Simple Agile scaling - is it an impossible dream? As humans, we have a natural propensity to over-complicate things. Growing up, I always enjoyed looking closely at Rube Goldberg cartoons to see the incredible convoluted solutions he would come up with to do the simplest of tasks. For example, this Goldberg invention for squeezing toothpaste onto a toothbrush requiring 16 convoluted steps from A to P: [...]
How to achieve Daily Standup greatness? Let’s start with how not to! “Yesterday I …, today I …, no impediments.” These are the infamous 3 questions associated with the Daily Standup (also called Daily Scrum). Using this format for your Daily Standups is a guaranteed way to ensure this event sounds like a verbal status report, is boring, and is considered wasteful by the team [...]
A pervasive anti-pattern in many companies is Team-level backlogs replete with technical tasks. Not a single real User Story in sight. This is what I call “Tasks masquerading as User Stories”. There are so many things wrong with this, I don’t know where to begin! I’ve heard it all and seen it all. “We write technical stories.” “We’re different – we just capture what [...]
As Agilists, we preach “We want empowered teams!” But we turn right around and tell the teams to use the Scrum (or Kanban) framework. Why? Because we require corporate-wide Agile approach consistency, and we want to make it easier for when people transfer into a new team. Stop for a moment and realize how utterly stifling this position is to team empowerment. In many ways, [...]
Choosing a SAFe training partner for your scaled Agile transformation can be a “roll of the dice” – with so many companies offering this service. Don't gamble away this opportunity! 5 Questions to Ask Here are 5 essential questions to ask when choosing a SAFe training partner: Who will be our instructor and what is their background? Training companies should be able to name the [...]
Let’s briefly explore my list of 6 devastating SAFe anti-patterns. Each of these can be considered "devastating" due to the tremendous amounts of waste involved. #1 – Installing SAFe As-Is SAFe is huge. It is designed to cover most transformation needs from a perspective of scaling Agile at all levels – team, program, portfolio, and enterprise. Thinking of going SAFe? Here is a “SAFe [...]
One of the biggest anti-patterns I have consistently seen with SAFe enterprises is the misuse of the Large Solution level. Organizations (and yes Coaches) tend to misinterpret this extra level as required for inter-ART collaboration. They launch ARTs, realize that inter-ART dependencies exist, and immediately slap on the Large Solution as another level of overhead. Stop the madness! What Does SAFe Say? Here are [...]
Wouldn’t it be great if there was guidance on how to know if your Agile transformation is doomed to failure? Perhaps a short set of leading indicators or “red alerts” that give us an early warning signal? If we have this, we could react and potentially turn the ship around before it hits the iceberg. It could save millions in cost, time, and effort. Caveat [...]
We all agree that Agile teams should be self-organizing, right? Then prove it. Teams should choose their Agile approach! Why do we pigeonhole teams into either Scrum or Kanban? Instead, why don’t we TRUST the team to self-organize and come up with their own Agile approach that works for them? Instead of dictating a specific Agile method or framework for the team, we should provide [...]
Leaders considering an Agile transformation should reach deep and examine their motives. They should also embark upon this journey with eyes wide open, understanding what they themselves must be willing to do to lead the charge. Let’s start with a gut-check list for leaders considering an Agile transformation: Am I willing to realign people and teams to the flow of value? Am I willing to dedicate [...]