Red-Yellow-Green status reports are a widely-used tool to help executives have a fast and simple understanding of the current state of a project through a visual model that makes it easy to spot patterns. Green means everything is good, yellow means there’s some risk, and red means the project is in serious trouble. Simple, right? […]
Kanban
Don’t Inflict Scrum or Kanban on Teams
(This article is part of the Beyond Scrum series) We’ve all experienced the pain of having someone impose a change on us – it doesn’t work. Forcing change conflicts with the essential human need for autonomy – No one likes being told what to do (if they didn’t ask to be). Whichever model for understanding […]
Scrum Development Team – Who’s In It?
I’m frequently asked if a Tester, Business Analyst, User Experience (UX) person, Database Analyst, or Security Expert is part of the Scrum team? Short answer: Yes. Long answer: many people misunderstand the Scrum Guide. Scrum Development Team Membership The Scrum Guide has a short section called “The Development Team” which says: The Development Team consists […]
Beyond Scrum Blog Series
We’ve had requests for a single page that lists all the ongoing Beyond Scrum blog posts in one handy spot, and we’re happy to oblige! The below list will be updated as new posts are added. Scrum Alone is Not Enough Simplicity Scrum Development Team – Who’s In It? What is the Recommended Scrum Team […]
Agile Change or Adoption: Define Small Organizational Changes
(Continued from Agile Change or Adoption Always Starts with Why : 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ) Seeing an organizational change map with seven to eight proposed major changes can feel daunting and discouraging. It’s even worse when we realize that list will keep growing as new organizational problems are discovered. By taking on only one or two changes at a […]
Forecasting, Metrics and the Lies that a Single Number Tell Us
This post has now been replaced by the updated and expanded Red-Yellow-Green Status Reports and Other Models – How They Should and Shouldn’t Be Used post. Please update all bookmarks and links accordingly. We’ve previously seen that our mental models often make false assumptions due to cognitive bias. Giving a Single number in a report has […]
Agile Change or Adoption: Turn Vision into Strategy
(Continued from Agile Change or Adoption Always Starts with Why : 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ) We’re already familiar with how Story Maps are an excellent way to help development teams visualize the work involved in building a large product. They act as stepping-stones between the initial vision and the resulting deliverable user stories. But Story Maps can serve a similar purpose […]
Agile Change or Adoption: Create a Vision
(Continued from Agile Change or Adoption Always Starts with Why: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) Most organizational change effort starts with a vision. But problems arise if the vision was created by a few executives who went off-site, as that can result in a vision that doesn’t address the problems felt by the doers at […]