What are some good foundation principles for an effective Agile Community of Excellence (COE)? What should it focus on? Agile delivery groups over COE capabilities? How does the COE know it’s on the right track? Should it believe that value is delivered when the organisation incorporates Agile into the way the organisation works—into its organisational DNA? Are there any COE models we can use? Here’s one way you can model your COE to influence healthy adoption, transformation and organisational DNA.
SaFe has its critics, and admirers. If we are to look at three things that SaFe does well, or well enough, what would those be? First question – is there a a way to escape the hierarchical orientation of SAFe organisational model? Is it adaptable, or is it really as rigid as some people believe it to be? Do you really need to have all the layers, even though you would rather use a simpler version? Has it really evolved over the years, or stayed pretty much the same? Here’s a perspective on what 3 things are to like about SaFe.
How do you become a great Scrum Master? The Scrum Master adopts many stances. A great Scrum Master is aware of them and knows when and how to apply them, depending on situation and context. The Scrum Master needs to act as a coach, mentor, facilitator, leader, manager, and teacher among other things. Here are 28 characteristics of a great Scrum Master.
You’ve started following Agile. Teams now meet with you every week to discuss stories and iterations. They collaborate well and what they’re building feels like better than ever. But your customers still don’t get those features any faster. You still have to wait for the release, which takes quite a while. You’ve heard about some companies releasing multiple times a day, and you are struggling to release a few times a year. Now your teams want to do CI (continuous integration) and CD (continuous deployment). Now what? What is this CI and CD stuff anyway? Have a look.
According to Gerald Weinberg – the way to uncover and solve problems is to think like this. “No matter how it looks at first, it’s always a people problem”. So the root cause is (if there’s any) is always people. One of the most commonly asked question about the Scrum Master skillset is, do the Scrum Masters need to be technical? To answer the question, we need to have a look at the challenges faced by Scrum Masters. Are those challenges mostly technical in nature? Are the Scrum Master best placed to solve those? How do the Scrum Masters know if the team members are doing their best, or slacking? Read on.
What should Scrum Masters or Product Owners do when new items have been added to the backlog, but they haven’t yet been estimated yet? Do we really need an estimate there and then? If we are to insist on getting an estimate, what’s the cost of estimating these items? Does the return on this invested effort justify the cost? What if the estimates turns out to be “wrong”? Here’s a perspective on how to deal with unestimated items.
Why do some developers hate writing tests? That’s not because they struggle with low IQ. It’s more to do with changes and the pain of failed tests. How to alleviate this pain? How do you make sure that you focus on testing the behaviour, not the implementation details? That’s how you can embed the best of BDD. What’s the biggest challenge while implementing TDD? It’s coupling. What do you do? Here are some lessons learnt following TDD.
You’re working with a collaborative, joint problem-solving mindset, it’s still possible that things will get heated. You sense that your blood pressure is rising, that you’re becoming angry or anxious. Maybe the other person is doing the same. So what should you do? How can you defuse the situation and bring the temperature down?
AGILE
Transforming the Enterprise with an Agile COE
What are some good foundation principles for an effective Agile Community of Excellence (COE)? What should it focus on? Agile delivery groups over COE capabilities? How does the COE know it’s on the right track? Should it believe that value is delivered when the organisation incorporates Agile into the way the organisation works—into its organisational DNA? Are there any COE models we can use? Here’s one way you can model your COE to influence healthy adoption, transformation and organisational DNA.
rallydev.com/blog
3 Things to Like About SaFe?
SaFe has its critics, and admirers. If we are to look at three things that SaFe does well, or well enough, what would those be? First question – is there a a way to escape the hierarchical orientation of SAFe organisational model? Is it adaptable, or is it really as rigid as some people believe it to be? Do you really need to have all the layers, even though you would rather use a simpler version? Has it really evolved over the years, or stayed pretty much the same? Here’s a perspective on what 3 things are to like about SaFe.
blogs.versionone.com
28 Tips to Become a Great Scrum Master
How do you become a great Scrum Master? The Scrum Master adopts many stances. A great Scrum Master is aware of them and knows when and how to apply them, depending on situation and context. The Scrum Master needs to act as a coach, mentor, facilitator, leader, manager, and teacher among other things. Here are 28 characteristics of a great Scrum Master.
blog.scrum.org
PRODUCT OWNER
Product Owner’s Guide to CI and CD
You’ve started following Agile. Teams now meet with you every week to discuss stories and iterations. They collaborate well and what they’re building feels like better than ever. But your customers still don’t get those features any faster. You still have to wait for the release, which takes quite a while. You’ve heard about some companies releasing multiple times a day, and you are struggling to release a few times a year. Now your teams want to do CI (continuous integration) and CD (continuous deployment). Now what? What is this CI and CD stuff anyway? Have a look.
mindtheproduct.com
AGILE
Should the Scrum Masters be Technical?
According to Gerald Weinberg – the way to uncover and solve problems is to think like this. “No matter how it looks at first, it’s always a people problem”. So the root cause is (if there’s any) is always people. One of the most commonly asked question about the Scrum Master skillset is, do the Scrum Masters need to be technical? To answer the question, we need to have a look at the challenges faced by Scrum Masters. Are those challenges mostly technical in nature? Are the Scrum Master best placed to solve those? How do the Scrum Masters know if the team members are doing their best, or slacking? Read on.
inspectandadapt.com
What to Do With Unestimated Backlog Items?
What should Scrum Masters or Product Owners do when new items have been added to the backlog, but they haven’t yet been estimated yet? Do we really need an estimate there and then? If we are to insist on getting an estimate, what’s the cost of estimating these items? Does the return on this invested effort justify the cost? What if the estimates turns out to be “wrong”? Here’s a perspective on how to deal with unestimated items.
scrumalliance.org
DEVELOPER
Lessons Learnt in TDD
Why do some developers hate writing tests? That’s not because they struggle with low IQ. It’s more to do with changes and the pain of failed tests. How to alleviate this pain? How do you make sure that you focus on testing the behaviour, not the implementation details? That’s how you can embed the best of BDD. What’s the biggest challenge while implementing TDD? It’s coupling. What do you do? Here are some lessons learnt following TDD.
agilewarrior.wordpress.com
GENERAL
How to Cool Down a Heated Negotiation?
You’re working with a collaborative, joint problem-solving mindset, it’s still possible that things will get heated. You sense that your blood pressure is rising, that you’re becoming angry or anxious. Maybe the other person is doing the same. So what should you do? How can you defuse the situation and bring the temperature down?
hbr.org
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