there you are, wrapping up another successful release planning session. Sprints are all laid out for the entire release. All the user stories you can think of have been defined. All the daunting...
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Those are Not MY Impediments!
When trying to find impediments there is a trap that awaits those of us who are outside of or observing the team. Often, when you are observing a team as an outsider, you may think you...
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When Impediment Management Won’t Work
I stumbled across Pawel Brodzinski’s blog on Software Project management. In “Why Kaizen Boards (Typically) Don’t Work” he talks about the importance of having the right culture that...
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Can a Project Be Beautiful?
What would make a project beautiful? What sort of aesthetic would we seek? Would would make a beautiful plan? What would make a beautiful backlog? What would make a beautiful team? What would make a...
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Radical Transparency
I’ve always been a big fan of transparency in Agile projects. I love the idea of project stakeholders having an unobstructed view into the work that the team is doing. Of course, what...
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Planning Feedback: Don’t Panic!
So the other day a VP asked our team for an estimate on a project. Now, putting aside whatever feelings you may have about the usefulness of estimates, we did a little planning, a little...
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Killing the Buddha
“If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him!” This is a popular saying derived from an old Zen koan. When it comes to working with Agile projects I find this saying very appropriate. People who do...
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Test Driven Organizational Change
Let’s just say I was testing the bounds of society. I was just curious. -Jim Morrison (1943 – 1971) I’ve been contemplating experimenting with some change, but I’m not really sure what is going to...
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Poaching vs. Collaboration
No one wants advice, only collaboration. – John Steinbeck Imagine you are working as part of a team on a project. One day your manager approaches you and says, “There is this really high priority...
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Starting Backwards
If you were to draw a diagram of the entire product development process from start to finish, what would you start with? If you are like me, you’d probably start with the customer, or maybe sales....
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Hierarchy vs. Constellation
“Organizations must shift away from repetitive-function hierarchies with rules and enforcement and walls. Instead, we must migrate rapidly to becoming a global ‘team of teams’ that comes together in...
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Building a Change Artist
So you want your organization to change? Then you just might need a change artist. What is a change artist? A change artist is someone who leads change in an organization by sharing example and by...
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Role != Job
When I talk to folks about Scrum, one of the points I make sure to cover is the holy trinity, the three basic roles in Scrum: Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Team. I’m starting to think I must be...
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Killing 7 Impediments in One Blow
Have you heard the story of the Brave Little Taylor? Here’s a refresher: So one day this little guy kills 7 flies with one mighty blow. He crafts for himself a belt with “7 in One Blow” sewn into it....
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Hunting for The Elusive Swarming Rule
There are a variety of different ways of going about swarming. There is the ad hoc approach: all hands on deck, everybody find a way to help. Then there are methods are a bit more subtle. You aren’t...
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Building the Corporate User Interface
A while back I did a talk on the subject of “Hacking the Organization”. It was largely inspired by Jim McCarthy’s talk at a local Open Space. Listening to his talk I realized that people who have...
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