English Articles Archives - Page 35 of 44

We Want Agile Processes

Post published:March 28, 2014

There are organizations which think that Agile or Scrum can be the solution to solve all IT problems that they have. Senior management has decided that their whole organization has to become agile. To realize that they demand that all existing (waterfall) processes will be replaced by Agile processes. Even if they succeed to do that (which is often not the case) they are usually not getting the expected business benefits out of Agile. Replacing processes doesn't make an organization Agile.

Retrospectives for Teams with Multiple Customers

Post published:March 6, 2014

In an ideal world agile teams are working with one product owner or customer. But there are also teams which have more than one customer, maybe even multiple product owners. Due to that all the team members are often not working together on a daily base. Is it useful for such teams to do a retrospective together? How can they define actions that will be beneficial for the complete team?

500 Leanpub Readers of Valuable Agile Retrospectives!

Post published:March 3, 2014

Our book Getting Value out of Agile Retrospectives has reached 500 readers on Leanpub. There are also many more readers that have downloaded our book from InfoQ. Readers have rated our book 4.6 out of 5 on Goodreads. A big THANKS to all of our readers from Leanpub and from InfoQ: having so many readers interested in doing Valuable Agile Retrospectives makes use very happy!

Self-assessing How Agile You Are

Post published:February 11, 2014

Do your teams want to know how agile they are? And what could be the possible next steps for them to become more agile and lean? In an open space session about Agile Self-Assessments organized by nlScrum we discussed why self-assessments matter and how teams can self-assess their agility to become better in what they do.

Success Factors for Root Cause Analysis in Software Development

Post published:January 28, 2014

Root Cause Analysis can be used in software development to build a shared understanding of a problem to determine the first or “root” causes. Knowing these causes helps to identify effective improvement actions to prevent similar problems in the future. You can also do Root Cause Analysis in agile to stop problems that have been bugging your team for too long.

Getting Feedback with the Perfection Game

Post published:January 14, 2014

The Perfection Game can be used to get feedback on a product or service that has been provided. It is also a retrospective exercise usable to discover strengths and define effective improvement actions. The perfection game gives power to the teams and helps them to self organize and become more agile.

The Way I Develop my Agile Coaching Skills

Post published:December 24, 2013

Good coaching addresses the challenges many organizations face when adopting Agile ways of working, including Scrum implementation. Let's explore why you would need coaching and what it can accomplish, and what you can do to develop agile coaching in your organization. As an example, I will share how I have developed my coaching skills during the years.

Book about Valuable Agile Retrospectives

Post published:December 19, 2013

I'm pleased to announce the publication of our book Getting Value out of Agile Retrospectives: A Toolbox of Retrospective Exercises! With plenty of exercises for your personal retrospective toolbox, Getting Value out of Agile Retrospectives will help you to become more proficient in doing retrospectives and to get more out of them.

Working in a Sustainable Pace

Post published:December 4, 2013

Agile promotes that teams work in a sustainable pace, delivering value for their customers. When teams are working under too much pressure, technical debt will increase and velocity of teams will go down. Agile retrospectives can help you to discover the causes of pressure, and to take actions to reach a sustainable pace with your teams.

Sustainable Improvement through Agile Retrospectives

Post published:November 22, 2013

Buy-in from professionals is crucial to make changes succeed in organizations. Many improvement programs fail when professionals are insufficiently involved during the changes. Agile retrospectives can be used to do continuous and lasting improvements in organizations.

How to Adopt Agile Retrospectives

Post published:October 16, 2013

Adopting retrospectives is an organizational change where professionals adapt their way of working, their behavior. It won't just happen, and if not properly supported it may take much time, or even fail. You have to make clear what the purpose of retrospectives, and set up a team of capable retrospective facilitators. Then start doing them with your agile teams, and reflect on how they are going. This will get retrospectives introduced and accepted by your teams, leading to continuous improvement!

Becoming Agile, in an Agile Way

Post published:October 3, 2013

Software development organizations need to become more agile and lean, to deliver products that satisfy the needs of their customers. An agile approach where you change your way of working in small directed steps is often the most effective way to implement agile. Are you ready to go on an Agile trip?