It is I!

And what their potential downsides could be. — “Let’s release it now”. Peter Product Owner says. “But Peter, we haven’t tested it yet. We don’t know if it works with all the other Increments, we don’t know if the user would accept it, we haven't even done the regression test.” the developers reply concerned. “Well,” Peter answers, “I…

And how to prevent the demand for unicorns. — Even though many organizations now understand the mechanics of the Scrum framework, the adjoining change in approach to product delivery is often harder to grasp. Just the other day the traditional question arises: can you deliver product X by this deadline, within budget? Ah, the old, trusted iron triangle. We…

And what to do instead. — Congratulations, you landed your first job as a Scrum Master! You’re looking forward to helping your Scrum Teams and organization on their journey to work with this popular framework. You’ve packed your sticky notes (’cause that’s what Scrum Masters carry around, right?), you know the Scrum Guide by heart, and…

Like any other tools, Scrum is a means to an end, not the end itself — Scrum is by far the most popular framework these days. In fact, the 15th Annual State of Agile shows that 66% of respondees use this particular framework. What this survey does not show, is what my experience does show: the implicit expectation that frameworks will solve your issues. I…

Every year, tons of books are being published on product development, business agility, Scrum, and anything related. I try to read and… — Every year, tons of books are being published on product development, business agility, Scrum, and anything related. I try to read and absorb as much as I can, but I sometimes fail to finish a book completely. Kanban suggests “stop starting, and start finishing”. Maybe I should apply that to…

Find out what Product Development Teams can learn from Formula 1 races to improve empirical decision-making. — The Formula 1 season is two races in. Finally, after months of waiting, the biggest traveling circus in the world has started to unfold. 10 teams have started to prepare for that moment even far before the last season ended. Listeners of the Mastering Agility podcast know that I’m a…

Innovation is critical for business survival. To get to a creative state, people need to feel that is okay to make mistakes and to learn. — Long has spoonfeeding solutions and off-the-shelf feature descriptions prevailed in many development teams. We seek out frameworks in the hope of solving our issues. Although some issues might have been fixed, I rarely see the full potential of a Scrum Team being achieved. And quite often, I see the main…

Forecasting what can be Done this Sprint is tough. Here are 10 things you can do to make it a bit easier. — During the courses I teach as a Professional Scrum Trainer, as well as the reactions that I get to my articles, there’s one thing that always stands out to me: practice is vastly different than theory. A previous article already covered Eight Things to do During the Sprint Review, this…

Product Owners are accountable for all decisions when it comes to the product. Let’s get more authority! — In a previous article, I discussed how Product Owners are often restrained from reaching their full potential and are not empowered to do what they are accountable for; maximizing value. In this follow-up article, I’d like to dive into that situation and make things more practical. There’s one assumption from…