15 Nov 2023
For years, folks have struggled with phrases like “self-organizing” and the newer “self-managed” regarding teams. I have met plenty of leaders and managers who have tried to figure out how to create teams with these qualities and find their own place when they work with teams like this. In this article, I want to talk through a few things to consider if you’re a leader interested in building self-managed teams.
10 Nov 2023
Let’s face it: agile conquered the world of software development. Often, though, I find people are dissatisfied with the results, and in this article, I want to point out a few common things that folks struggle with and what you can do to get some of the results that Agile or Scrum promised.
25 Jan 2022
Almost everywhere does something like Scrum these days or at least is familiar with it. Having said that, if you survey folks—and I have, you’ll find that most regard Scrum with ambivalence or animosity.
09 Nov 2020
It is almost universal that you’ll experience a 15-minute daily stand-up meeting every day as a developer. It is nearly as universal that these meetings will take longer than fifteen minutes and fee like a waste of time. Well, that is because most of the time, they aren’t running correctly. So, here are some tips to turn those meetings around.
23 Aug 2017
In 2010 I spent 8 months in the worst job I ever had. For the last 5 or so of those months I was the company’s first an only Scrum Master. The individuals I worked with said that it was the best experience of their careers. This is a story of those 5 months.
18 Feb 2016
I want to try and commit a little heresy by talking about story point estimations. Specifically I want to talk about not using them ever again. This is not a call for no estimation, but a fairly different approach. This idea has some problems, is not fully fleshed out, and needs lots of smart people to think about.
