As a consultant, coach, and advisor, I meet with management teams to discuss crucial aspects of their organisational evolution. My role is to assist them in formulating a winning strategy, a task I thoroughly enjoy despite the occasional feeling of navigating turbulent waters. However, there is one essential and worrying constant in most of these … Read more
One of the typical questions from such leaders is, “What should I do every day?” This query often arises because managers in companies have many operational tasks to do every day. However, leading an organisation is more than checking off tasks: it’s also – and I’d say, more importantly – about helping people grow. I … Read more
How to slowly destroy your organisation Here is a tip if you want to destroy your organisation: keep adding roles! I’ve seen it in many companies, and it is a typical slippery slope! Let’s discuss why and what the alternatives are. Back to the “beginning”: the agile team Think of a small company. Just … Read more
A pretty common question I get asked when teaching Scrum is about the Scrum Master as a second role for a Developer or the Product Owner. While this is a typical implementation, and several other authors are arguing for the Scrum Master to be a temporary, part-time or rotating role among the rest of the … Read more
One interesting observation I made several times during “agile transformation initiatives” is that they seem to be activated by a sort of “organisational energy” that drives the change. This lasts for a certain amount of time, but then it usually fades and is eventually gone. Here is how it works prototypically: Phase 1: “Recognise Incompetence” … Read more
Update: I got some comments regarding this post that made me realise I was a victim of bias when writing it. It might seem I am arguing for an isolation of the developers. Absolutely not: anybody who heard me on the topic knows I am an advocate of direct communication between developers and stakeholders. This … Read more
Many, many years ago Frederick Brooks wrote a seminal book called “The Mythical Man-Month”. (yes, I know the title is politically incorrect when seen with today’s eyes) While the best-known result of the book, also summarised in the title, is what is sometimes described as “we’ve never seen nine women join forces and have a … Read more
It seems the battleground where agile consulting companies are trying to win something has moved to the “scaling” domain: what methods/frameworks/tools/… could we use to bring agility to larger organisations. The topic is fascinating and important, but the answers we’re getting from the market are, in most cases, pretty disappointing, as many “solutions” seem designed … Read more
It starts in the usual way: You’re having a discussion with somebody from your current client and he/she tells you that agile practice X is bogus/useless/… and that that person is not going to use it/apply it/promote it to others. Now… what do you do? Before you realise it, you are having a conflict of … Read more
This is the fourth article in a mini-retrospectives series. In the previous ones I wrote about how retrospectives should be done at regular intervals, but also in other occasions and how the retrospective could be done in different groups than just the team and that sometimes changes happen even without an action item being clearly … Read more
This is the third article in a mini-retrospectives series. In the previous ones I wrote about how retrospectives should be done at regular intervals, but also in other occasions and how the retrospective could be done in different groups than just the team. In this post I will continue to challenge the 12th principle of … Read more
This is the second article in a mini-retrospectives series. In the previous one I talked about how retrospectives should be done at regular intervals, but also in other occasions. In this post I will continue to challenge the 12th principle of the agile manifesto to explain other ways to spice up your retrospectives. The 12th … Read more
This is the first in a series of posts about how to moderate retrospectives creatively. Traditionally the retrospective in agile software development is the reflection done at the end of the iteration. Principle twelve of the Agile Manifesto says “At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts … Read more
I often get questions about how to approach refactoring at the cultural level, i.e. how to promote it in the organisation. This post is an adaptation of some advises I gave to a customer of mine… The best way is to have refactoring done as part of the story development, so during the sprint. It’s … Read more
In the previous post I introduced you to Solution Focused scales and how they can be used in a one-to-one scenario. Now we’ll extend this to a team context, but first, here are some tips… Tips on using scales A constructivistic approach is important also when using scales: whatever numbers the client chooses, it must … Read more
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