For years the software industry has used an analogy, with construction as its defining metaphor. The comparison is applied throughout the language of software: architecture, foundations, constructor, projects, building code. The language is so pervasive that it affects our thinking around software development, but unfortunately the metaphor is fundamentally broken and the flaws have led […]
Notes from a Tool User
Kanban Portfolio View – continued
(Continued from Kanban Portfolio view and the 3 core rules. This is the conclusion of Part 2 in the Scrum Alone is Not Enough series.) 2. Limit Work In Progress We know from queuing theory, psychology of multi-tasking, and empirical evidence (Rally study, my summary of the Rally Study) that more Work in Progress means less work gets done overall. […]
Kanban Portfolio View
(Presented as Part 2 in the Scrum Alone is Not Enough series.) Do you know what projects your Team is working on? Do you know what the Teams around you are working on? Does everyone in your organization know? In almost every organization that I visit, the answer is a resounding no. Scrum may have been […]
Scrum Alone is Not Enough
To be successful with Scrum in the long term you need more than the basic framework. This is intentional. Scrum provides the structure as a starting point, but it’s designed to work well when applied with other effective patterns. Like the Design Patterns movement of the late ’90s, a pattern can be used by itself […]
5 Steps for Creating High-Performance Teams eBook
Certified Scrum Trainer Mark Levison has been around the block, more than a few times, and he was getting frustrated by what he saw happening in Scrum. When Mark is invited into businesses and industries to talk with Scrum teams, it’s typically with the request to help them do Scrum better so they can be more […]
Welcome to the High-Performance Teams Game
Your team is working on the World’s Smallest Online Bookstore, a site that provides the best results (just a few) for every search, not every result on earth. We’re a vulture capital funded company, so if we don’t deliver, our funding will be cut. So begins the opening of the High-Performance Teams Game. My goal […]
JIRA is Not Agile
Don’t confuse Agile tools with Agile values and principles. The tools only provide support for the Practices, Roles, and Artifacts of Scrum.
Scrum by Example – Stuck Waiting for Other Teams
The Scrum team has improved, progress has slowed. How to analyze and identify the bottlenecks between Product Development and Deployment.